Waiting for Christmas

A little more than a year ago, we began the journey of adoption. For most of that time, I have optimistically asserted that we would have a baby by Christmas. It is nearly Christmas, and we have still not received a referral; however, I feel confident we will hear something in the months to come (Frankly, I told Rebecca that it is still approximately 144 hours until Christmas, and although we may not have a baby home, we could still receive a referral in that vast expanse of time. Unlikely, yes, but divinely possible).

As we look forward to Christmas, I can't help but imagine the anticipation that Mary and Joseph must have felt as they made the trip to Bethlehem. It is probably not so unlike the anticipation we have felt over the course of the past several months as we look forward to a looming major life transition. So many things seem so uncertain, so unknown. We often think we have been left alone, to our own musings and devices, squinting into a crystal ball, trying to see the future. I have to wonder if this is how Mary and Joseph felt after they were visited by the angel. I have to wonder if they spent the next several months in some kind of state of disbelief, all-the-while trying to see ten, twelve, eighteen months into the future. They must have wondered how this visitation by an angel, an unexpected pregnancy, and the promise of a Savior's birth would change their lives. They too must have been puzzled by these new tastes that enticed their senses.

Every Christmas, we still anticipate the birth of a Savior. This Christmas, we also anticipate new lives with new roles and the coming of a small Ethiopian child, whose face we have never seen, who we are already coming to love.

Merry Christmas,

Ryan