This was posted on my friend Holly's blog , she got it from a friend of hers and I thought that I would post it too. Both of these admirable women have adopted their beautiful children.
Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place; you've read many guide-books and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip. So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait --- and wait --- and wait. Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax. You'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's no fair!" After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat." "By BOAT!" you say. "Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends and family have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip. Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air. People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy." You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.
I think that this also applies to other women (who I know all to well) that have gone or are going through the process of trying to have children by the means of pills, procedures and endless tests and have been unsuccessful... or have been successful but only after a really long trip. Some finally traveled their "trip to Australia" and some are still on board the ship, some even have to travel the route by sea several times. If fact...sometimes it even feels like you are only in a life raft...with no oars...or maybe you are even trying to swim the ocean!!!
Even though the ocean may be a vast and open place with sharks, storms, and squalls... all the while, it helps (me) to remember...the Lord is at the helm.
