Yesterday. Oh, yesterday. You have been such a hard day and there seems to be no reprieve. I was going to write this last night, but I did not have the energy or strength.
What was wrong with yesterday, you ask? If you are in the loop, you would have found out that we received news that our paperwork has one lousy mistake on it and it will take a couple of weeks to fix. So after all of the preparation and readiness, we stand here with bags filled and broken hearts.
Yesterday definitely had it moments though. In order to help Valerie move through the day until we received our phone call, we went for run.. Not just any ordinary run, but Animas Mountain.
If you have ever run, walked, hiked or looked at Animas, you know it is steep. I mean steep. Just relentless. She originally said no to my idea, but I had a plan. I knew that it would take a while, since we are not in top running shape yet. I also knew that the pain we would endure would help us stop thinking about our phone call. Finally, I knew that despite the pain and suffering involved, there are moments of pure beauty on this run.
As we struggled to gain elevation on the mountain, we stopped and prayed. Time and time again we stopped and prayed. I must admit this was a great shroud for catching my breath. Although Valerie initiated it, I embraced the great veil of rest. Finally, we crested to the upper east side with the vistas of the Animas valley. I as took the opportunity for a "pit" stop, Valerie commented on how she needed to do the same thing.
Viewing out towards the Animas, I told Valerie that I stopped purposely at this very spot for a reason. Even when I have run this mountain competitively, I have briefly glanced across the valley and recognized the beauty of God. I then went on to tell her that I had chosen this very run so that we could get a glimpse of God's vistas in the rough patches of life. We stood there in awe. We took pictures with our phones. (We were waiting for the important call after all.) After stopping for a few minutes and gaining our composure, we continued our run.
We did not know what the day would look like when we ran early yesterday. We did not know that later on our hearts would feel torn from our very chests. We did not know that we would yearn so great for children we have never met, but we did.
Yesterday has now come and gone. The tears have been wept, the pain has been felt. Oh, God why can't this be easy? What is the hold up? Don't we love these children enough? Or, is it not about us? Is it something in between it all? Perhaps it is that you know how and when this will best affect the people that are around us in Durango and beyond. What ever it is, it is not easy. It never has been and I don't expect it to get any easier once we get our girls home, but I know that we will have the support of friends and family. God has connected and intertwined our family with our new daughters from the DRC.
So now that yesterday has passed, we have much clearer vision. Although cloudy, we have a vision of our future. We will travel. We will bring these girls home. Our girls will become part of our home. Kate and Abby will be older sisters. Our friends and family will finally get to meet the two Maries and we will begin a new journey. Although we long. Although we suffer, we continue in our faith of a God that has a much bigger and grander plan than we could ever imagine.
What was wrong with yesterday, you ask? If you are in the loop, you would have found out that we received news that our paperwork has one lousy mistake on it and it will take a couple of weeks to fix. So after all of the preparation and readiness, we stand here with bags filled and broken hearts.
Yesterday definitely had it moments though. In order to help Valerie move through the day until we received our phone call, we went for run.. Not just any ordinary run, but Animas Mountain.
If you have ever run, walked, hiked or looked at Animas, you know it is steep. I mean steep. Just relentless. She originally said no to my idea, but I had a plan. I knew that it would take a while, since we are not in top running shape yet. I also knew that the pain we would endure would help us stop thinking about our phone call. Finally, I knew that despite the pain and suffering involved, there are moments of pure beauty on this run.
As we struggled to gain elevation on the mountain, we stopped and prayed. Time and time again we stopped and prayed. I must admit this was a great shroud for catching my breath. Although Valerie initiated it, I embraced the great veil of rest. Finally, we crested to the upper east side with the vistas of the Animas valley. I as took the opportunity for a "pit" stop, Valerie commented on how she needed to do the same thing.
Viewing out towards the Animas, I told Valerie that I stopped purposely at this very spot for a reason. Even when I have run this mountain competitively, I have briefly glanced across the valley and recognized the beauty of God. I then went on to tell her that I had chosen this very run so that we could get a glimpse of God's vistas in the rough patches of life. We stood there in awe. We took pictures with our phones. (We were waiting for the important call after all.) After stopping for a few minutes and gaining our composure, we continued our run.
We did not know what the day would look like when we ran early yesterday. We did not know that later on our hearts would feel torn from our very chests. We did not know that we would yearn so great for children we have never met, but we did.
Yesterday has now come and gone. The tears have been wept, the pain has been felt. Oh, God why can't this be easy? What is the hold up? Don't we love these children enough? Or, is it not about us? Is it something in between it all? Perhaps it is that you know how and when this will best affect the people that are around us in Durango and beyond. What ever it is, it is not easy. It never has been and I don't expect it to get any easier once we get our girls home, but I know that we will have the support of friends and family. God has connected and intertwined our family with our new daughters from the DRC.
So now that yesterday has passed, we have much clearer vision. Although cloudy, we have a vision of our future. We will travel. We will bring these girls home. Our girls will become part of our home. Kate and Abby will be older sisters. Our friends and family will finally get to meet the two Maries and we will begin a new journey. Although we long. Although we suffer, we continue in our faith of a God that has a much bigger and grander plan than we could ever imagine.
Thank you so much for letting us be a part of your lives and for allowing us to go on this journey with you and your family. I wish there were more that we could do. I know that if we could go, we would travle to the DRC with you; feeling so connected to you and with these girls, we want to be there for every moment. I don't know if you all realy realize it or not, but you are bringing a lot of people with you on this journey and in so doing you are bring Jose and Marie into a much larger family then they could amagine. They are already loved by so many, even though they have met none of us.
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