Well, it's been two weeks since my last adoption post, so I thought I'd give an update on our progress so far. First, I guess you can all see that we've already sold 172 puzzle pieces! Praise the Lord, we are so excited about that! We also have many other promises to buy, so we're not off to a bad start. The kids and I have had a good time putting the puzzle together. As you can see, the edges are complete and we've started filling in one of the corners. We also have about 70 pieces that are just waiting to be attached. But we can't attach them until they are 'bought', so if you've been meaning to purchase any, now is the time! We're not attaching the pieces until they're bought so we can write the names on the back of each piece. I will say, this puzzle is so hard! What were we thinking?! I won't tell you what the picture is...I want your anticipation to be high so you check back regularly to see what we chose for Leanna.
We've also made lots of progress with our homestudy. Jon and I got our FBI and GBI fingerprinting done and sent it off. Now we wait to get our clearances back. It looks like the average time to get the FBI clearance back right now is about 3 months. In the meantime, we'll finish up with all the other paperwork and get the miscellaneous things accomplished...have the septic tank pumped, get the pets vaccination records, etc. I'm about halfway done with the Self Study and feel good about that. Jon spoke with his supervisor and filled him in about what's going on. Jon let him know that our travel dates will likely be given with very short notice and Jon will have to drop everything when we get those dates. His supervisor was very understanding and said okay. All 5 of us have had our first physicals...the kids are all up to date on their immunizations and Jon and I both had our TB tests done. Last week I sent off for certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate ($101 later). We'll need these for our dossier later on. Jon will have to send off for his birth certificate though...since he was born in Japan, he has to go a different route. I'm so glad that we both already have passports and we won't be waiting for those.
Our home visit was yesterday. I had talked to Tonya at Options 4 Adoption several times on the phone, but yesterday was the first time I met her face to face. She was just as wonderful in person as she is on the phone. Options 4 Adoption is taking care of our homestudy and then we'll contract with our adoption agency. I'm looking forward to getting to that point. Anyway, we gave her all the paperwork we've finished so far...I was suprised how many things we were able to check off the list. Very encouraging! She interviewed Jon and I (we had to give 3 adjectives that described our personality, our mother's personality and our father's personality...it was suprisingly difficult!) and she also interviewed the kids. Then the kids gave her a tour of the house. We'll see her again in two weeks, hopefully with the rest of the paperwork completed. That's our goal anyway. She has 2 adopted kids...one from Russia and one from Ukraine. She asked us how much we anticipate spending on this adoption and we told her probably around $35,000 according to all of the expenses we know of right now. She said it will be more like $48,000 to $50,000. She shared many little tidbits about Russia with us. She apologized at the end and said she hoped she hadn't discouraged us. Quite the contrary! I just kept thinking, "Wow, Lord, I can't wait to see how You pull this all together!" I don't know what was going through Jon's mind, but discouragement never crossed mine. As I think back to all she shared last night, I'm really a bit surprised that there's not a hint of discouragement. Just anticipation. Let's get this done and bring Leanna home!
Some people with New Horizons left last week to go to Russia, Ukraine and Latvia to interview children for the summer hosting program. They offered to take things to our children for a small fee. We prepared a package for Leanna and sent that off. Now I'm working on getting the information to call her. It's unbelievable that she's only been gone 2 1/2 weeks. It seems more like 2 or 3 months.
I must confess, I am getting rather impatient. I just want everything to be done so we can go get Leanna and bring her home. I know there's a process. I understand that. I know we have to get checked out inside and out. And I understand why. What I don't understand is why it needs to take so long. What's interesting to me is how God is using so many things to teach me about patience these days. Last week, every one of my daily devotions was about patience. The other day, the author quoted Hebrews 6:15, which says, "Having patiently waited, Abraham obtained the promise." Do you know what that promise was? In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham He would make him into a great nation. God promised Abraham offspring. Abraham was 75 years old when God promised him this. 15 years later God confirmed His promise and told Abraham he would be the father of many nations. God promised him that he would be fruitful and have many descendants. 10 years after that, at the age of 100, 25 years after God promised him children, Abraham and his wife Sarah had their son, Isaac. Sarah was 90. She laughed when she overheard the Lord tell Abraham she would have a son. Can anyone blame her? She was well past child-bearing years after all. But my point is, Abraham waited patiently for the promised son. For 25 years. Romans 4 says that Abraham's faith did not weaken even though his body was as good as dead and Sarah's womb was too. Verses 20 & 21 say that Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He promised. Wow! I hope I come through this experience with just a fraction of Abraham's faith...and his patience.
