Waiting......waiting

This 2nd adoption process has proved and is still proving, to be a lesson in patience......waiting.


When we started saving our money for this adoption, we quickly saved up enough for our home study visit. Thinking that we could get a headstart on gathering our documents, as soon as we had the funds, we sent them in. Little did we know that their rules had changed and there were other fees that had to be paid all in a lump sum before we could get our home study completed. So we had to go a few more months, gathering funds for our 1st set of fees.

As soon as we received our home study binder in the mail, we went right to work on it. So many forms have to be filled out and just as many have to be notarized. Reference forms need to be completed and background checks have to be done before any home visits can even be scheduled. Right before we went away for our Christmas vacation, we had our local background checks done and dropped off paperwork for Eva's pediatrician to fill out. When we got home in January, I was sure that those documents would be sitting in our pile of mail. Nothing. It turned out that Eva's pediatrician office misplaced the form, then found it, thought they mailed it, then realized they didn't. In the end, we just drove to the office to pick it up. Then our Sheriff's Dept said that they mailed our notarized letters but we NEVER received them so they had to create new letters, have them notarized again and mailed out again. More waiting.

I was so thankful that those family members and friends who we trusted to fill out reference forms did so in such a timely manner. They have no idea how much of a burden that lifted off my shoulders. We had our home study visits in the middle of January, much sooner than we had anticipated. God is merciful :-) And what made us even more grateful was the fact that our social worker came over 1 weekend, for a 2-day visit, and was able to get all the information she needed in order to write up a completely new homestudy.

As I type this, we just received word that our home study was approved. That means that all required signatures were made, notarizations were done and our adoption agency has approved it and made all of their signatures and notarizations complete. Our homestudy is in the mail enroute to our mailbox. 

We are still learning about waiting, however. Since November, I have been trying to get our medical forms (for the dossier) signed by our doctor and (his signature) notarized. The notary that used to be in the office is gone. Then a new girl was brought in, however, she had to go to notary class (training, whatever) and take a test. She did. She passed. And as of this date, she still does not have her stamp kit. What that means is that unless I'm willing to pay a (mobile) notary to come to the office to witness our doctor signing a 5 sentence form (that we already signed), we are still waiting for their in-house notary to obtain all of her equipment. Waiting.

John keeps reminding me that this is God's plan. I realize that. I understand that. I think my frustration comes from what our past experience was. The first time everything flowed so smoothly. I was less efficient in collecting the documents but other documents that we had to rely on others for was completed and returned so quickly.  This time I was way more efficient collecting documents and filling out forms and there have been delays, delays, delays.

We know that when we eventually get on the waitlist, it will be a 2-year wait. And we've accepted that. We could have gone with a different adoption agency and had a considerably less wait time, but we chose not to. Our first experience with our agency was so wonderful and they handled everything so smoothly with all of our documents as well as everything in Ethiopia, that there was never a consideration to use anyone else. We love the peace of mind that using AGCI gives us.

This little girl must be something special. Satan is trying to throw monkey wrenches into the plan from the onset. Documents getting lost in the mail. People not filling out reference forms. But I'm thankful that in the end, God has His master plan for us and we just need to trust that plan. I'm learning, slowly but surely. I need to be quicker on the learning curve though and remind Satan that he can't trip me up and make me frustrated. 

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to move forward and prepare to send in our next batch of paperwork in, our dossier. Please pray that when we send in our application to have our fingerprint appointment for Customs & Immigration, that we hear back from them in a relatively quick turnaround time.