Choosing to trust in the wait

Wow, it's crazy to look at the ticker at the top of our blog and realize it's been almost seven months since we mailed our dossier to our agency. How quickly that time has gone. It's a good reminder that while our wait seems long some days, when we look back at the process, we'll be surprised by how quickly it passed. (At least, that's what I'm believing in faith!)

Many of you have told us recently that you check our blog for updates, so I wanted to give you something new to read. Here is the update: there is no update. :-) Our agency is receiving several referrals each month for Russian children, but the process is quite slow. Since reaccreditation happened this summer, the system is still quite full of waiting families, and it's taking awhile for everything to catch up. With the holidays approaching, we don't anticipate things speeding up any time soon.

Based on the number of waiting families with our agency, and the speed at which things are happening in Russia, it's doubtful that our dossier will be registered with a specific region before spring. Of course, God could move mountains for us (and we'd rejoice if He chose to do that!), but based on what is currently happening, that is what looks probable. Once our dossier gets registered, it's unclear how long it would take to get a referral for a specific child. So, it looks like we won't be traveling before next summer or fall.

When we began looking into adoption (almost exactly a year ago!), we knew there would be lots of waiting and many unknowns. It's all a part of the journey God has us on to meet our son. But we wouldn't be honest if we didn't admit that it's not always easy or fun. We are ready to bring our son home, but apparently the son God has for our family isn't ready yet! So, we continue to wait and trust Him to get us through each day. I choose to believe, as David did in Psalm 16, that "the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places." God has a good and perfect plan for our lives and to grow our family, and we look forward to experiencing it in His timing!

Back to waiting on Russia

So sorry to those of you who have been anxiously awaiting news of the local adoption opportunity we told you about. It is with total peace that we tell you God clearly closed that door and led us back to waiting on our referral from Russia.

Once the little boy here in Gainesville was put into the foster care system, we knew it would be a long shot. And the more we found out about the situation, the more uncomfortable we became. It would have a been a long wait to finalize the adoption and there were many unknowns about some important details. After another week of hearing nothing, we both felt a confirmation from the Lord that even if we did hear something, we were supposed to say no. This decision was met with complete peace in both of our hearts.

And so, we are back to waiting for a referral from Russia. Our adoption agency continues to see movement within several regions of Russia, but our dossier has yet to be registered in a specific region. This is the next step that will need to happen. Because we have been waiting so long, some of our paperwork will begin expiring in the next few months. It will actually be nice to have some "hands on" work we can do related to the adoption again while we wait to hear more.

Riding an actual roller coaster would be much easier!

God continues to amaze and surprise us during this journey of adoption. I have never been more reminded of His overarching sovereignty, and my own inability to make things happen in my own strength. What precious lessons to be learning and growing in, though the process has been so difficult at times.

About two weeks ago, we were contacted by a lawyer in town who knew of a baby born locally needing to be placed for adoption. While we had not been considering domestic adoption, after praying about it, we felt that God had opened this door and wanted us to proceed and see what would happen. We hesitantly moved forward, and waited to hear more. It was quite an emotional roller coaster! We would get our hopes up, wait nervously for the phone to ring, and then see our hopes dashed when we heard nothing.

By Monday of this week, we hadn't heard anything in almost a week, and it seemed to all involved that God was closing the door on this opportunity. Then, we got a phone call last night letting us know that it was still possible, and might happen very quickly.

Today, we found out that this baby has been released from the hospital and is now under the authority of DCFS. The birthmom is living on the streets, and her friend has been unable to find her (partly due to bad weather) in order to get her to sign papers terminating her rights. We were hoping to be appointed guardians, but now it's unclear if that's even a possibility with DCFS in the picture.

Would you join us in praying that this birthmom could be found, that she would make the best decision for her son, that we would be patient in waiting to see what God has planned, and that He would move mountains to make this possible for us, if this is the child He has chosen for our family? Would you also pray that our hearts would have the right mixture of hopeful expectation and preparation to receive sad news?

