Introducing Craig!

With young children you are always talking about the next big thing. The next celebration, birthday party, sleepover. They measure time by events, not by days and months. 

Some things that we wait for have a set date like Christmas and birthdays. Other things have tentative wait times. You know you are getting closer and that it is inevitable, but you can't make a paper chain and count how many days are left until the "big day". I have a harder time with the second kind of waiting. It isn't concrete enough for me, I can't plan and schedule it day by day and as a result I am surprised when it actually happens.  

Right now our family is in waiting mode. We waited for a home study, for immigration approval, and for a referral. And, much to my surprise, each of those things has happened! We now have a son waiting for us in China, and we couldn't be more excited to go get him!!! We want to be able to hold him and know that he is well taken care of and protected. We're looking forward to telling him that we love him. We're counting down the days until we can be together as a family. But for now we wait; for our Dossier to go to China, for China to approve us, for visas and further immigration approval. I know that it will all happen someday. But "someday" still seems very far away.

There is another kind of waiting that I think about often. There is no specific date, but it is also inevitable. I know that some day I will be in Heaven praising God for His amazing grace, power, and love. I am looking forward to that time with great anticipation! I pray that I will be able to communicate the excitement for this day with our children and that they will be looking forward to meeting Christ with the same childlike enthusiasm as they have when waiting for Christmas :)

Here are some pictures of our son, Craig Wood.  Can't help but smile when I see them.