"If it seems slow, wait for it."

"And the Lord answered me: 'Write the vision... For still the vision awaits it's appointed time; it hastens to the end- it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay." Habakkuk 2:2-3

God has given us a vision of His purpose in this adoption, why he led us to do it. There have been times in the waiting when I've been tempted to doubt that. Was this "vision" really from him or did we make it up? This verse was his answer when I asked him that question. Wow. He cares. He's in this. He knows me. What an amazing God he is!

Jackson's "Waiting" Project

People have been asking how our kids feel about the adoption. They are excited and pray for their little brother nearly every meal and at bedtime! Jackson often says things like, "I'm going to teach my little brother how to play guitar, " or "I'm going to save these (too small) pajamas for my brother," or "I'm going to give this to my brother for a present." I think, honestly, the thing he's most excited about is getting bunkbeds. He's envious of his sisters who always have someone to sleep with.

A few days ago, Jackson decided he wanted to do a project. He told me what it was, and then kept after me all day until I made time for it, "Mom? Can we do my project now?" The results are below. In case you can't see it, it's two maps of Rwanda and the Rwandan flag. He posted them on his bedroom wall, which he will be sharing with "Little Baby." I love that he is excited to meet his brother. He really seems to love him already, as we all do.

We heard today that our file has been sitting on the Minister's desk for a week waiting to be signed so it can be sent to us. She's been out of the country, out of town, in a meeting, etc. this week. :) But our source says she thinks she'll sign them in the next 24 hours, then they'll be scanned and emailed to us. This seems encouraging.... but we'll see! Today at Bible study, we were singing a praise song that reminded me that "Time is in your hand, Lord." I'm so thankful that is true. He knows what he's doing, we truly believe that.

"So have you heard anything?"

This is the question we get most often. If you've been with us on the journey for a while, you can skip to the last paragraph for THE LATEST update. If you're just joining us on this journey, let me give you some context.

We started the Rwanda portion of our adoption journey last May. (The journey really started November 2007, but that's another story for another time!) We gathered all the documents we needed and updated our homestudy during the summer (while on our summer mission trip which added it's own complexities). We submitted our dossier (the pile of documents) to the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in Rwanda on August 31, 2009. Then the waiting began.

On December 10, 2009, we received our "Letter of Non-Objection", which is basically our approval letter from the MIGEPROF (the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, the cabinet member who handles all Rwandan adoptions). This was a biggie! Celebration time. With that letter, however, we received a note saying they'd changed the process. Instead of receiving our referral (the match with a baby) directly from the orphanage - Mother Teresa of Calcutta Home of Hope Orphanage in Kigali Rwanda - we would receive our referral from the MIGEPROF's office. And instead of receiving it in two weeks, they informed us it would now take 2 months. While it was a setback, we were kind of relieved in some ways, just to have a time line.

Then, the last day of January we got an email from Veronique, who was the MIGEPROF's right hand girl, handling all the interactions with prospective adoptive parents like us. She told us our file was at the orphanage and we should call Sisters about what medical tests we wanted done on our baby. We talked with the chief Sister on February 1, 2010. She matched us with a child that day! She said we would receive his picture sometime the next week, as they had to return it to the MIGEPROF's office and we'd receive it from Veronique on email.

Well, then that weekend Veronique resigned! It was a week and a half before they were able to replace her. Jeanne Marie stepped in to the role about 3 weeks ago. Since then, there's been little setbacks, but mostly there's just lots of work she has to get caught up to speed on.

THE LATEST: Our lawyer in Rwanda emailed us this morning and said that she thinks we'll probably receive his picture sometime late next week. We're holding that loosely. :) We've been matched with a little cutie for 5 weeks now and have yet to see his face. We're still hoping to travel in March... hmm.... i'm not sure that's still realistic. Ok, April!

The Waiting Continues

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12

This has been our theme verse the past few weeks. Our hearts have been sick with the waiting, but we're looking forward to the longing fulfilled. God has been sustaining us through his Word, an unexpected date night (thanks, friend ;)), good fellowship, prayers of many, and opportunities to serve him and others. As I was crying out to the Lord for help this week, he brought to mind the song you are hearing while you read this - "While I'm waiting" by John Waller. The lyric he brought to mind is the chorus, "I will worship, while I'm waiting. I will serve you, while i'm waiting." He showed me (gently) that the key to surviving the waiting of life is to focus on the right things while I'm waiting; to focus on worshipping him and serving him and others. I'd been focusing on the waiting, and it was making me miserable. So this has been a great revelation, but frankly I haven't been too effective yet at changing my focus. Please pray I can have joy in Him as I worship and serve while i'm waiting, instead of focusing on the wait.