Now that we have hurried up...what do I do while we are waiting?

We searched our hearts, chose a path, handed in paper work, completed our interviews and now....we wait.   It is easier when there are things to do.  You feel like you have a bit of control, like you are moving forward and then it is taken out of your hands.  Yet, I am sure that we have not gotten to the hardest part yet.  Once the home study is written up, approved and we are "open" that will be a new kind of hard for me.  You hope that you will get a call right away with a child that will be yours forever.  That is not likely.  

What a journey God had planned for us.  One that I sometimes catch myself dragging my heels to go on.  I am not a fan of not knowing what lies ahead.  I should not be surprised God chose this for us, He knows what I need :)

Well, in the mean time, I have been reading.  Reading blogs written by foster parents.  Reading books about adoption, foster care and abuse.  Reading about things that make you cry out of joy and hope and also crying because of the pain some children live with.  Die with.

Yesterday I read a book called "Love in the driest Season".

Good book.  If you like to read in general you would like this book.  If you are adopting from anywhere in Africa you will LOVE this book.  If you have opted to take the path less traveled and search for a child you know is yours but you don't know where you will find them...you will not be able to put this book down.

Prologue of "Love in the driest Season":

"By noon, the ants found the girl child.

Left to die on the day she was born, she had been placed in the tall brown grass that covers the highlands of Zimbabwe in the dry season, when the sun burns for days on end and rain is a rumor that will not come true for many months.  She had been abandoned in the thin shade of an acacia tree, according to the only theory of events police ever put forth.  There were no clues as to exactly when she was left there, or why, or how, or by whom.  She just appeared one day, like Moses in the bulrushes.

Patches of dried blood and placenta streaked her body.   Her umbilical cord was still attached, a bloody stump dangling from the navel.  A colorful yank of fabric was wrapped around her torso.

The ants came from everywhere.

They set upon the blood and the remnants of the placenta sac.  Dozens, if not hundreds, poured over the fleshy stump of the umbilical cord.  They began to eat her right ear.

The girl-child screamed."

This is a true story of how Neely Tucker, at the time a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, found his daughter after being assigned to a station in  Zimbabwe.

The girl was found by a village woman and taken to the authorities who placed her in one of the poorest orphanages you will find.  One where 17 babies a year die from lack of nutrition and proper care.  Their cause of death is usually listed as "trouble breathing and diarrhea".

In this little orphanage Neely finds a 3 mo. old little girl (the one found by the village woman) that weighs less than 5 lbs.  He picks her up and she wraps her little hand around his finger and his life changes forever.

If this book isn't enough to make you want to book a flight to Africa I don't know what would.  The terrible part is that we have the same thing going on here.  Babies left in garbage cans to die.  All I can say is that some day we will all have to take a look out side of our perfect little lives and see what God sees every day.  Maybe then we will do something about it.

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On another note I would like to say "Congratulations Great Grandma Corey on your home going!"  I can only imagine what it must have been like for her to see her hubby and Gordon again.  I am sure it was a wonderful day for her once she got there.  I am thankful her suffering is over and she gets to be with the ones she loves.