Advent

'Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life."
- Simone Weil

Waiting on our second child is lending such depth to my experience of advent this year. I am honestly not sure I even have words for it yet. I just know that waiting with anticipation is one of the more complicated spiritual lessons I have every learned. Oh the waiting is hard ... my heart is groaning the way Paul describes in Romans 8. And I acknowledge that our wait has barely begun - we may have years ahead of us. But I wait with victory assured, clinging to a promise. It is a strange thing to be sure of the end while totally unsure of how it will be accomplished.

I have just the tiniest taste of what Israel must have felt in waiting for the coming Messiah. They knew He was coming, just not when or how. And I'm sure they couldn't have been more surprised by the way in which God chose to keep His promises.

Simone Weil was wise to include the word 'patiently' in her aforementioned description of the spiritual life. God is sowing patience into our hearts as we walk this journey, and I am thankful for it. It would come naturally for me to grow in bitterness as the days pass, beginning to doubt God's faithfulness in orchestrating our family. But, if we allow those seeds of patience to blossom, we can "live with greater confidence even though nothing has changed" (Tripp).

I am hoping that remaining days leading up to Christmas will afford me many more opportunities to learn what it means to wait well. And I am exceedingly thankful that God is faithful to His word, both in gifting my Savior and bringing our child.

An important side note:
We have rescheduled our home visit for December 14th ... that's just over a week away! God has been so good in providing for us, both through some unexpected gifts and a lot of unexpected extra work. Pray that some checks we are expecting come promptly, so that we don't have to reschedule again.
Also, GET PUMPED ... we sure are! It will be so encouraging to get that milestone under our belts and to get our profile book into the hands of potential birthmothers!