Extraordinary Blessing #1

June is a 2 yr. anniversary for me and I wanted to share with you about its significance... and then I thought I should really share several extraordinary stories from our adoption journey.

So here's a quick 'preface' and then the first story:

Preface:

We moved to our new, old, house in Sept. 2004.

We decided we wanted to adopt January, 2005.

We attended a Family Life Seminar in February, 05 and surprise! They discussed adoption!

We chose our China only adoption agency, recommended by Family Life, in February, 2005

We were accepted at CCAI March, 2005 and began our paperwork.

Or should I say, we began the nightmare of:

haphazard instructions from the US on paperwork they require for us to adopt; government stamps that still said 2004 and needed to say 2005 to be approved by the next US official; US government offices that said they could only stamp half of my 14 papers - for 14 papers I would have to go to another location - and when I arrived at that location they said I had to go back to the first location or needed a special slip from the first location or they had no idea why that person sent me to them or they did not know where I needed to go but was definitely given incorrect information; and let's not forget those uncooperative officials in my own town that said it was a shame I had to jump through so many hoops to adopt - but they were the ones making me jump through those hoops - and still today I get confirmation that those hoops were not necessary and what was really going on is they didn't want to do the work.

What should have been an exciting time was not exciting at all...in fact it was terribly stressful and exhausting. In May, 2005 it started to lead me down a path of thinking...'God - what are you trying to tell me? I was so sure you wanted us to do this...'. I started faithfully talking with Him about many things that had come to my attention like - I cannot find anyone in this town that has adopted internationally or a person of Asian decent. As I poured my heart out to Him over our paperchase...and that I really felt we needed a friend who had at least adopted internationally and lived in our community b/c I didn't want to be alone...and I didn't want our daughter to be alone. I waited with great anticipation for an answer and day after day passed with no sign God had even acknowledged my concerns...and then...

Story #1

Our last step was our international fingerprints at immigration. We applied for our 171H form which allows us to bring an orphan into the US and to get that form we had to be fingerprinted. They sent us our appointment in the mail; we had no option of what day, time or location and received about 2 weeks notice. We had a 1:00 appt. on a weekday, and it was an hour away from where we lived. It specifically said to arrive 10m early. So we arrived at 12:45 for our long awaited "appointment" and we were handed a number; Alan was 74 and I was 75. We took our seat and they called the next number - 28! WE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! As 1hr waiting turned into 2 and then 3hrs; we felt thwarted. Just before my husband’s number was called, a Caucasian couple walked in and sat down. Trying to see their papers with no luck, moments later I noticed them trying to look at my papers! So I asked if they were adopting and they were! From China! We stayed and talked with them for awhile and then the question arose “…where do you live” and they live in our neighborhood! All of us were stunned...and thrilled to have met.

If you read this post and your are waiting, paperchasing or you have been praying for something and haven't heard from God on it just yet...I hope that the series of stories I will share over the next few weeks, from our adoption journey, brings encouragement to you...