O Come All Ye Faithful

(A) Endurance  (B) Longevity  (C) Self Control  (D) Laura Gross  

Which of these is not like the others?  

You get the picture, calm duration through almost any situation is NOT my strong suit.  Committing to something for the long haul sounds like torture to me.  Take board games for instance.  Monopoly?  Forget it.  You’ve seen the picture of me suffering through Candy Land with my beloved child, right (check it out below)?  I’d rather poke my eyes out than play a LOOOOONG game.

Hate Stare.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Road trips, pets, exercise.  I’m kind of a commitment phobe.  Earlier this summer I started “training” for a race, only to crap out about 2 weeks later.  My “couch to 5K” was more like “couch to locating sneakers in the back of my closet”.  Or there was the time we adopted Bronx, our 3 year old American Bulldog.  I may have been guilty of asking some really specific questions about his lifespan:

Me: So these dogs live 10 years?

David: Well, really from about 10-15 years.

Me: Okay, Bronx is about to turn 3.  Worst case scenario, he probably has only about 5 good years left.

David: Why do you have to be like that?  I think we’ll get to have 10 full years with him.

Me: Ugh, I hope not.

And this response is to an awesome, well-behaved pet!  I can’t even publish my reaction after finding out cats can live well past 15 years (we found a loving home for our 2 felines shortly after that).  Worst pet owner ever.

I think Bronx may sense how mean I am, which is why he makes this face a lot.

Marriage though, despite my tendencies otherwise, has worked out well.  David and I will be celebrating 10 years together come September.  Our compatibility has a lot to do with the fact that David is one of the best people in the world, period.  And a Social worker to boot--which makes him a good match for all my crazy.  Because entering into a marriage commitment wasn’t exactly easy for me, the biggest over-thinker/change hater of all time.  We established right off the bat that if we were doing this--getting married--it would be for real.  No take backs, for better or worse.  That scared me (considering my track record), making that kind of promise to my best friend in front of Jesus and a bunch of other people.  It was a sacred act, this union, and a little pre-game fear was probably appropriate.  As my girl Jen Hatmaker says, “Perhaps those [scared and sacred] have always been flip sides of a coin....Obedience isn’t a lack of fear.  It’s just doing it scared.”  

That’s where faithfulness comes in.  Or, as my pastor calls it-long obedience in the same direction.  This happens to be a requirement in Jesus transactions.  Because when you add a divine element to your commitments, the standards become much higher.  Also you get a heavenly pit crew and an earthly cheering section that are pretty spectacular.  As it says in Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”  Endurance again?  Bleck.  But check out the beginning of that verse another time.  “We are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith..”  Here’s the game changer for me concerning our marriage commitment.  This simple truth: We weren’t in it alone.

That brings me to now.  To our adoption.  The great news is that our dossier (adoption paperwork) was sent to Ethiopia on July the 26th!  Whoop-whoop!  That date will serve as our DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia--official adoption abbreviation) from which we start our 2 ½ year waiting period.  Which is a LONG stinking time (I’m doing my “Candy Land” face again).  But here’s the best part: I am 100% positive that our decision to adopt was part of God’s plan for us.  Please read back over my hatred of long, process-y things if you need further confirmation that I would NEVER seek this out on my own.  Adoption is way BEYOND the “long and process-y” categorization, yet here we are.  Waiting.  Enduring this long haul for our beautiful daughter,  for our family to be made whole.  That sneaky Jesus guy is always trying to teach us something new.

The best email we've gotten from our adoption agency as of yet....

  

I know you probably aren’t sitting in a pew or standing amidst a crowd (unless you have your computer in a really strange location), but would you be our witness?  We need a cheering squad like big time.  These next 2 ½ years will very likely be the most grueling marathon of our lives and I (maybe already mentioned this) suck at races.  But David and I know that our commitment to adopt has divine fingerprints all over it.  Thus, higher standards.  Not that we won’t doubt, complain, bicker, or yell about it (heaven KNOWS there is a place for those things....even within our marriage), but we will be faithful to the end.  Long obedience in the same direction.  Please help us keep the faith: provide encouragement, prayer, granola bars, and even stern reprimands as we need them.  This is going to be hard work; we need to know we’re not alone.  But moral support notwithstanding, be sure that no matter the cost, time, or work involved, we will do whatever it takes.  Because our baby girl is worth it.