Delays and Denials

Every morning on my way in to drop Ella off a daycare, I pass a church with one of those changeable signs out front.  They change the message about every other week or so.  Sometimes they are reminders about events, and sometimes they have little play-on-words messages. 

I typically just drive by without giving the message too much of a second thought, but this week's sign read:

"God's delays are not always God's denials"

This time, the message really resonated with me, because I have totally experienced this truth in my life.  We started trying to build our family in July 2007 (and by "we", I mean my husband said we could take it easy and see what happened...and I interpreted that to be a green light, and left him in the dust...which I found doesn't really work when you're trying to get pregnant).  It was more than three years of waiting--including three losses--until we met Ella.  But in that "delay" time, I grew and changed and developed into the person I am now.

As we look ahead to trying to bring Ella a brother or sister, I need to keep this little message in my head and in my heart.  I need to not rush things.  I need to not get discouraged.  I need to not resent the time that I have now.  I need to find a way to embrace the delay.

Today's blessing is the chance to go to the homecoming football game with my husband and Ella, and see a lot of my former students as well.  We have season tickets, but all of the games have been in the evenings, so my husband has been going with his friends and I've been staying home with Ella.  Now that the weather is finally a bit cooler (and our team has totally fallen off any sort of radar so no one wants to air our games on tv), they scheduled an afternoon game, so Ella will be able to enjoy her first football game.