APPROVED (YES, I AM SHOUTING!!!!)

I received an email to day from USCIS letting me know that our I-800 petition has been approved!! I can not express the joy I am feeling in words but it is almost uncontainable!!! What is the next step? I'm glad you asked . . .
1.USCIS sends our packet and approval to the National Visa Center
2.The National Visa Center sends a cable to the US Embassy in Manila
3.The US Embassy in Manila tells the Inter Country Adoption Board to schedule
4.Ezequiel's visa and passport appointments
5.The ICAB calls our agency when both documents are ready
6.Our agency calls us to bring home our son!
Due to the fact that ICAB is closed for most of December, we are looking at a late January to early February travel date. I would, of course, love to be leaving RIGHT NOW to get our boy but I believe the Lord is altogether trustworthy. He knows every facet of the lives of everyone involved and has chosen a different travel date from the one I would prefer. I have learned one lesson well through the course of this life: His ways are NOT my ways but His ways are always the BEST! I will try to wait patiently.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

Yesterday, I took a HUGE leap of faith . . .I'm sure the angels in Heaven sang my name and the demons shook at their very cores . . .I said the phrase "Merry Christmas" out loud, in public to a cashier with other folks in line behind me (ha ha)! I hesitate to use my blog to rant but indulge me. What on Earth is happening when a country believes the phrase "Merry Christmas" is an offense but "happy holidays" is perfectly acceptable?
Folks . . "holiday" means "holy day". The ONLY holy day that takes place in December is the birth of Christ so, I've got news for you. If you're using the phrase "happy holidays". You're still acknowledging the birth of Christ is holy, sacred, set apart and special. Guess what? You're right. It is.
Speaking of birthdays, our sweet Ezequiel turns two on December 17th. He won't be home. We won't be able to bring him a gift and watch him smash cake and smear it all over the place. I know he is in the capable hands of his loving caregivers at Gentle Hands. I am praying daily that the Lord will help us to wait with grace, never losing sight of God's sovereignty in ALL THINGS. It's so much easier said than done.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

Ordinary Miracle

Those of you who read my previous post regarding our "snag" with USCIS may recall that our extra paperwork cost an additional $340. Let me share with you what the Lord did YESTERDAY. Last night at church, one of the hard-working gals from Friends of Ezequiel
handed me a card. Inside the card was a check for the proceeds from a recent Lia Sophia jewelery fund raiser held for Ezequiel. You know where this is going, right? The check was for . . . ready . . . $343!!!! God added an extra $3 just to show us He has a sense of humor - ha ha!
GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS!!!

Choosing Thankfulness

We have hit another snag in our paperwork with USCIS. Our blessed office of homeland security decided our homestudy wasn't quite specific enough regarding our capability to parent a special needs child. We were asked to submit an addendum (called a supplement 3, to be exact) along with the $340 fee required for this form. IT IS A RACKET! I know many folks like to blame the high cost of adoption on greedy agencies or greedy foreign entities. I can tell you, firsthand, Uncle Sam gets a nice little piece of the pie. I realize the title of this entry is "Choosing Thankfulness" and it sounds suspiciously like I am headed in the wrong direction here. Let me clarify.
On a normal day in the life of our family, a surprise $340 bill would really be painful for us. We have a budget and it rarely includes unexpected expenditures in such a large amount. Thanks to "Friends of Ezequiel" the money was just waiting and ready to be used when we needed it. I am TRULY, DEEPLY thankful today . . .thank you, Friends of Ezequiel for your support. Thank you JESUS for keeping our boy safe as we wait for him. Thank you, most of all, Lord, for saving my soul.

Critical Mass

Yes, I have hit "critical mass"! As all of you adoptive parents out there can attest, there comes a time in the adoption journey when you say "I simply can NOT wait one more day for my child" and then, because you have no choice in the matter, you wait.
I am there. I am positively climbing the walls in anticipation of meeting Ezequiel.
There is nothing more I can do to the house, his room, his clothing, etc. I have read all I can read on Down Syndrome, heart defects, local surgeons and the like. I have answered the question "do you know when you'll travel" at least 1,000 times and it kills me to have to say "sometime between early December and early January" once again.
I am not now and never have been a patient person. I have prayed and asked the Lord to make me satisfied with the here and now. I am not satisfied.
I am praying that our I-800 approval is in the mailbox TODAY. If not, I don't know what I'll do. Oh, yes I do . . . I'll WAIT!

Prayer Request

I just received an email from Ezequiel's orphanage. Apparently, he is becoming very stranger phobic as of late, especially if those "strangers" have white skin.
That poor, sweet baby has no idea what is in store for him - he is getting ready to be taken from all that is familiar by some crazy white lady and her tan kids and husband (ha ha). Please, Please pray that God gives him great peace. Please pray that he is
able to sense just how much I love and want him so he won't be afraid of me.
Most of all, please pray that our precious boy is not traumatized by being taken from
a perfectly loving orphanage and enveloped by our perfectly loving family.
Thank you!!!!

