A New Definition of Success - Growing in Patience

This Tuesday, we had a last minute change of plans. Our lawyer's office called us and said that we needed to meet someone in Jinja to sign some documents. We scrambled to make sure our responsibilities at home and school were covered, and then we drove to town. We arrived at the agreed upon time, but got word that the person meeting us would be about an hour later. We signed some final documents, and realized that we were finally petitioning the court for adoption. The woman from the law office told us that she hoped to get a court date for our case when she submitted the petition. After much waiting, this was very exciting!

We drove with her to the court and waited while she submitted the documents. She was able to successfully turn in our petition, but we found out that the diary (calendar) for 2018 was full and they do not yet have the diary for 2019. While we were disappointed that we were not able to set a court date, we were thankful for progress in this long process of adoption. We are trying to celebrate each small step of progress in this long process.

Through our years living here in Uganda, we have learned that many things take longer than we anticipated. After some time, David realized that a change in perspective would help him with contentment. Instead of thinking of each task as done or not done, he likes to say that if we took one step forward, that is a success. One example that I remember from our first months in Uganda was opening a bank account. It was one thing on our to do list one day. We naively thought that we could just walk into the bank with our documents and some money and open an account. We then got a list of all the things needed, 2 passport photos of each of us, a letter from our NGO, letter of recommendation from the LC (local council), and a few other things. That day we began the process of requesting letters and maybe found a place to get our passport photos taken. If we were frustrated every time we failed to complete the task on our to do list, we would live in a constant state of frustration. But if we can instead celebrate each little step, it makes it much easier to have a heart of thanksgiving. 

I can see God's grace to us in teaching us patience through daily life here. While these situations are not fun or easy, God is graciously helping us to develop a new perspective. I can see how these little everyday challenges are teaching us patience and working in us to develop the fruit of the Spirit. (Eph. 5:22) Please don't misunderstand, I am not saying that we are completely sanctified and always patient. You can ask our children; we still have plenty room for growth! But it is good to look back and see that God, in his loving kindness, is allowing little challenges to help us grow in Him. I pray that He will continue to use this adoption process and all of life to teach us, sanctify us, and equip us for whatever kingdom work He has for us to do. 

Here is a photo of Esther's opportunity for growing in patience...baking with her little sister who likes to get into everything! These girls are both such a blessing to our family, not to mention, they are super cute!