Arriving

May 2, 2011

We took off from Entebbe (Uganda) about 20 minutes ago. All I see below us are thick clouds, but we should be landing in Rwanda in about 15 minutes. I can already feel our plane beginning to descend.

All of a sudden I am flooded with emotion. Is this really happening? When we drop below the clouds I’ll see my child’s birth country for the first time with my own eyes. This beautiful land I’ve dreamed and prayed for…the place I’ve been so eager to reach for two years.

I’ve doubted God’s calling us here so many times. Every hiccup in the process, every extra month of waiting, every frustrating miscommunication or deception…they’ve all led me to ask, “Is God really for us in this?” There’s always been a part of me that doubted we’d reach this final destination, and the more I wanted it, the more I doubted. The gift of God’s “yes” in this just seems too lavish. I am undeserving. But He is the giver of good and perfect gifts – lavish gifts – and I am underserving of all of them, most especially the gift of the cross.

We’re dropping into the clouds now. In many ways we’ve been here for months, but this time I can see patches of green far below – the color of new life.

Rwanda. We are here at last.

I am overcome.