ENCOURAGEMENT FROM STRANGERS

We're all heading to the doctor this month, in a rush to tie up loose ends before the end of the year. I just went to my dentist appointment for a cleaning. I immediately confessed to the hygenist that I don't floss regularly, although I am trying so I can set a good example for Livija. She asked about Livija and if she was our only child. Typically I'd say yes and leave it at that. For some reason I said yes, and we are in the process of adopting our second. She smiled and shared with me that her children were both adopted from Korea! She even used the same agency as ours.
As I was leaving she stopped me and said that the wait can be very hard. She said that once that picture arrives and we see our baby, it will only get harder. She even compared it to the longest most painful labor in the world. BUT, she added, that once our little one comes home, you forget how hard it was.
I imagine it is like the long months waiting for Livija to come home from the NICU. You wait and you cry and you scream, while the light at the end of the tunnel seems so dim and so far away. But suddenly you've arrived. You are finally a family and you can hardly imagine what life was like before that moment. I'll keep that in mind when the picture comes. Although I imagine I won't be so rational at that point.