33 Days

It is 10:20 p.m., around the very time we should have been headed to the airport this evening. Instead, like most any other night we are relaxing in the family room and I am sitting here at the computer writing on my blog. Our plans for this trip to Haiti certainly didn't turn out the way we had expected, but as my mother-in-law reminded us in an e-mail this morning: "Our disappointments are His appointments." There seems to be no doubt that for some reason unknown to us, God preferred us to travel at a different time.

I would be lying if I said we weren't disappointed; when you've never met your children, waiting even one more day seems like an eternity! And when you realize this may be your one and only chance to hold them while they are truly infants/babies, it stings a little to know they will be yet another month older when that time finally comes.

Yet God has a special way of reminding us of His presence even in the dark times. When I stepped outside on my way to pick up the girls from school, I caught a glimpse of an envelope on the damp grass next to where our trash can usually stands. Thinking it had fallen out of the trash, I almost left it there until I returned but instead reached down to retrieve it. Far from being trash, it turned out to be an envelope postmarked by our adoption coordinator in Haiti! Inside were a handful of photos of our boys, as well as two postcards with their little feet stamped on them. I couldn't help but feel as though God was smiling down on me and reminding me that this was all going to be okay; that these boys are indeed our children; and we will be together in due time.

Two of the pictures were the ones below ... I think they must have been used for the boys' dossiers. Both Ian and Alec have changed so much already, but seeing their tiny passport pictures and remembering the ones we ourselves had to provide for the adoption paperwork, made it seem more real somehow. And of course, I had to share them with you:

As far as our trip goes, it has been rescheduled for September 23-30. A little over a month away, but with some major events taking place in between, the time should fly by. At least that's what I will keep telling myself for the next 33 days ...