Passports & Fingerprints

I am amazed how God is already providing in small ways for this adoption. I don't know why I'm amazed? You would think I would just expect it, but amazed I am. Yesterday I had to apply for my passport. When I set out to get my passport the fees should have totaled $115.00, this would be for pictures, service/application fee, and expediting fees. I spent $8.00. Yes I did say $8.00, and that means I saved a whopping $107.00!!! That excites me. I instantly thought of the little glass mason jar sitting on our windowsill with a verse from 1 Kings on it. I knew as I walked away from the post office yesterday God had begun providing. I will spare you of all the lengthy details on how this happened. However, if you ever want to know, just ask me. After all, I love to tell stories. So when I got home I wrote it all down on an index card and I stuck it into our mason jar so we never forget.

Today Scott and I went to a local police station to be fingerprinted. I must say I have never seen my kids sit so still and quiet for a hour and 15 mins. Yes, that is how long it took. It was a very strange process for me personally. I'm glad it's done and we can mail them off tomorrow to the FBI for our criminal background checks.

And this is how we have been spending the last couple weeks, a little paperwork here, a trip to a notary, a little paperwork there, a trip to the post office, a little more paperwork and visit to the police station. This is our season life for the moment. It's weird, but I'm actually enjoying it.

Old Truth, New Eyes

There is a child out there somewhere that does not know me. They have no clue who I am, or Scott for that matter. If someone showed them a picture of us right now it would mean nothing. It would be no different then me showing a picture of someone in a magazine to one of my three kids. Someday, hopefully soon, we will meet our child, but he or she won't know us, recognize us or come running up to us with a hug the way our other three kids do. This child does not know me at all and really I don't know them either. Although I can say that there is a growing love in my heart for them. I can't explain it, but it's there. It shows in the little sacrifices we are making to bring this child home, from time spent on paperwork to time spent on adoption training, to pinching pennies. I know these are small ways that our love for this child is being shown in action. Not that they see or understand what we are doing, yet we keep doing.

This has been leading me to reflect on God's love for me. I am now seeing an old truth in a new way through this adoption. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so, it's that familiar song many of us learned as kids. It's a simple song with the truth that Jesus loves us and how do we know this? Because the Bible is what tells us so. There was a time in my life when I didn't know God. I had know idea who He was or that He loved me. Yet, He did love me even before I knew Him. And in His love for me He also made a sacrifice, for me, even before I knew Him. The petty sacrifices Scott and I are making do not compare to what God has done for us. Not even close. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." God made the ultimate sacrifice, His son dying on the cross. Why? So that we can be adopted into His family, so we can become His sons and daughters. In Ephesians 4:3-6 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Did you catch that? IN LOVE he predestined us for adoption as sons... In love we will someday soon adopt a son or daughter but only because He first loved us.

Timeline

So just about everyone who talks with us about our adoption has two questions: "Are you adopting a girl?" and "How long until you have your child?" The answer to question number one is simple, we don't know. Just like we didn't know what our other three children would be, we also don't know the sex of number four. However, if Michaela gets her way this child will be a sister, but only God knows.

As for question number two, well, that one is not as easy to answer. The timeline for adoption is so variable. We truly are only at the beginning of this journey. We have not had a home study yet, and we have just begun compiling our dossier (definition of dossier according to Websters: a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject). We have been told that it can take anywhere from 3-6 months to complete our dossier, so while we are hoping to do it in 3, realistically it could be 6. Our agency tells us that the time period from the beginning of the adoption until our child comes home is somewhere between 12-18 months. Since we are about two months in, that means another 10-16 months to go. I think my daughter said it best in her post, we need patience for this whole process even though we would prefer it happen in a snap.