Falling in Love Long-Distance

I was SO CERTAIN that Easter would be celebrated as a family of 7. And when I realized that it would not be, I got a little bit .... what my middle school girls would call.... salty. I never considered canceling our family dinner, but I did consider rearranging our typical Easter plans to include a Saturday night service instead of Sunday morning, casual clothes, and not making a big deal of pictures and such.

Easter means so many things to me.... It means new life, springtime, the world and my heart waking  from winter, a promise of Hope Eternal, the earth dressing in green and adorning itself in blossoms, the salvation of my life, and family. It's the one holiday that we host at our house and every time I imagined this Easter, I couldn't think of anything more symbolic than having our entire family together for this first holiday of many, a holiday that represents so much to me. And yet.

We spent today, instead, as four. And what I found was that rather than my heart feeling grieved as it had all week, I felt such peace. And excitement. We had a glorious church service, wonderful family time, and weather that could not have been special-ordered any better. We made video messages to send our kids via Skype and each family unit introduced themselves.

I had posted back at Valentine's Day and said how desperately I hoped that the next holiday would be spend with them, and it was not. But I just thought about the fact that the next holiday, other than Mother's Day and Father's Day, is the Fourth of July. And LAST Fourth of July, not only did we have no idea that adoption was near in our future, we had no idea that F, R, and A even existed. And we will spend THIS Fourth of July at the lake with Kraig's family, a family of 7 in a tribe of Davises. What a miracle.

The growth of our relationship has been slow, unconventional, and sometimes awkward. They had no idea we existed until January. Their first knowledge of us was through a book of photos. We talked for the first time through a computer screen in March. They met their grandparents through that same computer screen Friday night. And tomorrow they will, through video messages, meet their great grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins, and extended family on my side. And yet each call reveals something else about their personalities, their likes and dislikes, their sense of humor. I don't feel nervous at the beginning of the calls anymore, we talk to each other about things they will want to hear, Kraig plans fun little jokes to play on the next calls. It's a slow rhythm to this dance, this getting to know each other across the miles, and it is precious time I wouldn't trade.  If they had been here today, we would have only had two or three calls before a face to face meeting.

As eager as I am to get them here, there is something sweet and pure and peaceful about falling in love long-distance.

And until that time comes, we are holding space for them in our arms and our hearts.