A Beautiful Progression

What a ride the last week has been.  I have been thinking over the past years and realized what the Lord has done in us and to us.  It's been said that hindsight is 20/20, and this is absolutely true.  I love how we so often are called to walk by faith having no idea where we're going or what He's up to, and years later He allows our faith to become sight and see from where He's called us and sometimes even the purpose for which He called us. 

I think back to my young teenage years and see how He gave me a deep love for children and their well-being.  In my early 20's He broke me over the plight of the poor, the implications poverty has on children, and called me to see myself (even as a college student with not a penny to my name) as rich and blessed in material things beyond measure, and to share my wealth with those He called me to.  He allowed me in my mid-20's to love on kids from every manner of background and taught me the intrinsic worth of each.  He also started talking to me specifically about adoption at this time.  In my late 20's and early 30's I started to make the connection as I studied His Word that all of us are adopted, and He made gratefulness well up inside of me that I'm one of His kids because I've been grafted in by His great, great love for me; for all of us.  He broke both my husband and I and made it clear that adoption was part of His perfect plan for our family shortly after this.  But in my mind, the most amazing leg of this journey has taken place this week.  He's brought us from thinking, "We're adopting a child from Ethiopia" to "We're adopting our daughter from Ethiopia."  This may seem silly to some of you, but I think it's a real, live miracle.  You know that amazing moment when you give birth and the doctor lays that red, wriggling, screaming, messy baby up on your belly so you can see him?  In a manner of speaking, the idea of becoming a parent (the abstract) became very much a reality at that moment.  The same thing happened when we first saw the picture of our daughter.  That abstract notion of becoming a parent to a child in Ethiopia has now become a reality.  "Becoming an adoptive parent" has switched over to "Becoming Abigail Biruk's Mommy and Daddy."  It's so hard to explain well...but I am so very thankful that it's happened.