First, I want to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who have been praying. God is definitely up to something. I may not know what, but He is. Thank you for being a part of that. Thanks for your sweet words of encouragement and notes to let me know you are thinking of us and praying for us and our little guy. It means so much more than I could ever say. Thanks for listening, supporting, reaching out, and lifting us up.
And now, for the (very long, unabridged) update:
Our original homestudy agency would not give us an updated copy of their license. It expired our homestudy.
Sometime while we were contracted with them, and our homestudy was valid, they decided not to offer homestudy only services for families, since they do placements too. So they wouldn't do our update, and they wouldn't give us an updated license since we were switching homestudy agencies. Unfortunately, this is what the orphanage director wanted to issue us travel dates.
During all this, we were told we were in danger of losing our referral if we didn't get there soon. The orphanage director had been told that it wasn't that we weren't interested in moving forward with our referral or that we weren't approved, but that it was a paperwork issue. But this held no guarantees for us.
We came up with another plan, and our new homestudy agency sent a letter to the orphanage director saying that they were updating our homestudy, nothing had changed, and giving their license. We were told this would be sufficient to receive travel dates, and we could continue working on the homestudy for our court dossier.
We had the agency overnight the letter and license to us, and as soon as it arrived, we trekked out to the Secretary of State's office to get the all important apostille before priority shipping it over the ocean. We celebrated that night, believing we had crossed this hurdle, and we would be receiving our travel dates as soon as next week.
The next morning, the phone rang. It was from our caseworker. I had emailed her, trying to get a timeline of what to expect, so I assumed she was calling with good news for us. She told me she had good news, and bad news, and asked which I wanted first.
She led with the good news. That we would most likely be traveling mid to late October. I wanted to ask how that was good news, when we were thinking we would be there in September? 4 months after we've seen his face, we MAY get to travel to meet him? Not good news at all for this tired and weary heart. I thought, goodness, if this is the good news, I don't think I want to hear the bad.
Then she told me that all the work we did the day before- the overnighting, the driving, the apostilling - wasn't enough any more. They now had decided they needed all new supporting documents, since we were going with a new agency. Which means we have to wait until the new homestudy is complete before we can get travel dates. Which is why we will hopefully get to go sometime in October.
I cried some more. I don't know how I still have tears. But I do!
Then I got busy. I've been breathing down people's necks to get things done. I feel like a stalker. I'm hoping the more people hear from me, they will be tired of me and push our stuff through. We're not too far from being done. At this point, we are just waiting on our criminal, child abuse, and sex offender clearances to be all set.
I'm afraid to get my hopes up that we will be traveling in October, because I know it can change again. It's hard being at the mercy of other people, being completely helpless. My emotions are all over the place- I feel like a yo-yo.
I'm clinging desperately to the one constant in our crazy lives - God. He has ordained our steps. Nothing surprises Him. He is with us, every heartbreak, every set back- He is using these for His glory. It doesn't have to make sense to us. We just continue to walk in obedience, following His leading.
Thank you so much for your prayers - while it all seems out of control - we know we can trust His hand!
