When Bumps Turn To Blessings

Alright ya’ll. I’ll admit it. I had a 100% complete and total mental breakdown this week…two days before our Wheelbarrow Walk no less. When I say “mental breakdown”, please, rest assured I am not exaggerating either.

What caused the breakdown you ask?

It’s simple, I did.

You see, we knew the risks when we signed up for this journey. We knew that adopting from 3^rd world countries is difficult, and can get complicated. We knew that delays and bumps can, and often do, arise-slowing things down. We knew all of this, but only intellectually I think. I never let that message go to my heart.

Then we hit a speed bump. Not a stop sign, but a speed-bump for sure. Our agency has had some in-country issues that I won’t go into. They are not major, they are fixable, the program is still running and not in any danger, but it will slow things down a bit.

What this means for us, is that we have to wait longer for our referral. We have to wait longer to see that face of our precious baby.

Sigh.

When we started off the process I would have called myself optimistic and hopeful, but God has showed me these past few days I was merely being selfish and greedy.

Instead of heeding the “it could take 18 months or more for this to happen” warning, I chose to only hear “the quickest it’s ever happened is 9 months.” I thought to myself, Nine months, wow! that means my baby could be home by Christmas!! I justified my prayers asking God for speediness by saying to myself “we are doing what you asked us to do God, can you return the favor by making it quick?”

It sounds SO stupid to me now as I type it out, but that’s how I felt.

How selfish of me, to hope for a referral quicker than others who have been waiting longer and with more patience. How greedy I was to care more about a referral call than waiting for the RIGHT child God has in store for me.

“Our willingness to wait reveals the

value we place on the object

we are waiting for.”

- Cheri Francillia

So, after I threw my temper tantrum like a two year old who got her favorite toy taken away, I've calmed down enough to say simply this:

We will wait for you baby Harvey.

I will NOT always like it, and I might breakdown again.

But, we will wait for you.

My sweet, sweet child. We will wait as long as it takes.

Despite my little pitty-party earlier this week, God had much bigger plans in store. He gave me, and everyone, such a huge blessing yesterday that rejuvenated, restored, and refreshed our souls.

What you ask?

My husband. My family. My friends. My community.

The Wheelbarrow Walk.

Man oh man, if you had ever told me that I would say walking around McCarren would be FUN, I would have laughed at you SO MUCH. But, somehow it was! TeJay is such a crazy huge blessing to me, and we have been blessed by our community so greatly.

He rocked McCarren with that wheelbarrow like it was NOTHING!

Friends came, family came, the NEWS came and it was a blast!

We walked, we prayed, we laughed. Spirits were high and the love of Jesus was shared!

I am working on putting together a clip of several videos for ya’ll, but in the mean time, here are some goodies from that day!

We all had a BLAST.

Of course, TeJay did stuff like this (you know, because pushing a wheelbarrow for 25 miles isn't hard enough.)

The news came and interviewed my handsome man. SEE HERE.

And start to finish he made the entire 25 mile loop in about 9.5 hours including lunch, restroom and snack breaks.

Not too shabby!!

So thankful for my husband, he is pretty much amazing!

Special thanks to our sponsors on this walk, our friends and family who walked with us, Qdoba for the free lunch, and people who prayed for us along the way. We couldn't have done it with out you!

Finances and Progress:

Well, as I mentioned earlier things have slowed down a bit in the program. For various reasons we have decided to up our age range from 0-3 to 0-4 boy or girl. We are estimated to get a referral within 3-6 months, but it could be longer.

Until then we will wait as patiently as possible for our sweet baby.

Until next time, MUCH LOVE!

-TeJay, Ashleigh, Eva and Baby H.