The Wait Begins

We completed our end of the piles and piles of adoption paperwork yesterday by driving down to Milwaukee to the Department of Homeland Security to get our fingerprints taken which are required for the I600A immigration form. And we thank God that he worked out all the details. I was originally supposed to be in Biloxi, Mississippi since February 10th, but rescheduled my flight to Wednesday so we could make our appointment for 3pm yesterday. Fortunately Kim's sister lives and works in the Milwaukee area so she called us Monday night to let us know they had received 3 inches of snow on Monday and were scheduled to receive 3-5 more inches on Tuesday. So we planned on leaving Bonduel at 11. Of course I was late leaving work, and it seemed the other errands we were running on the trip down were all taking twice as long as we planned. Driving down we hit several patches of heavy snow and so we weren't able to travel as fast as we normally would under dry conditions. But through it all we still arrived to our appointment 1 hour early. And thank God we did. Wisconsin's Homeland Security office is a sub-office of Chicago, and Chicago was experiencing blizzard conditions and so they were closing down both offices for the day. Had we arrived at are scheduled 3 o'clock time, we would have found an empty locked building, but as it was we were the last fingerprinting of the day. Praise God, because I don't think, in fact I know, I would not have been happy to drive 2 1/2 hours, rescheduled flights and plans to be turned away. But we got them and so now we wait. Hopefully in a week or two, Acres of Hope will have our I600A, and then they can give us a referral. I had mentioned in earlier posts, that we might get our referral possibly this month, but in reality, we hope in March to know. But it could take as long as May or June. Again we state our complete trust in God's timing and that He knows the children He has ordained for our family. We ask you to pray not only for our children and Acres of Hope, but pray for stability in Liberia. Just last Friday there was rioting in the capital and so several of the government buildings were closed. All that could spell further delays in getting passports and necessary clearance to go get our children when that time arrives.

We have been so encouraged and humbled by the group of fellow AoH adoptive couples we have gotten to know through an on-line support group. Their faith and testimony in adopting has ministered to both Kim and I. We have had some times of doubting in the past week. Anytime you have difficulty parenting (of which none of us are perfect parents) you begin to question "What are we doing?". More children will just add more more sickness, more expense, more fighting, and more issues to deal with. But we are confident that God has called us to adopt. He hasn't called us to problem-free living or perfect health, or wealth beyond measure. But we do know that if we trust in Him, he will provide for all that we NEED. And so I'm glad to serve a God that takes interest in my meager life, that in his divine plan, he uses ordinary people like Kim and I to do extraordinary things. Things that Kim and I could not possibly do on our own. And so we commit to give God all the glory through this journey, and look forward to trusting him more and more as we face whatever circumstances lie ahead.