I don't read Beth Moore's blog everyday, but I do try to keep up with it regularly. Well, a few days ago I was really struggling with my impatience. I just want to go get Leanna. Why must I wait? She's almost 14. I'm losing precious time with her. These are the days that she needs a momma to talk to and cry to and ask questions as she navigates through puberty. Anyway, I was on Beth's blog and read a post that I hadn't yet because, frankly, it was a long one and I hadn't taken the time to read it. But God's timing is wonderful, as usual. The post is titled 'That's Not What I'm Doing' in case any of you want to go read it. The link to Beth's blog is on my blogroll to the right (The LPM Blog). It started out as one of her funny family posts and moved into a story about her and her grandson building with some new blocks. It's a really sweet story and I won't share the whole thing with you. Just the part that spoke to me...
"Often, we just don't know what God is doing. So often we think we do but, the truth is, we just don't. Thankfully, He does. He really does. He doesn't need our help. Our brilliant ideas. Or our last ditch efforts because He ignored our first ten suggestions. He just wants our cooperation. He is constructing something beyond our human rationale. He knows in advance every piece - past, present, and future - that will be required for the finished work. He has all the patience in the universe to put it together. We see one little part and one little moment. He, the One who is, who was, and is to come, sees beyond the singular piece to every generation and condition He means to effect. Meanwhile, He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The one thing may not be good at all by itself. In fact, it may be horrendous. Criminal. It's when He weaves it with all that comes before it and all that will come around and behind it that something good, something beneficial, emerges. Never let Romans 8:28 become so familiar that you subconsciously fold it into your spiritual fairy tale file. It is as true today as it was the moment the Apostle dripped the letters on the parchment. Don't blow them dry. Maybe it's not that God isn't listening. Maybe it's just that what we keep suggesting is not exactly what He's doing. And, if that's so, what He's doing can only be better and more effectual than what we think we'd do in His place.
John 13:7 says something that keeps ringing in my ears.
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
Later.
LATER.
L.A.T.E.R.
We WILL understand. "
And THAT is the promise I will cling to for however long it takes to bring Leanna home.
We've also made lots of progress with our homestudy. Jon and I got our FBI and GBI fingerprinting done and sent it off. Now we wait to get our clearances back. It looks like the average time to get the FBI clearance back right now is about 3 months. In the meantime, we'll finish up with all the other paperwork and get the miscellaneous things accomplished...have the septic tank pumped, get the pets vaccination records, etc. I'm about halfway done with the Self Study and feel good about that. Jon spoke with his supervisor and filled him in about what's going on. Jon let him know that our travel dates will likely be given with very short notice and Jon will have to drop everything when we get those dates. His supervisor was very understanding and said okay. All 5 of us have had our first physicals...the kids are all up to date on their immunizations and Jon and I both had our TB tests done. Last week I sent off for certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate ($101 later). We'll need these for our dossier later on. Jon will have to send off for his birth certificate though...since he was born in Japan, he has to go a different route. I'm so glad that we both already have passports and we won't be waiting for those.
Our home visit was yesterday. I had talked to Tonya at Options 4 Adoption several times on the phone, but yesterday was the first time I met her face to face. She was just as wonderful in person as she is on the phone. Options 4 Adoption is taking care of our homestudy and then we'll contract with our adoption agency. I'm looking forward to getting to that point. Anyway, we gave her all the paperwork we've finished so far...I was suprised how many things we were able to check off the list. Very encouraging! She interviewed Jon and I (we had to give 3 adjectives that described our personality, our mother's personality and our father's personality...it was suprisingly difficult!) and she also interviewed the kids. Then the kids gave her a tour of the house. We'll see her again in two weeks, hopefully with the rest of the paperwork completed. That's our goal anyway. She has 2 adopted kids...one from Russia and one from Ukraine. She asked us how much we anticipate spending on this adoption and we told her probably around $35,000 according to all of the expenses we know of right now. She said it will be more like $48,000 to $50,000. She shared many little tidbits about Russia with us. She apologized at the end and said she hoped she hadn't discouraged us. Quite the contrary! I just kept thinking, "Wow, Lord, I can't wait to see how You pull this all together!" I don't know what was going through Jon's mind, but discouragement never crossed mine. As I think back to all she shared last night, I'm really a bit surprised that there's not a hint of discouragement. Just anticipation. Let's get this done and bring Leanna home!
