A Bit More Good News

Whenever I see the adoption agency's name on our caller ID, I get so full of hope. Her voice on the other line sounded upbeat and I anxiously awaited to hear the words. She told me that we received our LOI and I was ready to jump up and down and scream "Thank you Jesus". Right as i was assuming the position to jump and taking in a deep breath to exclaim my gratitude, she said that dirty three-letter word: "but..." Ah, I felt the wind leave my sail, the ton of bricks fell upon my head, my heart sank like the titanic, okay, you get the idea. She continued "but you don't have your confirmation numbers or travel dates." Oh! I was so close to have that joy I've been awaiting for the last two years! Regardless, I am happy that we got 1/3 of the puzzle. I have hopes that we'll be leaving June 6th (our date we were last told) or soon thereafter. I hope to be posting again in the next couple of days telling you our dates. :)

Weather in Shymkent, Kazakhstan

Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar

The waiting game....

I'm still waiting on our LOI. I doubt very much I'll get it today because I imagine our adoption agency will be closed for the Memorial Day holiday. So tomorrow would be the earliest I'll get it, and it's only 11 days until they "think" we'll be leaving!!! Uuuuuggghhhh! Try to buy plane tickets to half way around the world with a little over a week's notice. NOT cheap. Anyhow, please pray for us and pray for the timing of this adoption to work out. I'm praying hard for the judge to have favor on us and to grant the adoption without any second thought.  We're also praying for discernment that when we see her for the very first time we'll know without a shadow of a doubt that she's ours. :-)

Thanks for your prayers and love, I hope to be blogging a LOT more as things develop.

Three red shirts

We had  a wonderful time visiting with our daughter-in-law Kristin. She's 4 months pregnant and is glowing!  She's going to be giving us our first grandchild! I'm going to be a pretty young grandma, hopefully HE (or she) will think I'm super-cool. So when Kristin was in town, she, my daughter Martina and I went to Whole Foods Market and gave out samples of my homemade chicken noodle soup! It was a hit as always, people asked for me to sell the soup! We sell the chicken to make their own soup, but they want the shortcut. To the right you will see a picture of Martina, Kristin and me. We had  a lot of fun. We were representing our farm, Pike Valley Farm.   In case you don't know, we raise and sell organic pastured chicken, beef, pork, turkey and sometimes eggs (when we're not out of layers).

Finally, some good news!!!

Okay, we finally have some good news to report on the adoption!!! We got a call on Wednesday while we were at church to call the agency, that they had an update for us. The tone of her voice, once I got it that night, made me prepare for another set-back on our time frame. She had also left a message on my cell phone and an email asking us to call her ASAP the next day. 

The agency is on Pacific Time so I had to wait until after noon here to get ahold of her. She said, "okay, hold on... let me get your file.... okay, I've got it. Well, I have some okay news and some bad news."   I was totally preparing for her to tell me that we were set back another couple of months. "Semey has been set back  another time; there are no girls available for the June/July dates so that means that those in line will also have to wait and you'll be set back further." (okay, deep breath, I was prepared for that.) "However, you do have the option of switching regions and going to Shymkent probably a month from yesterday."  (okay, breathe deep, NOT prepared for this!) That poor girl, I must have asked her three or four times "so you're telling me that I could leave in a month or so if we switch regions?"   She'd reply with a "yes" and I'd ask her again a minute later. 

It's been 2 years this July that we signed up for this adoption. It was supposed to take nine months or so! But I am a firm believer in God and His perfect timing! Although my flesh at times would get frustrated and tears would pour down my face, I ultimately knew that it just wasn't my time. I felt that God closed one door and opened another. I wondered this when we had previous set-backs, but I felt it even more now. When I called my husband and told him the update, I asked him what he thought about switching regions. He said "well, it seems to me honey, that one door has been closed, but another one has opened up for us."   Aaaaaannnnndd, there ya' go! Took the words right out of my mouth. We're going to Shymkent! We feel that our daughter is there and that God will make a way for us to get her, including switching our regions! 

(For all of you Blue Collar Comedy folks, here's what I felt like:  

Me: It seems we've had a lot of roadblocks while trying to go to Semey. God, should we switch to Shymkent instead of Semey???

God: No, I just like messin' with ya. Here's your sign.  

lol

So now, I have paperwork to finish up that I didn't finish up from about 2 months ago when we were told to pack our bags and get ready to go. I put everything on the back burner and thought I'd just get back to it when it was certain. So on Monday Winston and I are going to finish up our paperwork and then on Tuesday or Wednesday I'm going to drive to Frankfort to get it apostilled. Whew! Then I've got packing to do, phone cards to buy, email lists to set up, gifts to buy (you are expected to buy gifts for the translator, doctor, orphanage director, coordinator and several of the caretakers at the orphanage).

On that note, I will go and begin some of my tasks!