Paper Pregnancy

It's been nearly 3 years since we began our first adoption process in 2009. I remember being so excited and yet so overwhelmed by all the information (and misinformation) available...and I was so confused. We prayed and began our process with an agency we found later to be the wrong fit for us. We continued along our way, believing fully that our child/children would enter our lives from the beautiful nation of Rwanda in Central Africa. A country very near and dear to my heart. God had other plans, and as most of you know, our son and daughter entered our lives from Ghana, West Africa. A country neither Sam or I had ever even HEARD OF prior to the adoption process! We are so very thankful that God led us to these precious souls. His plans are so much greater than our plans!

Now here we sit, gathering papers for our dossier to begin this adoption process all over again. While I do remember mounds of paperwork from our first run through this, I think my brain was happy to forget all the paper cuts! OUCH! Must be a similar physiological reaction to giving birth. There's no denying the immense amount of pain and discomfort that chauffeurs a new life into this world...but the moment you hold that precious child, the pain sort of melts away. The joy is so fulfilling that the discomfort is minimized...and over time, barely remembered fully. So it appears to be with adoption. The paper cuts will hurt for a few days like morning sickness in the grand scheme of child-rearing, but they will be long forgotten when first holding the child they labored for. The waiting in adopting is excruciating (far worse than the physical labor of childbirth in my opinion, because there is no definite time frame on when the wait will end)...but even that discomfort wanes as soon as the life you've longed for is being held in your arms on "gotcha day" or "forever day" or whatever your family chooses to label it. So for now, I will wade through the mire of homestudies and homeland security approvals and document notarizations with hopeful anticipation of the day that the morning sickness/paper cut phase of this adoption is finished and we can move on to the second trimester...renewed energy, eagerly awaiting a court date declaring them our daughters (and maybe a little nesting).