Last Thursday we received our finalized Home Study. This is a huge step in our journey. This document should enable us to receive our immigration paperwork, which will complete our dossier. We are moving right along in the paper chase! I found out today that after our dossier is authenticated in our city and state, we will be placed on the official waiting list. It will then be authenticated in Washington d.c. and Ethiopia, as we're "waiting". This is very exciting news because I feel like it's not very far off.
I'm so excited and am beginning to let my heart get involved. I've really held back in fear of the adoption falling through due to unforseen circumstances- like pregnancy, and although pregnancy would be an amazing answer to prayer and we would be ecstatic, this "miscarriage of adoption" would be heartbreaking. That is still a possibility, as only the Lord knows how He will build our family, but in the meantime, we must trust the Lord. And that trusting involves the heart. We're praying daily for God to be watching over our little one, wherever she/he may be. If there is a daughter for us in Ethiopia, she could be born by now. Up until this point, we've been praying for a baby in her mother's womb, but now we're changing our plea. Now we ask the Lord's favor for good health, nutrition, care, love, and bonding for this little one that we hope to be our own.
I finished the book "There's No Me Without You" and it was definitely a life-changing experience. It has opened my eyes to poverty and orphans, like never before. As I'm reading at night, the tears just flow as I think about visiting these orphanages and care centeres. We will come back changed even more for the better. These people and children are not just in need of food and provisions. They're in need of Christ and His message of salvation. It's awesome to consider how adoption truly is a picture of how God has rescued us out of our sinful, Hell-bound lives. We were/are so undeserving. We can't change the world, but we can change one child's life and offer them a future Hope.
