One year ago today

I feel like there should be some grand announcement related to this day. Strangely, there is not. On December 22, 2010 Maren received a call stating that our adoption agency wanted to send us a referral. They told Maren a little about the girl, then three years old. It sounded very promising and we asked for more information. The next day, we were emailed additional information related to her with the promise the following day of a video arriving in the mail. December 24, 2010 that video arrived. As if our hearts weren't captured enough by the still pictures, the video positively melted them. Thus, today marks one year since we officially began to adopt this very special girl.

It has been quite a year. The arrival of the referral came over a year earlier than we expected. At the same time, the courts in India are taking way longer than we expected. Their own Supreme Court had previously issued a ruling that adoptions should be processed within two months. Thus, when our hearing was first presented in May 2010, we should have been home with her by August at the latest. Well, here we are, one year from first "meeting" her. We still do not have written orders from the court. We missed her 4th birthday when that shouldn't have happened. We missed Thanksgiving with her when that shouldn't have happened. We now miss Christmas with her this year as well. We are disappointed but not disheartened. We are sad but not sullen. We are irritated but not incensed.

She has gifts under our tree. We eagerly await her arrival. In the meantime, we celebrate the arrival of another very special child. Had Jesus not considered equality with God something to be grasped, had he not taken the form of man, had he not first adopted us as sons and daughters, we would have no hope for our daughter's adoption to our family. Thank you Jesus. Merry Christmas.