Surprise - good news

Well in Aug just before the courts were closing I asked folks to pray that our paperwork would be finished and submitted to the courts so that we could be in line for a fall courtdate when they reopened in Oct. We didn't hear anything and assumed that the paperwork simply didn't get done - so I asked our specialist to check on it last week - and lo and behold it did get taken care of just before the courts closed and our agency is hopefull we will get an - hold your hats - October court date!!!!!! Unbelieveable. Now I really have to get moving on the rest of the paperwork.

WooooHoooo Jesus! I can hardly believe things are moving foward!!!

Love Letters

So with this adoption we are blessed that our new agency allows traveling parents to take picture of the kids for you when you are waiting and allows parents to send letters to the kids. One parent said to think of these precious letters as love letters to your child - a way to give them a window into your life and the life that is waiting for them when they get home. So we write and send letters full of pictures and stickers for them to pass out - we try to fold alot of love into a few pages and seal it in an envelope in hopes that it bursts out when they open it and they feel the love of a family - that they begin to feel like they belong.

gggrrrrr USCIS

When we were adopting Becca last year we had a problem with a visa cable that goes from our local USCIS office to the NVC to the Embassy. The problem - a typo that made it seem as if our approval was for a child under 1 year old, when in fact our approval was for up to 2 children as old as age 7. No one caught it until we were there and it took some string pulling to get it taken care of quickly so we could make our flight home - really not a common problem - so what is the chance it could happen again - who knows but it has. At least this time we aren't in country trying to solve the problem but some how our visa cable doesn't match the kids we are adopting. It must be a typo so our SW is working on getting it fixed - when I found out I just had to laugh. Who ever said lighting doesnt strike twice never adopted.

Prayer

I have been convinced that prayer moves things (it moves God's people and mysteriously it somehow moves God) anyway - almost 2 years ago we were moved to begin our adoption journey to Becca - at the same time halfway around the world a young mother was dying - was it her prayer that moved us perhaps - I don't think it was randomness that a year later her sweet baby girl became our sweet baby girl. Before we even completed that adoption we were back in the thick of it - being moved by God, being moved by prayer, and being moved to pray.

Then recently I stumbled across a blog of a family who have adopted a boy from the same orphanage as Estifanos is in - and their son, now home 6 months or more was telling them about how he and a friend used to climb into each others bunks and pray together for thier new families to find them - yep - major tears to think of these sweet 5 and 7 year old boys staying up past lights out to pray together for God to find thier families. Then another bloggy friend who is in ET right now at our daughters orphanage wrote this week of another little girl who wrote her a letter asking her to please, please find a family for her.

You see the older kids in orphanages know that most of the time families only want very young and very healthy kids - and so they pray that they might be the lucky one who will recieve a gift bag with a tshirt and photo album that lets them know that they have been choosen. And then if it happens for them they pray for thier friends to have the same miracle of being lost and then found.

And so I am thankful for prayer that moves mountians, prayer that moves hearts and prayer that finds families for orphans, I am thankful for a God who allows our prayers to move His own heart and for a God that allows us to be the answer to someone's prayer.


AN ORPHAN'S PRAYER
I am waiting…somewhere far, far away…on the other side of the world.
I may not know who you are or what you look like.
But somehow, deep in my heart, I know you are out there.
That one day you will come and find me.
It's a long journey, and it takes a lot of time.
I wish it could be easier.
But I know that the ones who come for me will not count the cost.
They will only see the joy of finding me.
For now I abide in the fields of the fatherless.
Day by day wondering, "Why was I born here and not somewhere else?"
Asking, "Why couldn't my life have been different?"
It is so lonely…Even though I am surrounded by hundreds of other children,
I know that something is missing.
I know in my heart I need a place to call home.
My arms long to be wrapped in a father's embrace…
I long to be saved by a mother's love.
Gazing out the orphanage window,
I offer a prayer of hope,"Oh God, please help them come quickly."
Even as I lay in the darkness each night somehow I feel assured.
That no matter how lost I appear I am not alone.
Holy hands guard my steps;
sacred fingers wipe my tears…
Touching my lonely heart.
The one who made me,
The God who knew me before I was born,
Hears me every time I call.
He whispers His promises in my ear.
I listen with hope to His voice.
But what I worry about most is that no one wants to look for me.
The fields are vast, and there are so many scattered all over the earth.
I wonder how one little child, so lost, can be found.
Yet He calms my heart and assures me that He will find you.
That He will make sure you hear His voice clearly.
He has promised me that He will make a way through the fields.
That He will personally cut a path, and lead you right to my orphanage door.
My prayer is…When He speaks, please don't forget to listen.
When He calls, don't be too afraid to go.
For I am waiting…somewhere far, far away.

from All God's Children's Newsletter. No author noted.