The Community of Adoption

We probably won't have any real "updates" on our adoption process for a while - we entered the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kazakhstan) on August 27th and it will probably take all of two months to get through that department before we start to enter the queue for region assignment. At its very, very shortest, we were 3 1/2 months away from travel when our dossier when to the MFA on 8/27, but the more likely timeline has us traveling between four and six months from the end of August. So, it's still possible that we'll start our travel by Christmas, but more likely that it will be January or February. And that's ok. I mean, in Jamieland our little girl would already be home. But fortunately (for all of us!) someone infinitely wiser than me is in charge of our timelines and we will wait on Him.

And just in case our travel dates come early, you'll be happy to know that I am now immune to Influenza, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Pertussis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Typhoid. Ah, the joys of preparing for international travel.

At the cross planting on Sunday, one of Pastor Scott's friends from California talked about how we are defined by our journeys, and I believe that this is true both for our corporate self as a church and our individual selves and families. And I tell you, our adoption journey has already defined and redefined each member of the Morningstar family!

One of the happiest surprises of the journey has been the astoundingly supportive community of adoption. It's hard to describe - there's just an automatic kinship between adoptive and pre-adoptive parents (I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, of course, and I hope not to meet them). This has been especially true for the folks I've met who are in the middle of or have completed international adoptions - there's nothing like swapping war stories or just sharing struggles with another mom who knows exactly what I'm going through. And that's just as true for the friends I've made all over the country through virtual adoption communities - these are amazing women (and their families :) and I am grateful for their support, prayers, and the honestly with which they share their parallel journeys.

I keep writing and rewriting this posting, and I just can't seem to get it right. I guess the best way to describe it is that there's simply a kinship between all of us whose hearts are being opened to our children on the other side of the world, children who our hearts ache to hold, whose names we long to speak. We share a precious fellowship that I am grateful for. It is one more way that God is loving and sustaining and teaching me through this beautiful, amazing, excruciating journey.