THIS IS HARD

Up until a few weeks ago, I would have said that the adoption process really wasn't that bad. The wait was hard, but we were prepared for that. Every once in a while we would hear something scary, but it would soon be cleared up. Everything had sort of gone as expected until yesterday...

After we passed court we were told to expect to wait 4-6 weeks to travel.... well 4 weeks came and went and we hadn't even been submitted to the Embassy! I was starting to feel so anxious and and angry and I didn't know what I would do if we went another week without being submitted!!! I would lose my mind! Well, yesterday the rest of the families were submitted and for reasons I don't totally understand our case was sent back.

I took the day off and Aaron and I just crawled into bed and pouted and snuggled and prayed. This morning I really felt better. I was hopeful. I focused on hearing positive news today while keeping my "worst case scenario" at a comfortable distance. Unfortunately, I found out today that my "worst case scenario" might actually be my best case scenario. It's crazy how things can change in one day!

Our agency sent us an update today. Here's part of it...

" ...the best thing for us to do is to take your adoption decree back to the courts next week and ask the registrar to fix the decree to say "...private information..." This is the way the courts have written decrees for other families in the past in similar situations and it sounds like this is exactly what the Embassy wants it to say. I do not know why the courts changed their wording on the decrees and it is more than unfortunate to have this wording holding up your submission to the Embassy. I think that this is a good idea to just ask them to correct it. She said she hopes the registrar can fix the decree without the judge being present; otherwise there it would have to wait until after the courts re-open. Have your prayer team pray specifically that this can be rewritten without the judge.

Let’s keep the prayers coming! God is in the business of miracles and he can both move this out of the way and bring peace beyond all understanding to you in this time!"

First of all, how amazing is Ashley from our agency... I really love her. This news was not necessarily the news I was hoping for, but so many people have been praying. The things that are holding this up seem so trivial... it almost gives me more hope that God is all over this. Surely He could have overcome this if He wanted to and with so many people praying I just feel like there's got to be some reason for this hold up.

A friend asked me how I was feeling today... I said, "mad, helpless, sad, anxious, stupid, desperate" I'm feeling all of those things, but I'm also trusting in God and remembering that Arthur is His child and He knows how the rest of this is going to go. I am holding onto my dream and feeling so lucky that I get to be a part of this amazing story.

Thank you so much for your prayers and tremendous support!! We really need you guys right now.

Pouting on the porch... I like how you can see my Arthur ring even in this dark picture.