Are we there yet?

The chill of fall is in the air here in Italy.  The days have grown shorter and the business of our schedules has picked up with school, ministry, and our daughters band commitments.  In all of this, we had hoped to have Vitaliy here with us.  His place still remains empty at the dining room table but the reminders that he is coming are still around.  The word-label cards that are taped on all the things in our house that identify the item in both Russian and English, a back-packed stuffed with English for beginner books, the basket filled with strange boy toys, action figures that we are told are all the rage, super-hero coloring books, little boy clothes washed and folded, soccer shirts with his name displayed on the back, a Russian children’s picture bible on our bookshelf, new linens and bed-set ready to be snuggled in, but all these things remain dormant.  Like Christmas presents under the tree, they sit there, filling us with hope, excitement, and a little fear.  The day is coming when they will be opened and discovered, but will it be all that we have imagined? 
Expectations are the things that have my head swirling and my stomach churning.  Reading blogs, commentaries, books, and articles on all things adoption have me feeling like we are so unprepared for what comes next.  Will he hate us when he realizes that we can’t live up to his expectations?  Will he wish that we’d never adopted him in the first place?  Will our daughters resent the fact that we brought a hurting boy into our family that will cause our lives to flip upside down?  Have we completely lost our minds in choosing the road less traveled by? 
As these questions and fears come, I am reminded of our Lord that came and gave ALL so that it was possible to be adopted by God.  He came fully understanding His purpose and His plan.  Adoption was the plan from the beginning.  It wasn’t Gods second choice, it wasn’t as if this was Plan B, adoption was God’s plan from the start.  He is a family building God, His first command was telling Adam and Eve to make a family.  He promised Abraham and Sarah an offspring that would be as numerous as the sands on the beaches.  His promise spread through His chosen ones, and even our precious Savior was adopted by Joseph who followed God’s command to raise Jesus as his own.  This is God’s plan, His command, His promise, and His way. 
Brandon and I cannot doubt how very real and clear God’s command to adopt is for us.  He has unmistakably spoken to us through His Holy Spirit that this is an area of obedience for us.  So we will follow, we will continue to press through, and as we tell Vitaliy in every letter, we will not give up until we can bring you home.  Isn’t that God’s promise of love for us?  He gave everything, He left heaven and came to earth to be hated, tortured, and purposely laid down His life to make it possible for us to be grafted into His Family. 

                Ephesians 1:3-14 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

                In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.