Keeping the Faith

Today I woke to an email stating that there has been some changes to the way our children's country accepts dossiers. Right now our initial paperwork has been filed and the team was waiting to file our dossier till February 1, when the country reopened to accept dossiers. Now it seems each family will be given a date that our dossier can be submitted on. We do not know if this will affect us or not as our initial paperwork (it's called the CSP) has been submitted almost a month. We are waiting to hear. Even if it does affect us, it shouldn't add more than a few weeks on to the wait....not hard for us because we have been flying and have alot to do to get ready to bring two children home BUT to the children, this would be an awful hold up. They need us and they need medical care. Please pray that this will not hold up the adoption in any way!!! Thank you!!!!

Since we started on this adoption in November, I've been totally focused on getting our paperwork done and getting all the money raised. We didn't research this country, we fell in love with two children. So as I'm reading in our FB group of all the things different families are facing and how long some are in country, it's overwhelming! At this point, we plan on taking Steve & Sam with us. We have no one to leave Sam with for so long and Steve is coming to help with Sam. (he's a great big brother) We can't take Sam with us to court or to the institution so Steve will keep him in our room/apartment. I'm so thankful for a dependable, mature. 16 yr old son! However we do have concerns about taking Sam out of the country. He is so much healthier than ever but he does have special needs and there are things that could go wrong...even getting food poisoning would be disastrous for him. But we have no one who could keep him for 4-6 weeks. Yes that is how long we will be in country....

I like to plan things...with this it is "just go with the flow" 100% there is very little that we have any control over. I've said a million times I'm sure that this is a total different experience than our Chinese adoption...that was smooth, step by step...totally knew what to expect in country, even knew where we were staying...not so here!!!! The group of parents that are there right now are having extremely different experiences...and I wouldn't say any one's experience was smooth at all! Some seem easier than others...but they all seem very hard & stressful!

This one thing I know is that GOD has lead us to this point. We were not a family that was looking to add anymore children! If you would have asked me last October if we were ever going to adopt again, I would have told you "NO" And had we been thinking of adoption I can assure you it would not have been this country from just the little I knew about the adoption process. We didn't research countries or try to figure which ways to go... God spoke to us and that brings me comfort when the way seems dark....I can see in my mind's eye, us walking down a dark path, a tunnel of trees in the dark, with just a little light with us. We don't know how long that path will be or what steps to take we just walk in the moment and in His light.....

I have to confess there are times when I wake up in the middle of the night and WORRY....and believe me there are SO many things to worry about!!! But all I can say is we are following God's leading & direction. When I can grasp that truth for a minute or so...I have peace... It's just hard to keep ahold of that truth!!

Currently my husband is having a rough time with 3 bulging discs in his back. He has had problems since July but it got 100% worse when we committed to adopt Sarah & Seth. He has had a treatment of an epidural into his back and it has helped some. He is getting another one next Friday and they hope that that will be the cure. If not it is going to be a very hard trip

When I think of all that could go wrong....it's overwhelming! Please continue to pray for us in this situaion! Pray that God will make the crooked path straight...thank you!