Logistics, Timing, Story

I love sharing about our process with people when they ask.  I also sometimes don’t know what piece of the journey to share.  Especially when I have about 1-2 minutes to respond to “How is the adoption going?” So, even for those who don’t read this blog, it’s helpful for me to write it out, so I can focus in on what I most recently put down in written word and at least start there.  For those of you who ARE reading along, I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to hear you tell me you read our latest.   I don’t know what ‘love language’ it is, but it really does help us feel supported by you along the way.  So, thank you for reading J

Logistics…I think I told you in February we were “almost done with our home study”.  Well, in early March there was a hang up in Iowa where our social worker submitted a background check for Kevin, who lived there during college.  They held on to the request for a while before letting our worker know that they actually needed his Social Security Number also.  She turned around and re-submitted it, but then we were in the back of the line again.  We were done with everything else, but needed that sheet of paper letting all the world know that Kevin has no deep, dark, shady past lingering in Iowa from his college days.  I know you were all wondering.

Timing….We were waiting a few weeks when our social worker said she had called Iowa to check on it.  She learned they were processing background checks from March 4th and Kevin’s was re-submitted on March 6.  The kicker was she was leaving for vacation the next morning for 10 days.  She said if she got the paperwork today she could send us our home study that afternoon before she left for vacation.  If not, it would have to wait until she got back. Now, I had been mildly annoyed this piece was taking a while, but it wasn’t until I got this deadline that I felt strongly we really needed to pray about this.  I didn’t like the image of that fax sitting on her machine for 10 days when we could be moving forward with the process!

Story…. So, I think Jesus gave me a new image.  It was of Jesus sparing our child those 10 days in an orphanage.  That’s specifically what I wanted to pray for.  If we could get the check today, our child might be spared those 10 days in institutional care.  I asked a few friends to pray.  At home, Jude and Annie and I prayed a blessing over those Iowa workers that they would be joyful and efficient in their work this morning and that our worker would get the background check back that day.  At work Kevin prayed the same.  Not even a few hours later, our worker emailed saying “Got it!”  I don’t claim to know how prayer ‘works’. I know it’s not a formula, system or tool to manipulate a magician God or try to get what we want from Him.  That clinical approach undermines the relationship He desires to have with us.  All I really know is that He asks us to come to Him with our heart’s desires and to pray in the name of Jesus.  And I always stand on the truth that “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17.  To me, to Kevin, to the kids, to our friends who prayed with us…this was a good and perfect gift.  And so we thanked Him for it.

Logistics…We submitted our Home Study on April 7, along with our application to the U.S.A. to ask permission to bring an orphan into the country.  The U.S. confirmed they received our application and will assign us a contact person within two weeks who will give us instructions on getting our fingerprinting done. 

Timing…. We will submit our fingerprints back to them and the US Immigration has 90 days to process our application.  Our social worker told us to expect that.  So, with that in mind, we’re looking at the beginning of July for when we take our next step.  That step is officially applying to China. 

Story…But then we were at the park tonight and I saw a Caucasian mom with a Chinese little girl.  We started chatting about a few other things and then I said “We’re actually in the process of adopting from China, there isn’t any chance this little one is from China?” She lit up and became very excited to tell their story.  Her daughter only joined their family a few months ago and it wasn’t long before we started swapping details.  It turns out the U.S. didn’t take 90 days to process their application.  They took 3 weeks.  What!? Here I had become all settled to just sit tight until July.  My mind had been wandering to summer camps the kids might do, a few trips we might take, should we try to plant a garden?  It was a bit of a wake-up call that we need to be ready for anything.

So, basically, if you ask us something, we will tell you what we think is going to happen.  But we really have no idea how all of this is going to work out.  I’m not at all used to living this way, but I am surprisingly at peace with it.  That actually reminds me of one of my favorite Scriptures. “You will keep in perfect peace, all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"  Isaiah 26:3.  If you think to pray for one thing this week, please pray that our minds would be fixed on Him.  Not the logistics or the timing, but Him.  And I’m sure we’ll have more stories about logistics and timing, but it’s with our minds fixed on Jesus that we’ll have eyes to see and share the next chapter in the story He has for us.