Day 7

Day 7-Advice

Best advice I received early on while we were 'paper chasing' - keep your eyes wide open. Now, this phrase is often used in adoption circles about not going into adoption with rose-colored glasses. Which is also REALLY good advice. But in this case, keeping my eyes wide open was about not wishing away the place I was currently in and looking for how God was moving. There were definitely times during our wait when my tendancy was to wish away the stage we were in- the long waits on immigration, the slow communication with a foreign orphanage. Those agonizing waits were punctuated with answered prayers, surprise blessings, and other memories of God showing His power as He wrote our adoption story. This advice continued to impact me when we returned home and found ourselves 'in the trenches.' There have been some hard moments that I would not like to repeat...and certainly during those times I longed for easier days. But again, through friends' encouragement, perfectly timed sermons, Facebook connections, podcasts, you name it- I have witnessed God moving in the lives of my family members and in my own life as well. Having your child evaluated for developmental delays is hard. Having a member of the IEP team reach across the table to grasp your hand and say, "your daughter is amazing-you should be so proud" is God reminding me why we started this crazy life. Fighting with insurance for speech therapy is hard. Finding out your speech path goes to your church and knows of your family and just loves your kid is a glimpse of the good gifts our Father has for us. Day in and day out with trauma is really, really hard. But having my little girl, still sniffling from a rage, climb into my lap on her own and say, "sorry mama I mad" is progress and cause for celebration that God redeems.
Keep your eyes wide open-you don't want to miss these gifts, these milestones.