Adoption Update

To be honest, our adoption situation is so unconventional and so complicated, it's really hard to give an update! We are currently waiting on an agency to make some decisions and, even more importantly, waiting for some logistical issues to be worked out. Our life, and our second child, hang in the balance of those decisions and logistics. If we get a yes and the logistics are worked out, our adoption could move very quickly, and we might get to be a family much sooner than later. If the logistics cannot be worked out, we may be back to square one, months or more than a year away from our family coming together. Let me tell you, that is TOUGH.

In the meantime, we have finished our home study, we have some fundraising plans, and we are getting bigger faith. I have called/researched/emailed more people and agencies than I even knew existed just trying to find a way to work out the logistics myself. Guess what? I can't. Do you know how completely terrible that is to realize for a "type A" person? Seriously?! I can't do this?! We finished our home study (which was supposed to take an average of two to three months) in two weeks. I filled out every last paper, wrote a sixteen-page autobiography, pushed Daniel to do his work on my schedule, made copies, ordered documents, got the cat vaccinated for Rabies, and got our fingerprints taken in about 10 days. When you give me a task, I. will. do. it.

And then what?

We are finished with the first set of paperwork. Logistics have to be figured out before we can do our dossier (the second set of paperwork). We could (and probably will) start fundraising, but we hoped to have a little more information before we started... like the financial goal. Now we are completely dependent on other people to carry us to the next step (whether that is moving forward quickly in the path we have started down, or going back to square one and starting our journey all over again).

Now we are waiting... waiting... waiting...

In the waiting, this passage in Zephaniah (yes, that book really exists and has some real truth, even if you've never heard of it) has been completely amazing. God has said so much to me about his heart for me and his heart for our child in it. 

3:14-20
Sing, Daughter of Zion, shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad, and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."
"I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals,
which is a burden and a reproach for you.
At that time, I will deal with all who oppressed you.
I will rescue the lame;
I will gather the exiles.
I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame.
At that time, I will gather you;
At that time, I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes 
before your very eyes,"
says the Lord. 

This passage has come up over and over for me. So many parts of it have touched my heart at one time or another in this process. Today, specifically: "Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves." So yes. Here I am. I have done EVERYTHING I can. I have researched agencies based on their American reputation and their reputation with those seeing their actions lived out in Uganda. I have called and questioned and tried agencies, lawyers, independent adoption, etc. desperate to find a back-up plan in case these logistics with this one agency cannot be worked out. And yet, we still have no back-up plan or clear direction yet. I still don't have Plan A much less Plan B. And for the personality of initiative and industriousness that I have, not having a plan yet feels very much hopeless. I am frustrated and tired of trying so hard. We have an end, we have a child waiting who desperately needs us to be his family, and we are desperately searching for a means to that end. I could easily throw my hands down and give up. But why would we ever do that? Our God is a mighty warrior, who is fighting for our family and a child who needs us in ways we cannot see or control. He will gather us together. He will bring our child home.

So that's where we are. I'm sorry I cannot give you specifics, like we are working with ______ Agency, we have a timeline of __________, and we are getting ________________ child. But guess what... our faith is being made stronger, and we are left in a place of complete dependency on God. And isn't that what this journey is all about? Aren't those the details that matter?

*HOPEFULLY* more details to come soon...

Life

Our current life has become consumed with doing a ton of paperwork, tracking down agency leads, getting very excited, getting very disappointed, and growing stronger in our faith. We haven't done a whole lot of "planned" activites.

So not much to plan for a blog post either :)

Here are some very random pictures:

Vet Trip: I took a meowing kitty and a meowing (imitating) baby to the vet.

Sawyer rode the tractor at Papaw's and got ice cream:

And Sawyer decided this was his preferred method of riding in the car...

:)