The Puzzle Pieces

Corey here...

When we first started this adoption journey, I had a vision of God creating this little girl on the other side of the world specifically for our family.  He obviously knows the exact situation that she will be born into and knows exactly the circumstances that will make her an orphan.  It makes sense that in all of His knowledge and wisdom (and obviously knowing she is eventually going to be a part of our family) that He would create her in a way that would fit perfectly into our family....right?

Probably not.

I believe that God's original plan and design is for babies to be with their birth families.  However, our world is a broken one and because of that there are broken families and orphans.  I believe that adoption is one of the ways He redeems this brokeness.  God is in the redemption business.

Right now, our family looks like a six piece puzzle.  Five of those pieces are put together and there is just one piece missing.  It is tempting to think that the Craftsman creating this puzzle in His workshop is going to take the last piece he is making and cut it out and sand it down so that it fits perfectly with the other pieces.  Voila, the puzzle is complete.

I don't think so.

I'm not even sure that our baby girl is being created at all to fit into our family.  I don't know that God has created her for any family beyond a plan for her to be with her birth family.  How could I possibly know that?  Let me tell you what I do know though - our current family is being formed for her.   We are being re-cut, sanded down, glued up and re-painted so that we can be the family that this little girl needs.  There is no doubt that she will also be changed and re-formed as she becomes a Russell.  The puzzle is going to come together to make something beautiful, but not without some change (and pain).  I know this because as we wait, I can see it happening.  I can see how He is re-shaping all of us - we are not the same pieces we were when we started this journey 17 months ago.  It's a good thing we aren't because she is going to need a family that can struggle through her journey and story with her.  It's not something that we knew how to do (and still don't, but we're learning a few things).  They didn't cover raising an adopted daughter of a different race in the marriage and family classes at ACU (I'm not even sure I took one of those, but it sounds good and makes the point).  We're going to be walking by faith that the Holy Spirit will be doing much of the work no matter how much we learn anyway.  So, while it is hard to wait, there is some comfort in knowing that this is not idle time.  The Craftsman is doing His work on us - forming us so that we will fit perfectly around her to make our family. We could use a lot of re-modeling anyway if we're going to look more like Jesus.