What if this adoption changes us more than the children?

Do you get caught up flipping through old photos and old memories? Do you get caught up thinking about why you had to wait for good things to come? I did while putting together Scott's & I's photo album for our dossier. I overnighted the album this morning, and completed the final step of paperwork for our dossier. Meaning, waitlist here we come!  Most likely it will still be a year before we bring home our children. But I'm ecstatic this morning. Ecstatic. It's all out of my hands. Every bit of last paperwork, and now it's in the hands of our adoption agency, the Ethiopian gov't, US immigration and most thankfully the hands of God.

It took us longer to get to this step than I expected. The wait was frustrating. very.  But looking back -- it was helpful. Scott and I conversations this last week clarified how important these 10-months of waiting time has been for our marriage, our prayer life and for preparing us to be parents.  This last year -- reminded me some of the first months of Scott and I's marriage -- filled with lots of unexpressed, and somewhat unrealistic, expectations about ourselves, our children and other loved ones.  The time of waiting has given us the time to process, the time to love each other better, and the time to release some of these expectations to the wind in favor of grasping the hand of Providence. love that word -- why has it gone out of fashion?

In counting our blessings, here are some winners. Scott and I have gotten more honest with each other. And we've become closer. I'm closer to my sisters, my core friends. My new job at Glimmer continues to introduce us to many like-minded people that love Ethiopia. Scott's job is taking off in new and exciting ways. And I'm beginning to see that this adoption may not be all about growing our family as much as growing us.