Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ
2 Peter 3:18

Friday, September 17, 2010

The Big, Fat, Huge, Amazing, Unbelievable, Never Saw This Coming Adoption Update!

I have a huge update for our friends praying for our adoption journey.

Wednesday ended with me a little stressed over a lot surrounding the adoption- a good bit of it frustration over things completely out of my control and contingent on possible scenarios that haven't even happened yet (I have quite an imagination when things are out of my control :) !  I finally decided I'd stewed enough and didn't want to loose sleep over it.  So, I pulled out a journal and wrote "Lord, these are yours" and listed several things I just couldn't worry about any more. I put the journal away and immediately went to sleep. 

Thursday I went about my regular day of taking kids to school and running errands.  Our friends Jason & Meg Edwards that live in Starkville were in town for the day so we met them for lunch to meet their little girl who has been home from Korea for about a year now.  Such a cutie and it was so reassuring to hear how well she has adjusted and grown.  Miller and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing at a toy store and book store and then we went to pick Wilson up from his friends house.

When I got in the car to head home with Wilson, I saw that I had missed a call on my cell.  There was a message from someone at Holt saying that she had just left a long message at home and to please call her as soon as I had a chance.  When I realized that I had missed calls on both numbers I of course assumed the worse- that Korea had suddenly closed or that Holt had looked over our application again and had decided we weren't eligible for some reason.  I got home and checked the machine.  The message said that . . . are you ready . . . Holt Korea is in IMMEDIATE need of families for the "regular" program (as opposed to special needs).  Apparently domestic adoption has not taken care of all of the healthy children in South Korea and they need families that have a home study or close and are open to boys and normal neonatal conditions (jaundice, low birth weight, etc.).    Never dreamed someone would be calling to say we could be getting a referral in the next month or so.  I'm still a little in shock and wish I still had the skills to do a back handspring!  

We serve an amazing God!  When I was "turning things over" on Wednesday night it, of course, never occurred to me to ask that we'd get a call saying we'd get a referral before the end of the year (this is a round about answer to a lot of the things I was stewing over).  "Wow" is all I can say!  If you would please say a prayer for our social worker.  The success of this new development is completely in her hands right now.  We need our home study ASAP and she is very overworked as she is the only social worker for international adoption in our area.  We want to get our study done quickly, but we want it to be done carefully and correctly.  We also don't want to be in the position of getting in the way of another family who's been waiting for a long time on their study to get delayed.  We rest in the knowledge that the Lord knows when each child He creates is to be joined with the family he has chosen for them!

One more little divine intervention/providence.  Several weeks ago we mailed our fingerprints to the FBI for our background check.  Currently the wait time for this is running almost 3 months.  If you have a deadline you can put that on the envelope, but other than that, there's really not a lot you can do to speed the process along.  At the time, we had no immediate need for the fingerprints.  I've been expecting that we'd get our referral sometime in the spring or summer- we had all the time in the world.  But "for some reason" before I sent the envelope I wrote Wilson's birthday (Oct. 20) on the the outside as a deadline- just to see what happened.  I admittedly felt a little guilty for being such a rule breaker.  But NOW I know I was NOT lying- thank you Lord for guiding my mischievous hand!!

What a great day!  Wilson was so pumped to hear that there is a good chance that our new baby will be a brother- his reaction was priceless.  Phil and I ended the day watching Bizarre Foods- South Korea.  As something crawled back OUT of Anthony's mouth we made a mental note to pack some peanut butter and crackers!

6 comments:

Mysti Chustz said...

That's just awesome Maggie!! Will continue to pray for God's perfect timing in this process. Stay the course my friend --God's hand is all over you!!

Elise Norman said...

That is great news!!! I'm so happy for you guys. I know how excited you must be. God is so good! What a blessing to be one big step closer. I'll be praying for you guys.

Anonymous said...

Maggie and Phil and kids !!! We are so excited for this new addition to your/"our" family! Can't wait. Thanks for being obedient in the little things as God reveals th big things He has planned. Most of all thanks for being transparent and for being willing to bless while being blessed! Love you! From ALL of us Chicago Millers!

Alison said...

Oh my goodness, Maggie!! I am so excited for ya'll!! To think you may have a referral before the end of the year!! How wonderful! And you will be so happy to hear that our social worker told me this week that she is no longer backed up anymore! So hopefully, she can get to your home study asap!! Yay!!

Suzanne said...

God is amazing and He is good, all the time. All the time, HE IS GOOD!
We are thrilled with this update and news--All in His hands...and in His time. This is HUGE--you will have a little guy to bring home before we know it! We are so excited with you all! Suz

patrick and amy said...

Yay, Yay, Yay!!! Evelyn will have a new BOYfriend very soon! Can't wait! We saw that episode of Bizarre Foods too and we will also be taking pb&j with us to S. Korea in a few months....yuck.....