Waiting on the Lord

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:28-31

This passage has been on our minds lately.

God creates, works, understands, helps, renews, strengthens, and so much more.

And what role do we have while God does all of this?

We wait.

It’s right there in the scripture…”but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”.

Am I the only one that finds this odd?

I don't know about you, but typically in my life waiting is never associated with a renewal of strength. 

Yesterday, I was waiting to check out at Wal-Mart while watching my kiddos trying to make sure Walker didn't open the candy I'd already told him to put back. Holding items I needed to buy while also trying to avoid toddler breakdowns and asking myself why I didn't go Wal-Mart alone and leave the kids with daddy. Yeah, I never leave that wait in line feeling renewed. 

When I was in PA school, there was a particular library that I liked to study in because of these small "study rooms".  However, other nerds like me liked them too, so if you wanted one, you had to be in line when the doors opened. Cody made a comment that he had waited in line for a lot of things in his life like concerts, sports games and midnight premiers, but never before me had he waited for a library to open. I don't think he found the waiting renewing either. 

Waiting isn’t fun.

After waiting five days recently to learn if a certain expected baby girl would be joining our family, I didn't exactly know what to do with the wait. And Isaiah 40 came to mind. I knew it had the word wait in it. I found that other translations use the word "hope". 

Those who wait...

...those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. 

I want that. 

And I know what the difference is between many other "waits" in life and the "wait" this verse describes. I'm sure you do too. In between the wait and the renewal of strength is the word Lord. 

Doesn't He make all the difference?

As emotionally tolling as this road has been, it has also been spiritually renewing. We are dependent on Him. We hope in Him. We trust Him. We wait for Him.

I wanted to give an update for those following our story, and for this season...we are waiting. 

We wait for the next situation to be emailed to us so we can see if this is a family we will present to. We wait to see how loved ones and family will respond to us as we travel the long road of adoption. We wait to see if funds will arrive which would allow us to move forward with a family. All the while knowing once we present, we will be waiting again for an answer…then likely again for that child’s birth.

With all this, we know what we truly wait on is the Lord. We wait for His timing.

While we wait, God continues to show Himself faithful.  We have had an overwhelming sense of peace at each step, even when emotions tell us to feel differently.  The peace of God which passes all understanding comes again to remind us of His sovereignty.

Last week, we said no to one situation not fully knowing why other than that we didn't feel the Holy Spirit leading us forward.  After the fact, Cody was able to talk to the attorney again and we found out that the birth mother met with one family and that the match was perfect!  She said even if another family would have presented, the birth mother was so confident in that family that she wouldn't have even met the other families after that.  We won't always get to know specifics with each situation, but I was grateful that in this case, God reminded us that our no may be someone's yes! That His plan is so much bigger than ours.  He is working out many beautiful stories, not just our story. 

We have been confident that we are called to adopt.  We haven't always known where the money would come from, but through the blessing of family, we found a way to borrow a large amount without interest.  How awesome is that?

In the same week, we were gifted a large donation that will allow us to borrow a significantly smaller portion when we do match!  I had a chance to say thank you to this family today.  They said, "though we have not felt called to adopt personally, we do feel called to help those that do. This is all of our story. God adopted each of us." They simply wanted to be a part of the gospel fleshed out through adoption. Not because of us, but because of God.

I've been reminded that the money part that loomed over me for so long has no power over us.  Our God is bigger than finances.  He's bigger than unknowns.  He's bigger than my biggest concern and cares for my smallest concern.  He is faithful. And as scripture said earlier, we get to see Him be faithful when we wait.

So back to the waiting.

Yes we are still waiting, but we see God active in our waiting.

And although it's a new stress at times... 

And there are new emotions we are working through...

Although there are unknowns...

Although we are anxious...

We are being renewed.