Smiling...

...for a new friend I have found through our journey of adoption.

Mary, who happens to also live in the St. Louis area, is adopting from Ghana! In fact, she is adopting through the same organization we are! There are only about a dozen of us adopting through this specific organization at present. Many are spread throughout the US, but I have been blessed to have another family so close!

Me, Adeline & Graham had a playdate with her and her little girl (who happens to be very close to the same age as Addy) a few weeks ago.

To sum it up in one word??? Refreshing.

Refreshing to meet someone on the very same journey we are on in this life. Refreshing to be able to sit and chat with her like old friends. Refreshing to have the opportunity to ask her questions. Refreshing that we will have children from the same area that will be able to be around one another from time to time and build more of a "community". Refreshing that she is just a bit ahead of the process and I have so much to learn from her. Refreshing that she is a Christian and prays for our adoptions, for the orphans. Simply, refreshing.

And, this week we found out that Mary has a court date in Ghana so she is traveling there April 1st. This is so very exciting. I am so happy she will finally be able to meet her little girl.

And while my heart is trying to remainn patient for God's perfect plan for our family, today my heart is smiling for my new friend.

It's a beautiful thing to see the blessings God gives you along the way.

And to end with a very sweet post Mary put on our Facebook group...(the feeling is mutual):

"Just wanted to say thank you Anita Foster Gillispie for creating this group. Without it, Georgia Damalas Snodgrass and I might not have realized how close we live to each other. We were able to get our girls together for a playdate today :) So thankful to have met you Georgia!"

:(

Yes, you see that correctly. 

It is a "sad" face.

I cannot go into details at the moment, but received some news today.

A little discouraging.

That we could wait even longer for a referral.

I know God has a plan.

I know His ways are higher.

Lord, help me to rest in your promises.

We got our Form I600A approval...

It is a good day. Who am I kidding? It is a great day! 

Specifically, this past Wednesday, February 27th. 

The larger than normal, manilla envelope came in the daily mail. I noticed it had Scott's name on the address. I wasn't sure what it was, but when I opened it, I quickly realized it was from Homeland Security. 

My stomach dropped for a moment. Sure, you know you are "ok" and "should" be considered able to adopt, but you just never know. I mean, our form got rejected once already for what we thought was rather minor, so it could happen again. We prayed it would not. I asked God on more than one occasion to take the burden from me, to calm my anxious heart.

And He did. When I needed it. When my mind started to wander in that direction, I would immediately remind myself that it is all in God's hands and He wants what is best for our family. And just like only God can do, my heart would calm.

In the interim, I found myself struggling with the waiting, although I know there will be much more waiting in our future.

I am part of a wonderful group on Facebook for only us families using the same organization in Ghana to adopt from (I believe there are about a dozen of us). It is so comforting to me. I recently made the following post: 

Hi everyone. Waiting is hard, that I think all of us have felt on one level or another. Just been feeling a bit disconnected with the 'waiting' part & it's not like we've been been waiting "that" long. Completed our homestudy in December...now, trying to patiently wait for God to reveal His perfect plan/child to be for our family. So love the posts/ feeling of community with this group though.

The encouragement and support from the families is something I don't take for granted. They know FIRST hand what it is like to be in my shoes. Many of them are also in various forms of waiting in their adoption process. It is good to share. 

Shuffling quickly thru the pages inside the manilla envelope. There it was, in black print, nothing fancy, but fancy indeed..."it has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to orphan(s)". Praise the Lord. The knot in my stomach turned into complete JOY. My face could not hide the JOY. My words could not hold back the JOY. 

It just felt like a stone had turned.

I think I told my husband 10 times how happy I was that night. Of course, I had to put a shout out on Facebook as well. This JOY, you don't want to keep to yourself.

I sent an email to our wonderful facilitator here in the states to inform her of the good news. AND to let her know that it is "official" as "official" as can be anyway. She emailed us back:

"Woo hoo!  GREAT NEWS!!!!  Very happy for you!  I am *SO* hoping we have a referral for you soon.  It will be a happy day!"

To some, it may not seem like much. To us, it puts us one step closer to Minus1Orphan.