Adoption Update

Today we submitted our paperwork and a big check to a private adoption attorney. We are still in line for our China adoption but we believe it is still years away. Last night as I was laying on the couch between wakefulness and sleep a thought raced through my head and heart- "I am going to be 40 in two years and don't have children yet!" I have thought this before but never did it jar me awake like it did last night. So, putting all our eggs in the China basket just is not an option. The attorney we are using actually advertises for birth mothers so the likely hood that we will get a baby is good. I probably won't post many details about this adoption for the sake of anonymity.

I am excited and apprehensive, feeling hopeful and helpless. Only the Lord knows the hows and whens. I have struggled with hearing from Him lately but today I was reminded of two verses of scripture, both from the Psalms.

"Praise the Lord!

Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord
now and forever.
Everywhere—from east to west—
praise the name of the Lord.
For the Lord is high above the nations;
his glory is higher than the heavens.

Who can be compared with the Lord our God,
who is enthroned on high?
He stoops to look down
on heaven and on earth.
He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
even the princes of his own people!
He gives the childless woman a family,
making her a happy mother.

Praise the Lord!"

and

"Unless the Lord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good.
It is useless for you to work so hard
from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Children are a gift from the Lord;
they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man
are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.
How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!
He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates."

These scriptures do three things for me: 1.) They remind me that I don't read or cherish God's word often enough and 2.) That God's heart is full of compassion for the childless, the barren. 3.) Show me that the Lord is the giver of children. I don't take either scripture as a direct promise that God will give me children rather that He will give me comfort and meaning despite my circumstances.