Waiting to adopt: Some call it the “adoption pregnancy.”

Pregnancy and adoption both include eager and anxious anticipation. You hope the baby is healthy. Wonder how your life is going to change. Fill a room with toys and small clothes. Think about all the things that might go wrong – and dream about all the things that could be wonderful.

But waiting to adopt often has additional tensions: Putting control of your family’s desires into the hands of strangers. Not knowing (at least within a few weeks, as with pregnancy) when this huge life-change is going to happen, or if it will succeed at all. On top of all the normal apprehensions of becoming a parent to a new child, dealing with others’ adoption-related questions (“Are you sure you’ll be able to love a child that’s ‘not your own’?”) can add more insecurity to your wait.

The waiting of adoption can be anxious, vulnerable, emotional and terribly difficult. Ask any family that has gone through it.

But this often difficult wait can include precious times of drawing near to God. During this uncertain time, he teaches us what it means to wait for him. We are drawn into a time of fruitful prayer and reading. God can use this “adoption pregnancy” to grow our hearts and prepare us to parent our child.

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. (Psalm 27:13-14)

© 2006, Adoption-By-Grace.com. All rights reserved.