Today were our individual interviews with our home study provider and everything on that front is going swimmingly. We should have a finalized home study just after the new year and move on to the immigration piece of this process. The other benefit of the home study being finalized is that we can now start working on grants and fundraising because all of them that I have seen require a finalized home study. That being said, my heart is very heavy as I write this.
There are some people who have let us peek into their lives as they have stepped through this adoption process in Uganda and they have come to a tragic place. J&T have three children (and one on the way) and took their family to Uganda for 8 weeks to finalize the adoption of their new little girl. Just yesterday, T and all the kids had to come home without J and their daughter. Unfortunately, red tape has caused them to be denied a visa from the US Embassy and based on what I have read from their blog, it is not very promising that they will get one...possibly ever. As I read through their situation and Justin and I talk about it, it scares us to know that this is nothing that they could have planned for and there is nothing they could have done differently to prevent this. This means, we could end up in this exact same situation and that scares me to death. And yet, it doesn't keep us from moving forward in the process. We have to know and trust that we are where we are doing exactly what we should be doing knowing the risk but trusting the One who brought us to this point.
So much has happened in the last few weeks...I went to Japan and back, Jack has two teeth cutting through, and he's up on his hands and knees trying to crawl! Dad was here with us while Justin's dad is doing his job as Santa. Dad will be back after Thanksgiving for a few more weeks while Justin finishes student teaching! I am so proud of him for working so hard through his masters. He will be done and a full fledged teacher in less than a month! And then we leave for Christmas vacation!
There are some people who have let us peek into their lives as they have stepped through this adoption process in Uganda and they have come to a tragic place. J&T have three children (and one on the way) and took their family to Uganda for 8 weeks to finalize the adoption of their new little girl. Just yesterday, T and all the kids had to come home without J and their daughter. Unfortunately, red tape has caused them to be denied a visa from the US Embassy and based on what I have read from their blog, it is not very promising that they will get one...possibly ever. As I read through their situation and Justin and I talk about it, it scares us to know that this is nothing that they could have planned for and there is nothing they could have done differently to prevent this. This means, we could end up in this exact same situation and that scares me to death. And yet, it doesn't keep us from moving forward in the process. We have to know and trust that we are where we are doing exactly what we should be doing knowing the risk but trusting the One who brought us to this point.
So much has happened in the last few weeks...I went to Japan and back, Jack has two teeth cutting through, and he's up on his hands and knees trying to crawl! Dad was here with us while Justin's dad is doing his job as Santa. Dad will be back after Thanksgiving for a few more weeks while Justin finishes student teaching! I am so proud of him for working so hard through his masters. He will be done and a full fledged teacher in less than a month! And then we leave for Christmas vacation!
Thank you for following our journey! It means a lot to know that people are with us, even if it is just in the blogosphere...
ReplyDeleteWe pray that by the time you get to our stage that all these kinks will be ironed out for you and other families. Yes, this has been by far one of the hardest things we have ever had to go through, but we wouldn't have changed it for anything. If we were reading of someone else's story, and it sounded like ours, we'd be terrified too, but we KNOW that we were called to this, without a shadow of a doubt, as I'm sure you and your family feel as well. Keep obeying and saying "yes". God has called you to act in obedience, He doesn't promise what the outcome will be, but you are at least doing your part. We can just say "yes" and follow in that obedience until the end:)
We are praying for you and all others following right behind us!