Expecting

I'm expecting.

I do not have a bump in my tummy. I don't have regular OB/GYN appointments. I don't have a special parking place at the grocery store, and (thankfully) I can have a glass of wine whenever I want.  Still, I am expecting.  I feel about my child the same way a pregnant woman feels about hers.  I know this because I have been  pregnant.  Three times.  And I can say that the emotions you feel when adopting are just not that different from the ones you feel when you are pregnant.  I get the feeling that a lot of people view adoption as something very different from pregnancy, but it just doesn't seem that way to me.  People don't always treat women who are adopting quite the same as they do women who are pregnant (and sometimes that hurts). But  really, we are the same.

Sure, we are doing some things differently with this adoption then we did when I was pregnant. For instance:

The books I am reading are different:

books I read when pregnant

books I read now

The clothes I am wearing are different

maternity clothes (my sister is going to kill me for digging up this picture!)

clothes I wear now

They ways that we are trying to prepare the kids are different:

Sibling class at the hospital

trying to learn some Chinese

But in all the ways that really matter, adopting just isn't that different from being pregnant.  Me and all those pregnant gals out there ... we are the same.  We are talking names and looking at bedding and picking out announcements and shopping for room decor. We are excited.  We are nervous.  We are thinking about our child almost every minute of every day.  We are praying for their health.  We are planning for their future.  We are anxiously anticipating the moment we will see our child's face for the first time.  We are dreaming of the day we will hold our child for the first time.  We have all committed in our hearts to love a child that we have not met.

We are expecting.

Our daughter may not be growing in my belly, but she is absolutely growing in our hearts.

"WE WITNESS A MIRACLE EVERY TIME A CHILD ENTERS INTO LIFE.  

BUT THOSE WHO MAKE THEIR JOURNEY HOME ACROSS TIME AND MILES, GROWING WITHIN THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO WAIT TO LOVE THEM, ARE CARRIED ON THE WINGS OF DESTINY AND PLACED AMONG US BY GOD'S VERY OWN HANDS."

---KRISTI LARSON