Eve of Grace

Here we are on the eve of getting Gracie and it seems as if it has been such a long road getting here. We had so many barriers in the paperwork for the home study, yet here we are in China and by this time tomorrow we will finally have her. I look back over the past 16 months and think about all of the frustration and impatience I felt over the paperwork and now it seems as if it was a “mantle of oblivion” (to quote Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables!).

Ironically, I was reading my devotional this morning and the topic was patience. The verse was, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him (Psalm 37:7). It is so easy now to look back on those long days of waiting and think that they were not so difficult. However, if I look at the daily waiting, I was extremely impatient. These are some of the highlights of the devotional that made me reflect on the waiting time for Grace:

Wait for it patiently, for patience eliminates worry. Romans 8:25 says, “But if we hope for what we do not see, then we keep on patiently awaiting it.” If I truly have hope that God will do what He says He will do, then I should trust that He will bring Grace home.

Patience eliminates weeping. Why should I have felt discouraged? He always knew my needs greater then I did and He had a purpose in the waiting. Because of the longer wait, Grace had her cleft lip repaired in China. This is one less trauma to put her through when we bring her home.

Patience eliminates self-works. We are called to believe and not charge forward without Him. So many times we charged ahead of God in various stages of the paperwork as we tried to do things our way. We have learned to wait on His timing. In December, I was so frustrated and could not understand why God had us waiting so long when we were trying to adopt and do what He had called our family to do. I clearly heard the Lord tell me that if I truly had faith in Him, then I would have faith in His timing, not mine.

Patience eliminates all weakness. Instead of thinking of all the wasted time of Grace in the orphanage and not with her family, I needed to realize that God has been preparing and strengthening our hearts for her and preparing His resources for us as a family.

Patience eliminates all wobbling. Daniel 8:18 says that “He touched me and raised me to my feet”. God’s foundations are rock solid and if we have His patience within, we are standing on a firm foundation in the waiting process. It could have been so easy to give up, but knowing that our strength came from the Lord gave us the endurance to see this adoption through to this very moment.

Patience yields worship. Sometimes the sweetest times of waiting are the times when we can worship the Lord for what He has done and what we know He will do. Even during the long waiting there were glorious milestones. Our immigration officer noticed the difference in us and told us, “that we had been very humble through all of the barriers,” and I was able to say, “It wasn’t me, I can only give the glory to God.” To be able to share that with someone else has been worth the wait.

So, by the time you read this post we will have Grace. Blessings to all of you today and remember that patience in the waiting does have a purpose. He will use it to refine you and your situation for His glory and your good.