Our passports arrived! I guess my multiple names growing up didn't become an issue!
To date we have gotten our home study into the State of Illinois. We are one of two states in the nation that require the government to approve of our desire to adopt. How's that for fun? We are hoping to have an approval at the end of the week so we can apply to immigration to get their o.k. to travel and bring home one or two children. Once that is approved (up to 8 weeks time) THEN we get to send our dossier to the Philippines. We have decided not to request any more children until our full file is in their hands. It's kind of exciting, because things are starting to move. Paperwork is filled out just waiting for approvals. We also get to have psychological exams, and maybe even an IQ test! My friend and I joked that at 46 years of age maybe the exams are to prove we are crazy to adopt multiple children from another country!! HA!!! Just kidding.....:)
So here we are cruising along, thinking of nothing important. We're enjoying our summer weather and hitting the pool often. Oh, that's kind of a funny story to mention.
The other night at the pool Stacy asked Faith and I if we'd been thinking about what it's going to be like next year (Lord willing) to be at the pool with more siblings? He was so funny because he didn't want to offend our oldest daughter by suggesting it would be more fun with MORE daughters (or sons). Faith and I just looked at each other and laughed. Who is this man that keeps dreaming about more and more children? Isn't that a chick thing to do? We are continually amazed at how God has put a passion in our husband and father.
Then out of the blue I got a phone call from Michelle.
She just wanted to let me know that she doesn't have all the information, but evidently the Philippine government has requested to look at our file again. For guess who? The girls we were just told had been given to another family 8 days ago!
Now before we all have a party, there is another family they are considering for the girls. She told us she would call us as soon as she found out more information.
This is highly unusual. This is adoption. And as I type this I realize I am at total peace.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27
For our family tonight we are asking God, "Are these girls ours?"
Only time will tell, but I thought it fitting to document it. Just in case.
Candie
The "ink" had barely dried on the last post when literally the next day I saw that our agency was advocating for two sisters, ages 8 and 5.....from the Philippines. Honestly, my first thought went something like this, "Oh CRAP, what if those were supposed to be OUR girls?"
I said we were going to China, right?
Do you feel a U-turn coming up?
I tried to play it cool that night when the family was home and nonchalantly told them that Madison was advocating for two girls. And I left it at that. We had made a decision, we were going to China.
But the next day I still had this nagging feeling. I texted Stacy, "Do you think we moved to China too soon? What if these are our girls?"
His response: "I was thinking the same thing."
Super. Great. I just blogged about going to China!!
So I emailed our liaison at the agency and said, "Don't kill me.....could we look at the girl's file?"
Do you remember we JUST finalized our home study that week? China, boy 0-3, girl 0-10.
Michelle, being so sweet as she is, said that people change their minds all the time. No problem. Our caseworker's response when we asked, "Could you hold off for a couple days sending the final report in?" was, "Wow, you guys are on a roller coaster."
Weee......(I hope you can hear my sarcasm!)
We saw the girls and fell in love (again). One thing I know, our capacity for love is enormous. And yet it's just a fraction of our Father love. Pretty cool to think about.
Here's one of the hard parts about Fillipinos: they are on their own slow timeline compared to us Americans. So the wait began. And two weeks passed. During this time we were tempted to not fall in love and think about how the girls would fit in. But then we decided that IF these were the girls, how cool would it be to say, we fell in love with you the first time we saw you?! We looked up their names (which we liked) and found out they meant "Messenger of God" and "Gift from God". We put their pictures on our screen savers and prayed for them when we saw them.
Lord, please let them be ours.
So we waited, and prayed, and waited some more.....
Then we found out that even though the government called and asked our agency to find a home for the girls, they gave them to another family!!!!!
NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We deleted their pictures off our screen savers (which we've done 3 times now for 3 sister-groups) and we added two more girls to our prayer list that their new forever families would love them like we would have.
What was the lesson for these two weeks? For one, we realized that our hearts are in the Philippines, not China. We love the kids in China and believe one day we'll go there, but for now, when we think about picking up kiddos and bringing them home, we see Philippines. Secondly, (as if this is a new learned lesson) we know that God has planned from the beginning of time who is to be ours. He puts governments in place and he is big enough to put our family together.
Adoption is a step-by-step, day-by-day journey. The cool thing is that even though we feel we've had a set-back, I still have JOY. God is so good!
Candie
