Waiting Well {and a Giveaway!}

Welcome my friend, Kelli, to our blog.  She has also offered an awesome giveaway for you! Details at the bottom....

To Wait:  to stay in place in expectation of………

Families in process of international adoption are by my definition, professionals at waiting. 

We wait and we wait…… on paperwork, on waitlists, on calls, on emails, on approval, on clearance.  The list feels endless sometimes. 

I admit there have been times in the wait I’ve wanted to lay on the floor like a two year old and kick and scream.  Sometimes it’s just plain hard.

So much of the time the “wait” comes with a negative connotation.  It might have a little bit to do with the 200 good intentioned people that ask us “when?”, “still?”, every week they see us. 

I recently posed a question about “the wait“ to some other adoptive moms & the responses I got were so beautiful and encouraging.

They said,

“My heartache & desperation has brought me into a connection with the Lord that is so deep & intimate I get chills when I think about it”.

“God changed my heart”.

 One mom stated she used the wait to enjoy time with her family before it grew and another recognized how God used the wait to refine her.  

Everyone’s wait looks so different. 

In my personal “wait” journey (which I never would have predicted would be more than 3 years) I’ve had the time I’ve needed to heal from the loss of my mom.   

Beth Moore said in her study on Esther, “never in our wait is God inactive”.   Although we may grow tired of hearing,  “ it’s all God’s timing,” perhaps we could try to see the wait from a different perspective.    Maybe we could let God use the wait to make us more like Him.   

The Bible is so full of promises for those who wait. 

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I will say to myself ”the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him”.  Lamentations 3:22-24 

I’m determined not to waste the “wait”.  How about you?

Check out these other encouraging verses for your wait:

Isaiah 40:31, Habakkuk 2:30, Ephesians 3:20, I Peter 5:6-7, Proverbs 16:9, Psalm 37:5, Proverbs 21:30, Matt 19:26 , Isaiah 54:10, I Thes 5:24, Habakkuk 3:17-19, Heb10:23, Isaiah 26:3-4, Luke 11:9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 4:8, Psalm 44:3, Psalm 37:7, Rom 15:13, James 1:12, Jeremiah 32:17, Psalm 40:1-3

                                                                                          -Kelli 
To enter the giveaway for one of her beautiful photographs, leave a comment with who you would like to have in your picture if you win! 

More about my friend...

Hi!  My name is Kelli Belt.  I’m a wife and mom of two boys, 12 & 9 and part of my heart is in Ethiopia as we wait the adoption of our daughter.

God has recently called me to use our "wait" to support a ministry in our daughter's birth land through the expansion of my photo gift business and recent partnership with Mercy Branch. Check it out @www.thenandnowdoubletakes.com