Seven Months!

Ah, the magical 7 month mark.  At one point very early in the process, I thought we might actually get a referral this month.  Now that we're here?  Not a chance!  For one reason or another, there are some delays right now.  What's funny is that it's hard for me to even call them that.  Delays.  It implies that something should have already happened, but has not yet happened.  You see, what I realized last week was that God never promised me 7-8 months on the waiting list.  He NEVER promised me that our Agency's average wait times were HIS wait time.  Never!  Not once :)  All along I've believed that His timing was perfect.  It just never REALLY occurred to me that His timing might fall well outside of the averages.  Or that something might happen that was *gasp* unexpected.  And while some days I'm tempted to feel sad about that, most of the time it's very peaceful to rest in the fact that He hasn't been caught off guard by the "delays;" He is completely sovereign over this process (and has been since before we even knew we would adopt a baby from Ethiopia); and "our" baby was His baby long before the time He will turn him/her over to us to raise.  It's actually been pretty joyful and freeing to look at it from that perspective.

The previous post pretty much covers what I've been up to for the last month.  As a couple, we've hung out with friends a lot.  Oh yeah, I had the flu/stomach virus right after Christmas.  Not pretty.  Not pretty at all.

And now, to introduce you to his parents, I turn the blog over to Rob...

Thanks, Rebecca.  It would be a pleasure to introduce my parents.

Of all the people that we've featured as waiting with us, I can't imagine anyone that is anticipating Rebecca and I being parents more than my mom and dad.  Now, I have no way of actually proving that, but let me try to explain (and note that if you disagree, you can send all objections to Rebecca :).  I once had a friend explain the expectations from family like this, "Before we were married, everyone wanted to know when we were going to get married; at our wedding reception, everyone wanted to know when we were going to have children."  My parents live in a city in Mississippi, a city in which my mom shares with 4 of her 8 siblings...most of those siblings having been grandparents for around a decade.  So, when we got married, I think the expectations heaped at my parents, whether expressed verbally or merely implied, were, "When are you going to be grandparents?"  All of that to say, the anticipation that would normally come from becoming grandparents is amplified by the famialial environment in which they live. 

All of that being said, we love my parents and we/they won't be waiting forever.  And when the time comes, they'll make good grandparents.

Stay tuned after the break to see what pharmaceutical research of feline bladder infections and East Tennessee have to do with one my siblings.  Rebecca, until then, I hand the blog back to you.