Wait

When they told me that a dossier could take anywhere between two months (for the experienced) to four months to complete, I immediately thought, "Oh, it WILL be two months"! Four months later, I can officially say it is finished. It has been mailed and I am grateful to have it out of my hands. Unless they call and say something is wrong and needs to be redone. In which case, I will promptly fall onto the floor and throw a tantrum of epic proportions, one that makes your two year old look mellow. We won't go there, though. We are going to be optimistic! 

It. Is. Finished!

What now?

Now it is headed to Kentucky where it will be checked for errors. Then on to Utah where it will be authenticated. Then to the embassy, and then to Ethiopia. When it arrives in Ethiopia we call it DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) and this is a day celebrated in the adoption world. This means we have jumped the hurdles and have reached a milestone. It is out of our hands now. There is nothing to do but wait. 

Wait. 

All these months of rushing, working, signing, filing, running errands, begging people to "hurry", and learning to loathe the word "notary" (ugh, I still twitch when I say it)! All this to get to ... WAIT. 

I was on a website today and saw this: 

"Definition of WAIT:

1. 1.To stay in a place or remain inactive or in anticipation until something expected takes place.
2. 2.To be ready or at hand.

   3.To remain temporarily undone or neglected."

  Now, to be fair, they were using this definition in the context of waiting children. Yet, being the "word nerd" that I am, I thought about this definition for a minute and decided to try this against a biblical definition of the word wait (which I had to look up). I thought of verses like Psalm 27:14 which says "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord". 

  Are we to be undone? Are we neglected? Of course not. So I pulled out my trusty concordance and looked up the meaning of the word "wait" in the original language. When this word is used in the Bible it actually translates to something more like wait expectantly or "expect". 

  EXPECT. 

  It's quite a different picture isn't it? "Wait" implies back of the line. "Wait" implies someone or something else has priority over you and your concerns. 

  "Expect" on the other hand, implies that your needs are already known. Already being addressed. It implies, "have a seat, someone is taking care of that for you." 

  So now we wait. But waiting isn't so bad. Not when the God that holds the universe in His hands is the one already taking care of things for you. Everyone is waiting for something. I bet you can all think of something you are waiting on right now. 

  Waiting on the birth of a child. 

  Waiting on a spouse. 

  Waiting on a job. 

  Waiting on the wayward child to come back to truth. 

  Waiting on God to heal that thing that is eating you inside. 

  Waiting to see some evidence that God is listening to your prayers. 

  Take heart, friends. We may be waiting, but we are not at the back of the line. Pray, and wait on the Lord- expecting that He hears, He knows, and whatever the answer is- it will be for our good and His glory. 

  

"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield." - Psalm 33:20