A Waiting Mother

I seemed to face this all the time with Nepal...Checking my email 18 times a day to see if there was anything from my agency with an update. I haven’t had that really at all with China since we began our process on March 28 of this year. Until now. Our part of the paperwork has been done since the end of September. Then we received our USCIS approval on Oct. 21, and my agency said they thought our paperwork would go to China in about three weeks pending receipt of state authentication of all of our documents. And now, I’m wanting to check my email 18 times a day to see if my agency says, “OK – everything is off to China!” After that, I’ll be checking my email to receive the “Log-In Date” which is the date that China logged our paperwork as received and in process for review. And after that, I’ll be checking my mailbox to receive the “brown envelope” which comes from the U.S. Consulate in China containing paperwork we’ll need for our U.S. Consulate appointment when we’re in country.

And after that...I’ll be checking my PHONE for the referral call from our agency saying we’ve been matched with a baby.

And most of all, after that, once we receive our referral...I’ll be waiting for the day when we meet our precious son or daughter! Oh, that will certainly be the hardest wait of all. If only adoption pregnancies had due dates like biological pregnancies!!

“Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!” —Psalm 27:14

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” —Proverbs 13:12

“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” —Romans 5:5

Here’s to His hope, and to our destined baby!

Goodbye Facebook, hello freedom!

Ahhh...it felt so good to inactivate my Facebook account. I canceled it because I found it to be a burden to keep up with. There were also times it discouraged me quite a bit as I read certain status updates of people now and again. As a pastor, there were times I felt little jabs here and there. I don't need any more discouragement than I already give myself, so I inactivated my account. IT FELT SO GOOD. As far as the time thing goes, while I didn't spend hours of time on Facebook, I spent probably close to an hour a day on it. Now I have that back to read books, my precious Bible, spend more time with the Lord, do other projects, whatever! It's also one less thing to check and update. Oh, the freedom!!

And now, back to blogging! It has been a year and a half since my last post. Wow, how time flies, and how much can happen in just a year and a half! We've had so much happen since my last post. We're now senior pastors of our church, though I'm still working full-time. Andrew is working part-time at his engineering job, and part-time at our church even though our church budget isn't able to pay him yet. But the call of God is worth any sacrifice, and more.

In addition to that major change, the US closed adoptions to Nepal on Aug. 6, 2010, for the time being. After all that happened at our church, and all that's happened in our lives regarding babies, this was incredibly difficult to swallow. But, we swallowed it, wept, prayed, and went through the grief process regarding our "adoption miscarriage." Seven months later, we began a journey for a baby from China, though we are keeping our file in Nepal open as we continue to pray that the US will open the doors there. On March 21, 2011, we began our China adoption journey with Lifeline Children's Services.

Seven months later, we are now done with our China paperwork, and we received our US approval to adopt from China on Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. Our agency said they expect our dossier to be off to China in about three weeks.

We recently returned from a ministry trip to Turkey. I'll blog about the trip in separate posts, but let me just say that while we went to pour our hearts out to our friends and the Turkish people, the Lord poured His heart into us. I feel renewed, rejuvenated, more in love with Jesus than ever before, and more resolved to not return to the busy life we've always lived.

A new day has dawn!

Psalm 34:8, "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!