If we do move in this direction, we will need to pull out of the Russian adoption program, which brings with it another flood of mixed emotions. We have no idea what the future holds, but we rest secure, knowing that God's purposes will prevail, and that none of this is surprising or overwhelming for Him. In His perfect timing, He will bring us the child He has chosen to join our family. Oh, how we long for that day!

A few minor updates

Not much is really moving on our adoption front, but I know there are friends that check our blog often, so I thought I'd at least give a little update (it's been almost a month since my last post!).

Last week, you may have seen news headlines regarding Russia's president dissolving their government. In reality, Vladimir Putin simply dismissed his cabinet and nominated a new prime minister, in preparation for the upcoming elections. So far, it doesn't look like this should have any effect on international adoptions, but it was a startling headline for us to read all the same.

It is exciting to report that several America World families have accepted referrals and some are even beginning to travel to Russia for their first trip! It sounds like several of the regions we mentioned in our last post have started to give out referrals, which is so wonderful. There is no official "waiting list" that will tell us where we are "in line," as the referrals are given out based on a number of different factors. We are just thrilled to know that referrals are happening, and that families are accepting them and starting to travel. Please pray that we will hear news soon too!

Where does Vlad live?

In a recent email from our adoption agency family coordinator, we received more information about the different regions in Russia with which our agency works. It sounds like there are three main possibilities for the region where our son might be living! I though this map would be helpful to give you a sense of where we might be traveling.

Russia is divided up into seven large administrative districts, called okrugs. This map is of the Central Okrug. (OK, it's a strange map because it shows nuclear power information, but it was hard to find a regional map to put on this blog!)

The possible regions (within the okrug) to which we may be traveling are: Tula (located directly below Moscow), Voronezh (southeast on this map), or Nizhniy Novgorod (actually in the next okrug, located directly east of Vladimir and Ivanovo in this map).

We are excited at the proximity to Moscow that all of these regions have, as this should cut down on our travel costs once we're actually in Russia.

We still don't have word on how long it might be until we receive a referral, and so we continue to pray for our son, wherever he is. We will receive word from our coordinator once our dossier is given to one of these specific regions, and we'll let you know when that happens. It does help us to look at this map and know that he is very likely living in one of these regions!

Reaccreditation!

Praise God! Reaccreditation is finally here! We received the following email on Wednesday:

"It is with great joy that I share with you that America World's partner agency in Russia has received reaccreditation! They will be issued the official license tommorrow. We are praising God for this news after such a long and difficult wait. We expect that it may take a couple weeks before all the official documentation is completed in order for all processes to be fullly functioning such as dossier submission, referrals, and receipt of court dates. We will keep you updated as we have news. Thank you for your patience over the past 14 months as we have awaited reaccreditation."

Our family coordinator called yesterday to make sure we had received this incredible news. She said they still don't really know how long it's going to take to get dossiers from families turned in, and to start receiving referrals. But she was hopeful that it could start moving more quickly.

Thank you for praying with us during this long reaccreditation wait. We covet your prayers as we continue to wait for news about the child God has for us!

More (potential) great news

I figured it would be awhile before I had any new reaccreditation news to report after my last post. But we got another great e-mail from our agency today!

America World got news today that our partner agency (through whom we will complete our adoption on Russia's end) has received approval from all of the various ministries in Russia, and the approvals are currently at the Ministry of Education. This is the final step on the road to reaccreditation! The exact time frame is unknown, though they are suggesting it might be as quickly as just a few weeks. However, we are not getting our hopes up, as timing often changes there.

Once the reaccreditation is granted, it might still be a few more weeks for all of the paperwork to be official. This is happening so much faster than we had dared to dream, and I'm sure it's due in no small part to the prayers of waiting adoptive parents (and our families and friends!) around the country.

Please continue to pray, and we'll update you as we hear more.