The Roller Coaster Ride

Monday afternoon Abigail went to get the mail and came running to me saying "We got it! We got it!" We got our immigration papers back. I was like WOW that was so fast. I was so excited until I saw what kind of envelope it was in.

It was a big envelope which meant it was NOT the paper I was waiting on. I did not want to crush her excitement but knew it could not be good. I told the kids to go on outside and play I would be there in a minute. After they left I quickly opening the envelope and in the top left corner it said REJECTED. That's all I could see for the moment because tears were streaming down my face.

I knew that it was not really that big of a deal I just needed to send some kind of other paper or something but I also knew it would take that much longer to bring home our sweet little girl. I could not even read the paper right then so I tried to pull it together and take my kids on that bike ride they wanted to go on. The minute the children saw me they knew. I told them it was fine I was just sad because it was just going to take a little longer to bring Hope home.

After I bike ride I decided to look at the papers to see what the matter was and only found it to saw there was a missing paper but what missing paper I could not figure out.

I called the 1-800 # they said to call and explained everything to the lady. She in turn sent me to someone higher up because she could not answer my question. There was a message saying they were open 8a.m.- 8p.m. and my wait time was 20-25 minutes. I decided I would fix the kids dinner and call after that maybe the wait time wouldn't be so long.

At 7:05 p.m. I called back and the message said no one was available at this time please call back between 8a.m.-8 p.m.. Yes you guessed it they were on Eastern time.

So I decided to just to put the kids in bed and go to bed and try again tomorrow. ( I forgot to mention my husband who is NEVER out of town was out of town)

Next morning I got up early, called at 7:10 am and finally talked to someone. Who sent me to the next level. They said I had to email the people in Memphis. I thought great finally an answer.

I emailed the people in Memphis they emailed me back within 5 minutes. Hooray finally an answer about the missing page. But no they said I had the call this 1-800 # . I could not believe it that was the same 1-800 # I had called that morning. Now I was really beginning to wonder what I was going to do. Yes stop and pray!!!

As so it goes on and on and on and on for about 5 hours until I finally figured out that I had to have my new homestudy and old homestudy with the application I could not send it later like our social worker told us.

So off the post office again.

Hopefully this time I will get it right.

What did I learn through all this????

God is good all the time. All the time God is good.

Home Study

Hooray!!! Home study has been updated and approved. As of 9:00 this morning. I just ran down to the agency to pick it up and went straight to the post office to send it to immigrations. Now we wait again for immigrations to update our papers. They said it could be up to 6 weeks. We are praying for 2 weeks. We really really want to go to China this summer. God is good and he already knows the time.

Paperwork

We are going as fast as we can trying to get all the paperwork done. We have hit a few bumps in the road (as all adoptions go.)

First, we can not get our immigration papers updated for China (changing from Hong Kong) until our Home study is approved. Our social worker has finished her part and sent it to headquarters in Michigan and it is waiting for the China social worker to sign off. As soon as she signs off I am going to the agency to pick up the official papers and send to immigrations.

Next bump is our medical papers and blood work has to have been done within the year. We had ours done 1/19/09 so we have to go get all of that done again. No big deal. It just takes time.

Please pray with us that this will all go quickly as we really want to travel this summer so our whole family can go together.

All I have to do is look at sweet Hope's face and all the headache of the paperwork is forgotten. We cannot wait to kiss all over her face.

We know God already knows the best time for us.

Nathan and Abigail are so excited to bring home their sister. At breakfast the other day Nathan said he was just going to walk to China. We said that would be a really long walk. He said he did not care he just wanted his sister home!!!

Hope Meng

Introducing Hope Meng. We got our referral from China last week, PRAISE GOD!! We are now in the process of redoing all of our paperwork and transferring from Hong Kong to China. Many have asked when we will be able to bring her home. Our social worker has told us around September but we are praying for June or July. Since both of us teach it would definitely be more convenient for us to travel in the summer, Lord Willing.

