the waiting room...

I (Amy) think it's probably pretty safe to say we all hate waiting, right? With today's technology, let's face it: we are the people who pace in front of the microwave. And if something isn't happening quite as quickly as we'd like, well by gosh, we'll find something to do about that, won't we? (spoken from experience...)

Ask most anyone what's the worst thing about going to the doctor and you're likely to hear one answer: the wait.

In our desire to adopt again, I'm now in the waiting room. I've filled out some papers, even paid my proverbial "copay," and now I'm waiting for something to happen. Anything. Tick. Tock. When are they going to call MY name? I wish this would hurry up!

But for now, I'm called to sit and wait. (ugh!)

I'm tempted to twiddle my thumbs, flip through random magazines just to distract myself and pass the time. I look at the clock a hundred times a day, and call out to the Lord, "WHEN?"

Funny how my little season of waiting falls in the midst of an even bigger season of Waiting: Advent. A season where we remember THE wait. The wait for a Savior that lasted generation after generation after generation. The wait that must have felt like an ETERNITY!, but believers held fast to a promise that was given to them long, long ago. How did they live their entire LIVES in the waiting room for Him? And when the promise WAS finally fulfilled, it was long after they were gone!

I know it's random, but I can't help but think of Linus in the pumpkin patch. Remember that? Everybody else in the gang left him alone late at night as he waited with anticipation for this so-called "Great Pumpkin" to arrive. They thought he was crazy! And they didn't want to wait.

Yes, after all the waiting and waiting Christ did come and fulfill all the prophecies just like they knew he would. (though I'm sure there was a TON of doubtful folks, too-- I don't know that I would've been like Linus!)

But we believers are still waiting. And sometimes it feels like everyone around us has left and given up hope, thinking we're the crazy ones.

But we wait for another day that is promised to us. A day where there will be no more tears. No more sickness and death. No more injustice and pain. No more abuse or wrongdoing. No more miscarriages or infertility. No more messed up relationships. No more fear and insecurity.

A day of resurrection when the whole of creation will awaken and be redeemed! A day when everything sad will come untrue.

Others may leave us in the pumpkin patch and think we, too, are crazy. But we wait. With great anticipation. Because we know one day, and maybe not even in our lifetime, He's coming.

And so my wait for another baby, as short or as long as it may be, needs to be with a trusting anticipation. This waiting room is not simply something to pass through in order to get to my REAL destination (where everything will truly begin, right?), but there is purpose and intention even NOW. There is trust to develop in my heart. There are things in which to learn and grow here in the waiting room that I wouldn't gain if I rushed in to my appointment. And I already have many others in the same waiting room that I want to love, not the least of which is a precious husband and a little gal named Caroline.

So I'm attempting to revel in the waiting room to see what things await me. I believe I've got an appointment someday and my name will, indeed, be called. I just don't know how long the wait will be.

But you know what's great about THIS doctor's office? I get to see & talk with the doc now, because My Great Physician is already with me here.