WAITING.....

Yes, I realize I have not posted since we were cooped up in the house due to a winter snow storm and now all of creation is waking up from its winter's sleep. I honestly have been waiting to do a post giving an adoption update and I kept thinking any day I would have more to share. But ..alas...we are still waiting. Waiting is not a foreign concept to us ,as we have been down this road once before. When we started the adoption process for our daughter adopted from China, we were told it would be about 6 months. And at 6 months we found that the process would take a lot longer than originally planned. Two years from the time we submitted our initial application , we brought our daughter home. And in the adoption world , that is not even very long. Yet for the heart longing for one who is missing , it can feel oh so long.

And here we are again.

No, it has not been terribly long since submitting our initial application to YWAM back in October. Things actually have moved rather quickly!! We contacted YWAM for the first time on Oct 2nd. By Oct 11th , we were having our first homestudy visit. On November 5th , our homestudy was officially approved by CHI. By December 10th, our Dossier was complete and on its way to Ethiopia!! And on Jan 22nd , we had our official referral for our daughter!!! We had actually been staring at pictures of her since October but the referral sealed what we already felt in our hearts. We signed and accepted the referral immediately and sent it on its way to Ethiopia where it would be translated and placed with our Dossier and our daughter's paperwork and be submitted to the courts petitioning for a court date. We thought we would have had a court date by now , but there was a discrepancy in one of the pieces of paperwork in our daughter's file that had to be re-done before they could petition for a court date. We have gotten word that all the paper work is now in order and our case was submitted to the courts in Ethiopia requesting a court date on Tuesday of this past week. We hope to hear word of a court date in the next week. In the midst of all of this , there have been changes in the adoption process taking place. It has been a roller coaster. A couple weeks ago , the Ethiopian courts announced parents would have to travel for their court date and then return 2-3 months later to pick their child up. This new change ,for now ,has not been enacted and we hope to make only one trip to bring our daughter home. The US State Dept has also made some changes , requiring an investigation be done on each case that passes court. This could lengthen the time between passing court and travel as we wait on the US State Dept for an Embassy Appt to get her Visa to allow her to travel home with us.

In all of this , though, I realize , yet again, how God uses the waiting to prepare our hearts for what is to come. He has planted a longing in our hearts for our little girl and the wait only serves to grow that longing, enlarging our hearts for our little one.

As the snow and ice have finally melted, and winter has given way to spring, I am in awe at God's revelation of Himself through nature itself. I look at the buds on tree limbs that were just lonely twigs just weeks ago and see the beautiful blossoms on our young cherry tree symbolizing the hope we have in our Lord and his perfect plan. In the midst of our winters, we cannot see the blooms of spring , but we KNOW they are coming. For the believer, our HOPE is in the Lord!! We have faith not in what we see but in what we do not see. Spring time is full of reminders of God's promises and possibilities !!

I will be able to post pictures of our daughter as soon as we pass court!!! We have several pictures of her that we can't wait to share!!

In the meantime, God will continue to provide patience for our longing hearts as we wait to bring her home!!

Springtime blessings to ALL!!!