It has been a little while, since I have posted anything....somethings just take a while, one of those is the magical world that all of the adoption paperwork must travel through in order to get into the hands of the Peruvian Government! While this can be a frustrating process, I see each hand that each document passes through as God's hands! 1 document, must be signed by me, notarized by a notary, my absolutely wonderful social worker then sends it to the appropriate person at the State, then it is sent back to her, she then mails it to the Peruvian Consulate in Atlanta, then back to my social worker, who then sends it to the Peruvian Social worker who translates it and takes it to Lifeline's attorney to have it legalized, then she turns it in to the appropriate Government officials in Peru to be added to the other paperwork that is already there! WHAT A JOURNEY! I don't know about you, but if I were that piece of paper, I would be REALLY TIRED! Do you ever feel like that piece of paper?!? I do! But, IF we let him, that is where God says "just Be Still, and KNOW that I AM GOD!" In other words He will take care of it all for you!
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't sit STILL very well! One of the things that God is teaching me is UNCONDITIONAL FAITH! Yes, He loves us with undconditional LOVE, but what HE wants from us is unconditional FAITH! I am learning that when all things are now out of my hands, I have to trust HIS hands.....like all the ones that little piece of paper passes through! He has it all in HIS hands, along with the sweet little girl who will one day be my daughter, and me... (albeit jumping up and down, saying "Can't you speed this up Lord?!?"), THOSE ARE BIG HANDS!! And, when we realize just how BIG those hands are, resting in them becomes a little bit easier.
Well, my little piece of paper that we had to complete three weeks ago, has passed through all of the appropriate hands and is now in the hands of the Peruvian Government. Thank you for all of your prayers, he are some more requests....
1. PLEASE pray for all of my paperwork to be approved quickly now that this paper has been received.
2. PLEASE pray for my social worker, the Peruvian social worker and all the others involved in determmining a match for me... this is called the referral process. The referral process can be a challenging one for all parties involved, so please pray for wisdom and discernment for everyone, including me! Once a referral is made and accepted, I must send a letter of request for that partiular child... if there are others looking or referred to the same child, the Peruvian Government will determine what they believe to be the best match. This is difficult because one could potentially start the referral process over multiple times. PLEASE pray for God's leadership and direction in this process. It sounds terrible, but I firmly believe that it is God's way of working through our humanness to get the "right" child with the "right" parents (and vice versa) for them.
3. PLEASE pray for the wait! It is a bit akward because you want to tell everyone you know, BUT, you can't give them any details! And, I am not a good "waiter".... I am a doer and leaving everything in someone else's hands to do...oopps, I mean GOD'S HANDS.... isn't always easy! I have been allowing myself some little luxieries like buying a play kitchen and beauty salon and getting her room ready! But, please keep praying!
4. PLEASE pray for God's continued provision for this journey! I know that God will supply all my needs, but please join me in prayer for those!
5. And finally, there is a post on Lifeline's (this is my adoption agency) blog, that is just so well put and explains in words what I feel, but could never express... please read it if you have the time, and remember all those who are adopting, it is a challenging journey to our Promised Land, but God is guiding and each of us are in His Hands!
Here is that url address http://lifelineadoption.blogspot.com/2010/02/dave-wood-wednesday-message-from-our_10.html (Hopefully you can copy and paste this in your web browser.)