Contentment

Definition:  Satisfied with things as they are......Or how bout:  Accepting one's situation or life with mental and emotional stability and satisfaction.

So to catch you up on things....during these last couple of weeks we have heard some pretty discouraging news.  As of the 26th of this month we will have been on the waiting list for 1 year.  Actually it will be almost 18 months since we started the adoption process.  When we began this journey, it was taking around 6 months to get a referral for a baby girl.  The wait is currently over 14 months and climbing!

We had hoped, and were pretty confident, that we would receive our referral by the end of October 2009 and we would have Amayah home before Christmas -09.....well, that came and went.  We then were told it would probably be sometime in January 2010 that we would get our referral....you guessed it....that came and went too.  The last thing we were told was that it wouldn't be until March (approximately, of course).  BUT....and this is a BIG "but".... the families that are above us on the waiting list have now been waiting 15 months!  So as March is only our 12th month on the list......I'm kinda thinking that now it might not be until June/July that we will get the call.  


The latest thing that has been circulating among the Ethiopian adoption community is that the Ethiopian court system is now trying to require that the adoptive parents be there when their child's case goes to court.  Right now the Ethiopian government is allowing us to have legal representation at the court hearing....this being our agency's lawyer.  He goes to the adoption court hearing and acts on our behalf.  This change that the courts are trying to make is due to some families from other agencies that arrived to pick up their children and discovering that the child that they were told was healthy was not so much so.  Some families actually left the country without the the child that was now legally theirs.  So the court is trying to enforce this new policy, but the government has a law that states that the adoptive families can have legal representation at court in their place.  If the courts win, the adoptive families will have to make two trips to Ethiopia....once for court and once to pick up their child and bring them home.  This poses an extra financial strain on the adoptive families......the added travel expenses and also the time away from work.  We are all sitting on pins and needles wondering how this whole thing will play out because this could add $2000+ to the cost of an adoption. 


So what's an expectant Mom to do in a situation like this?  Sit and cry is a good idea....done that....wasn't very fun and didn't really solve anything anyway.  So I have chosen to be content.....and to keep very busy.....but I am a pretty busy chika anyway so I guess that's normal.......maybe I should go for EXTRA busy??  Yeah.....that sounds good  =)  Done.

Here is something that I came across that I am pretty sure will help me to find that ever elusive contentment that I will be searching for:

Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Contentment by Linda Dillow


Book Description:
Although many Christian women say they trust God, their lives are filled with worry and anxiety-about their children, their finances, their relationships, their jobs. They know their lives should be characterized by faith in God, but they're unsure of how to get that kind of faith. This book and twelve-week study helps women grow in contentment as they address the barriers to contentment and how to overcome them.
Check out these five principles of contentment from the first chapter:

• Never allow yourself to compain about anything — not even the weather.
• Never picture yourself in any other circumstance or someplace else.
• Never compare your lot with another’s.
• Never allow yourself to wish "this or that" had been otherwise.
• Never dwell on tomorrow — remember that tomorrow is God’s, not ours.

That's a pretty hard road to travel.....I will let you know how it goes.....

Wishing you a life filled with peace and contentment!

Wendy