Enjoy the Process

I am sitting in a waiting room. I keep looking at the door for my friend to walk through and announce the birth of their first baby. Aren’t we almost always waiting for something? A stoplight to change. A grocery store line to fade.  A special day to arrive. A storm to pass. A promise to be kept. I sit and wait for that door to open. The anticipation and excitement are great. The waiting... not so much.

Waiting it hard. It just is. I remember a card we once received from an aunt with just three words written in it - Enjoy the process. In the waiting, in the meantime, enjoy the process. Easier said than done.

We have been waiting, my husband and I, for the chance to serve with our family cross-culturally for an extended period of time. This waiting has been 15 years. Fifteen years of learning to enjoy the process! In those 15 years, God has put together what we call our family. Five incredible kiddos through both birth and adoption. Healing and freedom from my past. An unexplainably fun marriage. Opportunities to give away what we have been given. And so much more. All in the waiting.




We haven’t always waited well. Sometimes it has looked like this: You know, when you are in the line at the store, and you are in a hurry. You get the cashier that moves at a snail’s pace. Every. Time.

You keep checking the time on your phone, making it obvious that you would like this process to be moving along more quickly. You know perfectly well that your outward expression of anxiety will not miraculously cause her to go from tortoise to hare. Yet you still dance around, and become more agitated, hoping she will get a sudden burst of energy and decide today is the day to conquer the world! You finally make it through the line, load up, and get in your car exhausted from waiting. You think to yourself, “I didn’t make it through any faster. I could have done that experience a lot differently.” You are exhausted from that waiting instead of filled up from enjoying the process. Yep, that pretty well sums up some of our waiting. We tried to point it out to God that we are ready and willing to go. We tried to make it happen faster. But God wants us to enjoy the process He has us in NOW.

Well, the waiting for this part of our story is over. We leave on June 7^th to embark on a wild 7-week adventure to Nepal. All 7 of us. We are excited to introduce our children to this culture, to the land we have traveled to over and over again, to simplicity of life, and to serving selflessly alongside some of the most beautiful people in the most fascinating part of the world.

So come along on this part of our journey, through the waiting room, and adventure with us.