There was no hope in taking a great picture of our new number 36....the kids and dog were feeling quite silly! And I was laughing along with them but am feeling quite blah about our number honestly. THREE years ago this month we started the process to adopt from Colombia, THREE years ago next month we had our first homestudy...I am not going to make this post all about how I am frustrated with waiting and especially not all about the what ifs, like what if we had chosen to start our journey in Ethiopia this month three years ago.
Since I believe that God has his design and wish for our lives in every single choice we make, I believe that we made the right choice then and now. Unfortunately, this does not keep me from feeling blah from time to time. Keeping my mind occupied definitely helps and among the wonderful summer our family has been having, we are in a small group that has been studying Jen Hatmaker's book 7. In a very short summary, it is a study where you take 7 excesses in your life (food, clothes, possessions, media, stress, waste, spending) for 30 days each and change something about your everyday (extravagant) lives to make you reflect and think about how you are living your life. Could you change something or many things about about your life to glorify and become closer to God? Could you change your life to be less wasteful and greedy? Sign me up! We are on our 2nd 30 day period, clothing. The first 30 day period we did an experiment with food. We (myself and my husband only, children off the hook) chose to reduce our food consumption to 3 meals only, no snacks, dessert or any type of food or alcohol in between those 3 meals. When we felt like the task was difficult, we were to pray. I chose to pray for the birth mother of our future child. The 30 days turned out much more difficult than expected and I found myself not only praying for the birth mother but really thinking about her...her diet, the availability of healthy food for her, her feelings and life.... I have thought about her during this adoption process, but my focus has been on our child and I realized my focus has been extremely self centered. There is more to this journey than the end result of having a new child to love. There is a courageous birth mother, a country, opportunities to witness and love and so much more. I have so much growing to do and that is one way I will be spending my time while waiting for our number to go down.
MELISSA
