“So how are things going with your third adoption?” It’s a question I get on the phone, in texts, emails, and in person, and it’s a question I love to answer.

It’s easy to focus on the facts. We are nearly 6 months into our wait, and our profile book we made about our family has been shown to expectant parents 5 times. With the girls, we waited 15 months each time. We have received 3 major grants given so generously from Lifesong for Orphans, Show Hope and Pure Gift of God. Because of these amazing organizations as well as gifts from our family and friends, we have reached over 62% of our goal. As always, the wait is long, but the girls keep me busy and I know it will all be worth it in the end. I’ve repeated a version of that many, many times over the last six months.

Here’s what is happening that I haven’t mentioned much.

One afternoon during nap time, I was going through our newborn things, praying over the boxes, wondering what our next little one will look like, be like, feel like in my arms, questioning if I could do this for a third time, if the timing was right, if we could pull the finances together. The mailman interrupted my silent tear filled prayers with the mail dropping in the mailbox. I got up and went outside where a letter from Show Hope was waiting, the thin kind. An acceptance letter to anything is usually big, full of papers, not a small normal size envelope. My heart dropped but I decided to open it anyway. Immediately I saw the words Congratulations! and the tears came. A $6,000 grant toward our adoption has so generously been given to US!

I’ve questioned a few times, okay maybe a lot, whether being an active waiting family right now is good timing. By my standards, fundraising, figuring out how on earth we’re going to fund a 3rd private adoption and the thought of bringing home a baby during a pandemic does not seem like great timing. Should we go on hold and put it off? The thing is, every time I begin to question the timing and worry, an encouragement sometimes big sometimes small comes out of nowhere and helps us to keep going, keep waiting, keep our dream of a big family alive when the world feels so heavy.

So thank you. Thank you for the encouragement, prayers, unexpected baby gifts that keep us going. Thank you for asking about our fundraising and our baby registry. Thank you for writing recommendation letters and being references for the 20 grants we applied for. Thank you for asking us how we’re REALLY doing. Thank you for reminding us that God’s with us every step of the way, that you’re cheering us on too, and that it’ll all be worth it when we get to hold our next little one for the first time.