Survey Says?

I realize I have fallen off the proverbial blogging wagon. I am going to make an effort to remedy this, even if it is only for my own benefit. It will be quite an experience one day to look back on all of these entries and recall the chain of events.

Last week we were faced with some difficult decisions. If you have been following our journey, you know that we were placed in a pilot program to adopt from Honduras with the knowledge that things may or may not work according to plan. Obviously, things are going according to plan--just Someone Else's plan. We received an e-mail and then a phone call from our caseworker a few days ago. Current events in Honduras in addition to the feedback they have been getting have caused some concern over the way our adoption would proceed. In fact, our dossier has been there in country for over 2 months, and we have yet to hear anything back. After much prayer, discussion, and consideration--and at the urging of our caseworker--we are now being placed in the program to adopt from Colombia.

I know this sounds crazy. Obviously choosing a country for international adoption is...well...a big deal. In a typical situation, I am sure people do not just bounce from one to another. However, I can say this. Many people feel drawn to a particular country. We have never felt that calling. We do, however, feel very strongly that the child we are waiting for is of Hispanic heritage. We prayed before we even spoke to anyone from our agency that God would lead us in the right choices and guard our steps to the place where He has our child. We have seen in the past few days that Honduras is not where we are being led. We were give a lot of information and many different options. While the choice was ours, the decision was clear. That one door is closing, at least for us, and God is opening a new one.

Oddly enough (or maybe not when you acknowledge the way God works), I now feel such a spark of excitement at what lies ahead. Not that I was not excited before--please don't misunderstand. But there is something about this new direction that is just different. I feel like we now have a more complete picture of what this process will look like. And I feel at peace.

The day before we got the e-mail alerting us of possible changes, my friend Kelly received her referral. (This is the photo and info you get that says, "hey! we have a child for you!") I met Kelly through our caseworker as she realized we live in the same city. We e-mailed, had a few conversations over the phone, and then she took me downtown to get my many documents certified. She has been such a blessing to me and has been able to give me very sound advice along the way. And guess where Kelly's precious baby girl is? Yep. Colombia. She will travel there in August (or hopefully before!) to bring her sweet GloriaGrace home. How kind of God to place someone in my life who will go down the same path ahead of me. How merciful of Him to know I needed to not feel so alone. And how special it will be to one day let our children meet and celebrate the heritage they will share.

Please pray for us as we make this transition. It will involve some changes in paperwork, a few extra fees to the good ol' government (thankfully the fees we have paid so far to the agency will be transferred in full to the other program. whew!), and a little extra time. Pray for financial blessings to come. Pray for our preparation and that we will do things properly the first time. Pray for things to fall into place at just the right time. As for the timing, we do not feel out of sorts that we will be "behind" a few months in our wait. To us, this means that our child was just not quite ready yet. Maybe she hasn't been born. Maybe she is not at the right orphanage. Or maybe we are the ones who need this time. God knows. He has led us this far. And we are trusting Him to complete this good work in us.