A Mother's Love...

Mother's Day 2005 was hard for me because I had miscarried a month before.
Mother's Day 2006 was hard because we had committed to Noah and Samuel.
Mother's Day 2007 was rough because I never imagined my boys wouldn't be home by then.
As Mother's Day 2008 approaches, my thoughts swirl. This is what a mother's love is according to me, a mom whose waited far too long.

A Mother's Love...
...prays for her kids in an orphanage
...prays for her arms to supernaturally hold her kids and that they'd feel it
...prays for God to whisper her voice in their ears
...prays for overworked and underpaid nannies to meet the needs of her boys
...smiles wide when thinking of her boys
...tears up just thinking of the day they come home
...asks tough questions
...keeps important paperwork up to date
...spends a day tracking down her home study provider
...empties the closet of clothing the boys have outgrown (repeatedly)
...makes the beds, even though she knows they will get dusty and need to be redone
...buys food on sale and then gives it away when it is close to expiring
...buys diapers and gives them away when they are outgrown
...devotes a cupboard to kids dishes that go unused
...continues to encourage friends and family when they are discouraged about the adoption
...quietly listens when some friends and family give up on the kids ever coming home
...prays in the middle of the night when she can't sleep and wonders if her boys are okay
...seeks out the best doctors for her kids
...reads book after book and attends seminar after seminar
...sometimes needs to stay in bed for the day instead of face the world
...calls the National Visa Center and the USCIS in Haiti repeatedly trying to confirm receipt of fingerprints
...washes, folds, and hangs new clothing, praying that they won't be outgrown before they are worn
...checks email diligently
...reads blogs of other adoptive families
...learns to seek the Lord like never before

It's my hope that some of these things will be a distant memory next Mother's Day. And I hope some will be even stronger.

I pray that tomorrow will be a day that I'll glorify God in the wait.