Still Here and Random Thoughts About It

We got this message from our adoption agency today.  Our wait for TA (which is averaging 3 - 10 days) is now at 49 days.

"Our Beijing office personally visited CCCWA today China time and pushed further on the delay.  Our people were told that the delay remains the fallout of the computer glitch that I discussed with you in January, when the accounting department was having some problem accessing their computer records to confirm your dossier and translation fees were paid, a confirmation the matching department requires in order to issue the TI for any family.  Of course, we were told at an earlier point that this glitch had been fixed and obviously has been since families with A5 approvals issued in February are getting their TIs.  Our staff was told the financial section was “too busy”, which I take to mean to get to the backlogged families right now, and that we were to wait while they caught up.  It’s illogical why the financial department would not deal with backlogged families before more recent ones, but we as adoption professionals learned that logic rarely applies in international adoption. "

SO WHY WAIT?

Because some things are worth waiting for.

It may not be the desire or the dream that God has given to you, and you may not understand it from an earthly perspective, but we believe that it is God's plan for us and His plan B for Alex.  Thank you to those who have prayed for us and encouraged us. Please keep praying for Alex.  This is from Love Without Boundaries and addresses the possibilities of why he may or may not know that we are coming: 

A few years ago we had a beautiful little girl in one of our programs who wanted a family very much. She was chosen off of an agency list, and I was actually the one who told her in person that she would be getting her own mom “very soon.” She was overjoyed, and I know she started counting the days until she would have a family of her own. Unfortunately her family-to-be didn’t seem to have the same burning desire to get the adoption completed. Months went by without home study visits being done; each time the agency would call to ask if they were still continuing, then the family would do one more minimum piece. Six months turned into a year, and then two, and the little girl was still no closer to having this family actually come get her. The older children in the orphanage, who were no longer eligible for adoption, began taunting the little girl to release some of the anger they had in their own hearts over never being chosen. They began telling her daily that of course no family was coming, as who would want HER. Despite the nannies’ best assurances, of course the little girl slipped into a deep sadness. After the family finally backed out, I discussed what had happened with the orphanage director, who told me he would never again tell a child a family was coming “until we are walking into the doors of the government office to meet them.”

Of course that was an extreme response, but adoptive parents in the West need to understand that orphanage directors and nannies regularly see families who stop adoptions. Whether it is from divorce, or money issues, the loss of a job, or a death in the family, sometimes adoptions fall through. Many orphanage officials feel in their minds that they are protecting a child from future heartache by withholding information about a family until that family actually arrives in China. They also might feel like they are protecting the child from hearing taunts or even threats from other children in the orphanage who are dealing with their own feelings of not being chosen. 

On the other hand, Alex may have been told and given our album back when we received LOA back in October.  And now it's February.  That's a long time for a 7-year-old to face an unknown future.  Please keep his little heart in your prayers.

God is building patience (although it feels like we are just working toward official straight-jacket status).  

Again, someone else's words are better than mine, so from Sandra Zimmerman at Tales From Our House: 

After I wrote yesterdays post I was listening to a radio program and what I heard felt like God was prodding me, giving me a reminder. In my own words this is what I heard, "Patience, we ask God for it, desire for Him to pour it upon us, to give it to us a gift of sorts, if you will. But God usually doesn't answer our prayer by filling us with patience. He often leads us through hard times and let's us earn patience because like most things, we will value it much more if we have to earn it."       The speaker then gave the illustration of someone learning to water ski, again my own words, "You are in your living room with your new ski's and an instruction manual. Even though you follow the instructions, you will have a difficult time learning to ski because you are missing the key ingredient, water. Learning patience is similar. We have an instruction book and we know what we wish to attain, but without trial's, we will have a difficult time learning patience."

I'm sorry, Lord, but I HATE PATIENCE.