28December2007

Prayers and Thanksgivings

Posted by BaBa under: Daily Life.

Tonight we reflected on how grateful we are that our son is home. We spent the day with our daughter and son-in-law and had photos made during our visit. (Pictures will be posted tomorrow.)

It was a great joy to see them interact together enjoying the day. The wait for Sheridan seems but a memory without the anxiety or pain that was present last spring. Experiencing how he interacts with us and the extended family shows how he is just the perfect fit for us. We are so thankful for his presence in our lives and for those in our adoption community.

Our wait during the process was relatively short (1 year and 2 days from application until he was in our arms). Our two other children were teenagers when they came into our family. There have been a great joy, but we had never experienced the day to day life with a little one of our own. We had been married 25 years before we could experience this joy. In this view, we have had a long wait.

We talked about those who are waiting and how hard this time is for those families. Every time we check the websites, it seems that the wait is ever changing and uncertainty is everywhere. The level of anxiety is high as you read stories of other families and can feel their frustration, doubt and pain. Instead we feel the joy in his smile or when he says hi in that special way.

I know of no words that can comfort those that are waiting. We are thinking of you. I want you to know that there are many out there who will support you in your wait. My only advice is to use the time to reflect and prepare for your child. It helped us to see the wait as the season of anticipation like our own personal advent.

We wish that each of you had a truly Merry Christmas and found the true meaning in the season — the gift of the Christ Child who came to save the world from sin. May your New Year be wonderful and happy as the best is yet to come.