Best Birthday Gift Ever ! (this is a good one!)

September 9, 2014 – a Tuesday. Wow! A lot of time has passed, please forgive me! Updates: a small one is that the Big O and I have to get our fingerprinting done for the USCIS (that big application that we sent to Dallas) on Friday. While I feel certain that our fingerprints have not changed since giving them for state and federal checks, this is “part of the process” and so we must oblige. Sigh.

However, on Friday, we received BIG NEWS! We have an unofficial super-soft match! What in the world does this mean, you ask? Well, our agency considers a “soft match” when a photo and a file on child’s social background is presented to the adoptive couple & the couple accepts. Thus saying, “yes, please move forward”. A social background includes how the child made it to the orphanage (relinquished, abandoned, etc.) and may include some details regarding their health. With a “soft match”, this guarantees that the adoptive family will receive that specific child, if they choose, after a confirmation of their health comes through. After that, they wait for the government to do their part.

With our “super soft match” this means that all that our case worker has is this little girl’s name, age, and photo – not even a birth date. So, we know nothing about her social or medical history. Well, of course, we just had to see her picture and, of course, fell head over heels with her immediately! As our case worker warned us, we have to try to guard our hearts. However, I love the way that my husband put it, he said, “We will pray for her, as someone will adopt her.” I find comfort in this. While I am even more fervently praying for her, I pray for her future family, as well. Yes, yes, I hope that we are that family, but if not, we have got them covered in prayer.

Can I tell you the best part about this news?!!! Our case worker received that picture on my husbands’ birthday!!! Yes, OUR GOD IS SO GOOD – he delivered the best present possible! We did not get the news until the next day since our case worker and I were playing phone tag all day the previous day. How AMAZING is that?! Seriously, when she told me that she just had a picture and an age, I smiled, I laughed, I cried.  The ability to put a precious face to all of this work was just overwhelming. I can compare it to the first time a mother can hear her baby’s heart beat and see a picture of a small little being on the sonogram screen. It was just like that! How awesome to deliver that to us as we were celebrating my husbands’ birthday? It was the best gift ever.

So, as of now we are looking forward to getting more fingerprinting done on Friday and really looking forward to hearing more information about that precious little girl as soon as it comes in. Our case worker has good contact with her baby home. But, as she put it, we are now on “Africa Time” – meaning, it will come in when it comes in. We hope that we will know more by the end of the week; however, it could be six weeks. Ugh, bittersweet patience.

Also, two precious people have given us donations towards our adoption costs. You know who you are. Thank you all so very much. Everything helps and we truly appreciate it. While we are confident that all will be taken care of, the cost of it all can seem daunting. Therefore, we just look at it in “clumps”. We just look at the clump in front of us and plan to tackle the other clumps as they arrive.

Speaking of money, I really need to get cracking on our adoption grant applications. These are really in-depth and quite a big deal. I just need to force myself to buckle down.  We also still keep busy reading our adoption books. We have almost completed, “The Handbook of International Adoption Medicine” and I have already jumped into, “A Hope Deferred”, as recommended by a dear friend. Next on the list is “The Weavers Craft” – a book on adopting toddlers.

So, this is us and what has been going on in our world. We have not shared this photo and information with our boys yet, as we worry that they might grow too attached. However, they both continue to pray for “sister” every night. This just warms my heart. This little lady is so loved already by so many people. Oh, how we look forward to her joining our family!