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.
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