Saturday, December 7, it was about 10:30 in the morning and I was getting caught up on a hot new TV show, Firefly. OK, Firefly is not a new show. It came out in 2002, and it only lasted for one season. How could Fox cancel such a GREAT show after only one season. Thank goodness for Netflix! I digress I do believe....
Like I was saying I was watching Netflix when Jennifer comes walking in the room caring here cell phone. “Look at this!” Great, she has found some new online sale! But as soon as I saw the screen I knew what she was looking at. We have read messages sent to us from Bethany on the “Portal” on every computing / cellular device we own. The look of the screen is unmistakable. Jennifer checks the portal everyday for messages or updates. Most of the time it is just general information sent to all the families. Seeing the Portal pulled up on her phone did not excite me much. You see our dossier was sent to Ethiopia in November, and we were under the impression that it would take two months for it to be authenticated by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Then I started to read the tiny message held out before me. “This update is to let you know that your dossier has been authenticated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ethiopia and resisted with the Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs in Addis Ababa. The next stage of the process may be the most difficult one yet - which is waiting for your referral.”
I went from watching a movie about space to going into orbit myself! What should have taken months, God and the good people of Ethiopia did in days!!
This really didn’t hit home until the next day at church when someone asked where we were in the process. I gave the customary answer, “We have all of our paperwork submitted and approved. It could be 6 months or 3 years from now.” That is when Jennifer looked at me and said, “And it could be tomorrow too.”
Wow! Any day now my phone could buzz with the receipt of an email telling me there is a referral waiting for us. My children are in the world. If only I could get to them! If only I could bring them home today!
Home. What a wonderful word. What a wonderful feeling. Today my father asked me to go to Dalton and help him clean out the rental property that my parents are now selling. The thing is, that rental property was the home I grew up in. I had my first pet there. I had my first booboos there. I was the hero in more make-believe battles from that front porch than the number of real battles that have ever been fought. It was the place where I asked Jesus to come into my heart. It was the driveway where my first car was parked. After college that house became the first home I ever paid for as I rented it from my parents. It was the home where I carried my new bride over the threshold.
Today, I was amazed at how the place had changed. The yard was not as big as I remembered as a child. Trees that I planted as a child have grown to the sky, and long since fallen. The place of my childhood is gone. The home of the newlyweds is gone. Sold. But the love remains. The memories remain. I know what home is because of that house.
My adopted children, will they have those feelings about our home? Will they love this house as I loved that one? Oh, if I could just get them home!!
