February 8, 2012 at 2pm I got a phone call from our family coordinator from AWAA. I had just talked to her the day before so I thought that maybe she had another question for me. I was so wrong about that! She was calling to talk to me about a beautiful 7 year old little girl. I was in total shock. After praying about possibly changing agencies or doing a concurrent adoption and having those doors closed, I had prepared myself for the long wait of over a year for a referral. I had just prayed the day before, asking God to please help me with this wait because I am NOT good with waiting. God had it under control the whole time! Why was I surprised??? 12 days!!! When I thought that it would be so easy the second time around to get all the paperwork finished, it took 5 months! I was so discouraged during that time when we had to wait for each review of our home study and then dossier. It was taking forever in my mind and yet, it was all in God's plan. He knew our "LindyLou" and He was creating the way for our paths to cross at the perfect time. God has taught me so much through both of our adoption journeys and I am still learning to put my trust in Him. When we got the call, B was out of town in meetings and I didn't get to talk to him for 4 hours! So I had this awesome news and didn't have anyone to share it with. How sweet it was when we finally connected and got to celebrate together. We decided not to tell our other children until the next night when he would be home.
The next evening when everyone was home, we gathered them around the computer. We opened up the document with LindyLou's picture and they were beyond excited and kept saying, "really?? for real??? are you serious???" They were definitely surprised.
And now the wait continues, but at a different level. Now we have seen the beautiful face of our little girl. We have heard her story, and we pray for her little heart. Oh, how my heart aches for the losses this little one has had to go through. No child should have to go through so much pain. In the months that we wait to bring her home, we ask God to prepare our hearts to meet hers right where she needs us. We pray that God will prepare her little heart to meet her forever family.
We expect it to take at least 6 months to bring her home. At this point we are waiting for a court date. Our agency estimates that we will get a court date 12 - 16 weeks from referral. So we could be traveling for our first trip to meet our little girl and go to court sometime in May or June. Did I mention that I'd like it to be sooner??? :) We also have to hope and pray that all the documents needed for our case arrive in the courts on time so we can pass court the first time. Otherwise, we could get rescheduled another court date 1 -4 weeks later. After we pass court, our agency will then gather all the necessary paperwork to submit our case to the embassy. Unfortunately, this is where things have really slowed down in ET adoptions. If there is a living relative, the embassy will request an interview with them. This could be 3 - 6 weeks after all our paperwork was submitted. If they are satisfied with all the paperwork and the interview, we will travel for our second trip, to bring LindyLou home. If they are not satisfied, our case will be sent to Nairobi which is another 2 - 4 weeks before we would get clearance. I am praying that the time between our first and second trip is not long. Our little girl is old enough to understand when we come and go but how can she trust that we will come back...and the longer she waits, I can't imagine how her heart would feel.
We feel so blessed that God would choose us to be LindyLou's forever family. To Him be all glory.