WE ARE MATCHED

WE ARE MATCHED WITH OUR LITTLE GIRL FROM CHINA!

PRAISE THE LORD!!

I WILL POST MORE LATER!!!!!

JUST TRYING TO LET IT ALL SINK IN.

Our Plan is Not Always God's Plan

His plan is always better. God is doing BIG things in our life right right with our adoption. I can not say much yet but just keep praying that we will listen and move out in faith. Christmas is the season of miracles. God is so good.

Blessings to Come

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted but we have not received any news on our referral from Hong Kong.

Those of you who have been down the adoption road or who have walked with someone down this road know there are many ups and downs. During Thanksgiving my family and I have been praying through many options with our adoption. I will keep you posted as things unfold. I know you guys are praying because there is no other explanation why Abigail has not cried another day for her sister but instead she keeps turning to Jesus and just asking why and then just smiles. We know God has called us to adopt and we are being faithful listeners.

Mighty Prayers

First of all we have not heard anything from our adoption agency so we are still waiting and praying, praying and waiting.

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for and encouraged Abigail. She has not cried once since that Wednesday evening. God is so good! She stills continues to ask "When are we going to get our little sister?" but knows God is in control.

Heart Felt Tears

God is doing something really big in our family it is just hard walking through it.

On Wednesdays our family usually just stays at school until choir and church start. As we were sitting in my room Abigail asked me "How much longer until we know who our little sister is?" I just simply said it's all in God's timing and left it at that.

After church as we were walking out the door my sweet Abigail just burst into tears and said "Why is it taking so long? There are so many people that started adopting after we did and they are getting their babies". I tried to explain God is in control and knows what's going on we just have to trust him. When we got in the car we prayed that God would hurry up. She cried all the way home. It was a true heart felt cry she simply did not understand. The problem was I did not either. I keep saying it's all in God's timing but do I really believe it?

When we got home it was straight to the shower. I could hear her crying in the shower and went up to try and comfort her. I decided I would take another approach and talk about other things. Well everything I said would lead straight back to our little sister. I asked what do you want to do this weekend? Her answer was play with my little sister. I asked her? What she wanted for Christmas? My little sister. I finally gave up and said go on in your room and get dressed and I will be there in a minute to tuck you in.

As I came up the stairs I heard the most beautiful words. My daughter was crying out to Jesus in a way that warmed my soul.

She was bawling saying "Why is this taking so long? I love you Jesus and know it is all in your timing but why does it hurt so bad. My heart is hurting. I don't understand Lord but I love you! Why are you doing this to me I have been praying about this for over a year? I just want to see and love on my sister. Who is taking care of her right now? I know you are but I want to, too."

As I walked in the room she just looked at me and cried. The only thing I knew to do at this point was hold her. I just laid in the bed holding her, listening to her cry, and praying with her until she fell asleep. As she was sleeping I just prayed over her that God would give her peace. She did look so peaceful sleeping.
Abigail has such a heart for orphans already I can't wait to see what is in store for her. If you see her anytime soon just give her a big hug. She needs some encouraging.

As I went to bed I was reminded by Abigail sometimes we just have to cry out to the Lord!

So we as a family are still waiting and praying, praying and waiting.

"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends" With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

2 Peter 3: 8-9

Good News & Not So Good News

The roller coaster ride of adoption. The good news is the social worker will only be out until mid-November. The not so good news to they said we could have our referral as early as 2 days or as late as 2 years. Yes, I said 2 years. Right now at this minute we know God has called our family to adoption again. We know God has called our family to Hong Kong. We know our little girl is out there somewhere.

We also found out that if we do not get our referral by April 6 we have to start paying more money to update the paperwork we have already done. So my prayer is our referral will come before April 6.

Here is a glimpse of how excited our children were when we got our INS paperwork (last April) in the mail the first time. They are so excited. God is working on our whole family to be patient.

Every morning when I wake up I say "I HOPE today is the day we find out who our little girl is" because you can never predict God's timing you just trust HIS timing.