Waiting...

It seems that Eric and I have spent a large part of our married lives simply waiting. We've waited through some pretty tough situations. I've seen way too many studies that try to pinpoint the actual amount of time that we spend waiting. One study says that if you lived 65 years, you'd spend about half of those years waiting. Is waiting really such a bad thing? When you wait, you have time to reflect (unless you have all of the kids with you). When you wait, you have time to watch others around you. When you wait, you have time to simply be still. Isn't it funny that something annoying as waiting is the only thing that slows us down sometimes? And, I have to admit that with the advent of the iPhone, even those quiet moments of waiting have now been invaded with emails and phone calls. (As a side note: iPhones should come with a free coupon for family counseling! They sap the need for real communication and interrupt even the most intimate of moments)!!! Anyway, back to waiting...Eric and I spent weeks waiting for a diagnosis of Ansley's disease. We waited for her to slip from this Earth. We waited for confirmation of Daria's (Dasha) first visit from Russia. We waited for a date to go to Russia and pleed our adoption case. We waited for a date to return to Russia to accept Dasha into our family. We waited to see how the surgery on her feet would impact her life. We waited for eight months to meet Annabelle. We waited to find out if Pompe's Disease would effect her. And, though I haven't mentioned waiting on Grant...if you've ever taken him to a restroom, you know we wait on him, too! While unfocused waiting can bring frustration, when we're waiting on something specific, the quiet time can be precious. So now, as we wait, we will wait with patience and purpose (and I'll hope the iPhone has a disastrous meeting with a flushing toilet)!