Have you ever been in a waiting season? Maintaining your hope during a waiting season can be so hard. Trusting God during a season of waiting can lead to peace and peace can bring renewed hope.

On a recent episode of Your Hope-Filled Perspective Podcast, I had the blessing of chatting with Samantha Morgan who shared her testimony after enduring infertility, an adoption that fell through, foster parenting, and the beautiful ways God used her disappointments for good, weaving a beautiful tapestry that she never could have imagined. If you missed that episode, you can listen here. I asked Samantha to share more with us here about how to maintain our hope when we’re in a waiting season.

Read to the end for a Book Giveaway!

Waiting Season: How To Have A Hope Filled Wait
By Samantha Morgan

Where are you, God? Have you forgotten me? WHY must I wait?

It took over a year for us to finally be selected by our daughter’s birth mother. The adoption wait was the hardest wait of my life. Over a year of NO’s. Over a year on an emotional rollercoaster. And yes, over a year of getting my hopes up every time we had a possible placement. Those hopes and dreams came crashing down EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I have been in that waiting season where I felt forgotten. Maybe, like I was, you’re waiting for a baby, or maybe you are waiting for a spouse, or your prodigal child to come home. The waiting season can seem to drag on forever, and everything feels like it’s determined by what’s to come. What you hope will happen.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12

Having hope while waiting is a good thing, but even God knew waiting in hope would be hard. Hope allows us to dream and plan, but sometimes we can mistake hope for our own optimism. Falling from optimism hurts. When your dreams get crushed month after month, it’s hard to keep that positive mindset. So, when you run out of optimism, what do you have left? Looking back at those moments, I found myself falling into a deep depression. What I mistook for hope didn’t last, because in the end, I wasn’t getting what I wanted when I wanted it, and that hurt so badly.

In my darkest hours, God gently showed me what hope really looked like, and I found true hope in our heavenly Father. Sulking on my church pew one Sunday morning, God shook me awake with the verse,

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrew 13:25 NIV

He reminded me of all His goodness and faithfulness. He reminded me He is the author of my story, beginning to end. He was, and is, the same God that brought my son home from an orphanage, and He would be the same God to bring my next child home.
Even the Israelites forgot how amazing their God was… and they saw the miracles with their own eyes! God can handle our doubt, but don’t be fooled by the devil’s lies. God hasn’t changed, and He still loves you.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrew 11:1 KJV

I needed evidence of God’s faithfulness to sustain my hope in HIM, not in what I wanted to happen. Realizing I forgot how powerful my God is brought me back to the reality of how selfish I was. I was drowning in me and I statements, and others filled with self-pity. “Why wouldn’t a birth mother pick us? We look perfect on paper. Look how cute my son is, and he wants a sibling so bad.”

Each time a birth mother looked at our profile book, I thought “this is the one.” I prayed, not for the difficult decision she had to make, but for her to choose us. How selfish I was to only consider my hardship, my wait? There were so many pieces to our waiting puzzle that didn’t even belong to us.

I felt God questioning me, “Can you trust me? Can you lay everything down and trust me? Can you pray for someone, anyone, other than yourself?” So, I did. I stopped praying for myself and started praying for our birth mother. I didn’t know who or where she was, but I prayed for her health and safety. I prayed for her to love and cherish her baby so much that she would choose life. I prayed for God to protect her heart during this difficult time. I found so much peace, and with that peace came a renewed hope. True hope, not optimism.

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.” Psalms 62:5 NIV

Whatever waiting season you’re facing today, remember how faithful our God is. Think back to a time when God was faithful to you. A time that only He could have orchestrated. Hold on to those moments; that is evidence of God’s faithfulness. That is the substance of what you hope for, the evidence of things you can’t see.

Focus your prayers on others who could be a piece in your waiting puzzle. Trust that God is working out the details for you and them. In my waiting and trusting God I found true hope in my heavenly Father, and I know you can too.

When have you had to wait on God? How did you maintain your hope in the midst of the waiting season? We’d love to hear in the comments below.

 

Guest Samantha Morgan

Author and speaker, Samantha J Morgan is an infertility survivor and adoptive mom. Her passion is to support and connect those struggling during difficult times. Living in Southern Missouri with her husband and two great kids, she’s the girl next door who loves sharing how God has shaped her life and created a motherhood story far beyond what she could have imagined.

Stay connected with Samantha: Website / Facebook / Instagram

 

 

Book Giveaway!

In conjunction with this post and the podcast interview, Hope When Prayers Go Unanswered – Episode 107, Samantha Morgan is giving away a free copy of her book, Miraculously My Own: One Woman’s Incredible Journey of Infertility, Faith, and Adoption.

Leave a comment below sharing with us one thing you learned about finding hope when you feel hopeless and you will be entered into the contest.

You could also share this blog post on Facebook or Twitter then comment here to tell us where you shared it and you’ll also be entered into the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and announced next Monday, May 10, 2021, here on this post. Continental United States only.