I have taken quite the sabbatical from blogging but it is now time to lay out my heart.
Summer came to an end in the Doop house and with it came the beginning of a new school year. In May I would have said that the summer would be full of days spent lazily floating around Logan Martin Lake and reading multiple books, promoting to a Team Leader with Usborne, and finishing up embroidering names on our #quiltedtogether squares. I also would have said that come August we would be nearing the completion of our Home Study and entering the tedious waiting stage of our adoption.
My plans are not always His plans and we are now at the beginnings of September and days at the lake are replaced by weekends filled with events like Heart & Hands Orphan Craft Fair because I have not promoted to Team Lead, half marathons with WDD (check out his ramblings of the road here), Alabama football, and answering a multitude of questions for our Home Study.
There are days I feel like a broken record and it is weary-some. "No, no baby yet" "No, we aren't finished with our home study yet" "Yes, still raising money" "Yes, it does cost quite a bit" "Yes, I agree. People who have children naturally should also have to go through counseling"
Then there are days that I am so thankful for that broken record. No, there isn't a baby yet, but yes, I am able to stand at the start line of my husband's half marathon at 5:00 a.m. in another state. No, we aren't finished with our home study yet, but we have been able to learn so much about ourselves and receive resources for how to effectively copE+ with a child who may or may not have dependency issues from birth or different attachment skills than us.
I am never ceased from being amazed at the wonders of our God. Those weary days and wandering and wondering are tiresome while treading through them. It is in the cries and pleadings of our weariness that our God is made greatest. (For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:10). Our suffering and questioning of why WDD was pink slipped and why we had to go through counseling before beginning our Home Study and why some conceive and some not and why my business that I had been pouring myself into wasn't going anywhere did not go unheard or unanswered.
We have begun a new season of loving each other and learning to love the birth mother of our unborn child. We have been given new and exciting opportunities from WDD getting a job at a high school 5 minutes from home to my Usborne team doubling in two months to new understanding of grace and mercy.
Valleys are promised. Endings are inevitable. But beginnings, they are just around the corner.