Some people with New Horizons left last week to go to Russia, Ukraine and Latvia to interview children for the summer hosting program. They offered to take things to our children for a small fee. We prepared a package for Leanna and sent that off. Now I'm working on getting the information to call her. It's unbelievable that she's only been gone 2 1/2 weeks. It seems more like 2 or 3 months.
I must confess, I am getting rather impatient. I just want everything to be done so we can go get Leanna and bring her home. I know there's a process. I understand that. I know we have to get checked out inside and out. And I understand why. What I don't understand is why it needs to take so long. What's interesting to me is how God is using so many things to teach me about patience these days. Last week, every one of my daily devotions was about patience. The other day, the author quoted Hebrews 6:15, which says, "Having patiently waited, Abraham obtained the promise." Do you know what that promise was? In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham He would make him into a great nation. God promised Abraham offspring. Abraham was 75 years old when God promised him this. 15 years later God confirmed His promise and told Abraham he would be the father of many nations. God promised him that he would be fruitful and have many descendants. 10 years after that, at the age of 100, 25 years after God promised him children, Abraham and his wife Sarah had their son, Isaac. Sarah was 90. She laughed when she overheard the Lord tell Abraham she would have a son. Can anyone blame her? She was well past child-bearing years after all. But my point is, Abraham waited patiently for the promised son. For 25 years. Romans 4 says that Abraham's faith did not weaken even though his body was as good as dead and Sarah's womb was too. Verses 20 & 21 say that Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He promised. Wow! I hope I come through this experience with just a fraction of Abraham's faith...and his patience.
I don't read Beth Moore's blog everyday, but I do try to keep up with it regularly. Well, a few days ago I was really struggling with my impatience. I just want to go get Leanna. Why must I wait? She's almost 14. I'm losing precious time with her. These are the days that she needs a momma to talk to and cry to and ask questions as she navigates through puberty. Anyway, I was on Beth's blog and read a post that I hadn't yet because, frankly, it was a long one and I hadn't taken the time to read it. But God's timing is wonderful, as usual. The post is titled 'That's Not What I'm Doing' in case any of you want to go read it. The link to Beth's blog is on my blogroll to the right (The LPM Blog). It started out as one of her funny family posts and moved into a story about her and her grandson building with some new blocks. It's a really sweet story and I won't share the whole thing with you. Just the part that spoke to me...
"Often, we just don't know what God is doing. So often we think we do but, the truth is, we just don't. Thankfully, He does. He really does. He doesn't need our help. Our brilliant ideas. Or our last ditch efforts because He ignored our first ten suggestions. He just wants our cooperation. He is constructing something beyond our human rationale. He knows in advance every piece - past, present, and future - that will be required for the finished work. He has all the patience in the universe to put it together. We see one little part and one little moment. He, the One who is, who was, and is to come, sees beyond the singular piece to every generation and condition He means to effect. Meanwhile, He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The one thing may not be good at all by itself. In fact, it may be horrendous. Criminal. It's when He weaves it with all that comes before it and all that will come around and behind it that something good, something beneficial, emerges. Never let Romans 8:28 become so familiar that you subconsciously fold it into your spiritual fairy tale file. It is as true today as it was the moment the Apostle dripped the letters on the parchment. Don't blow them dry. Maybe it's not that God isn't listening. Maybe it's just that what we keep suggesting is not exactly what He's doing. And, if that's so, what He's doing can only be better and more effectual than what we think we'd do in His place.
John 13:7 says something that keeps ringing in my ears.
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
Later.
LATER.
L.A.T.E.R.
We WILL understand. "
And THAT is the promise I will cling to for however long it takes to bring Leanna home.
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