Tears Turned to Joy

I have not blogged in awhile because, honestly, I've been a little down and didn't feel I should share my negative attitude with anyone else. For the last 36 days, the US Department of Homeland Security has been at odds with our wonderful adoption agency regarding the processing of one of our immigration forms for Ezequiel. We knew all along our agency was in the right but getting the person at the "top of the food chain" to tell Homeland Security was another matter altogether. Finally, yesterday, after 36 days of waiting (and knowing that on day 45, our paperwork becomes inactive and we have to refile and repay) we got our miracle. I called my Congressman. His name is David Price and he is not even of the same party affiliation I am but that doesn't seem to matter when the issue is child welfare. His assistant, Robyn, placed a call to Homeland Security and within HOURS we had the approval we had waited 36 days to receive. Sometimes God does miracles and sometimes He uses the people in our lives to do them. Thank you, Jesus, for giving Robyn Winneberger a heart for our case and for getting our approval through. We now wait for the US Embassy in Manila to issue Ezequiel's visa and passport. God is awesome!!!!

It's Official!!!!!

Today in the mail I received the kind of packet adoptive parents long for. It was an updated child study report and two beautiful new pictures of Ezequiel! They are on my fridge and each morning, when I open it, I'll be able to say "good morning" and pray for our boy as we wait. We have gotten the official referral from The Philippines and paid a nice fee and now we are so much closer to bringing him home!
We are waiting for our legal documents from The Philippines so we can apply for his visa and passport and then . . . it will be time to travel! Early December is not so out of reach. I am praising the Lord for all of your prayers, gifts and encouragement. God is so good . . . all the time!

Floods and Showers

Those of you who may not be up on "world news" probably don't realize that in the last few days, The Philippines has been inundated with rain from Tropical Storm Ondoy (or Ketsana). Metro Manila is flooded and the outlying areas like Rizal are positively drenched! Electricity is out all around the area and many of the poorest of the poor have lost their shacks, some their lives. Please pray for the precious people of The Philippines. When I heard the news of this disaster, my selfish mind went immediately to Ezequiel. "Where is my baby?" was my first thought. I admit my thoughts probably should have gone to the lovely family members we have living in PI and to the people as a whole, who struggle to feed their families and carve out some sort of a dignified existence amid some daunting economic hardship but all I could think about was Ezequiel and pray that he is safe. My next selfish thought jumped to our adoption process and the realization that this flood will inevitably slow down our paperwork and cause us to have a post-Christmas travel date. Yes, I know, self-centeredness at it's finest! I admit these things only to share how utterly convicted I felt about them yesterday.
Some of our friends, those who have dedicated themselves to our fundraising and who started "Friends of Ezequiel" just continue to bless us minute by minute. Yesterday they had a baby shower for us. We were blessed with diapers, wipes, a winter coat, shampoo, onesies, pajamas, socks and gift cards galore! If doing all the other work for our adoption was not enough, these ladies just showered us with more love and care than we could ever deserve.
It was on the way home that I realized in a new way how God truly does "more than we ask or imagine". It was then that the confidence in the God I serve to protect and bring our boy home safely was bolstered to new heights. Be it December or January, what's another month? God is sovereign and He is more than able! Praise to His
holy and matchless name!

I Know You

Just when I was getting discouraged about the progress (or lack thereof) with our adoption, a ray of sunshine appeared in our mailbox yesterday. It was the notification from US Homeland Security of our appointment for biometric fingerprinting. Those of you who have not adopted a child internationally may wonder what in the world I'm talking about. For my husband and I to be cleared to adopt, we must submit our fingerprints and have them compared with the prints of known felons, terrorists and other derelicts of society. Despite the fact that our fingerprints never change, this process has to be repeated for each international adoption (to the tune of $870 each time). In any case, we are scheduled to have our prints takes soon and that will be one step closer to our precious boy!

I was browsing his orphanage web site (www.gentlehands.org) and looking at the pictures of the children. There is one picture of Ezequiel on that web site and it's fairly old. I'm guessing he was less than a year old when it was taken. While I was gazing at his photo, I was struck with the most unusual sense of familiarity. I looked into his eyes and thought "I KNOW you. You're my baby" and it seemed the most logical notion on Earth. We've never met this child. We don't know the sound of his voice, how he likes to be held or his favorite food. I have no idea what his hair looks like after a bath . . . but as I looked at his photo today, I KNEW him.
It reminds me of how our Heavenly Father names us and claims us before we even come into His family. We are His before we ever know Him. As we run around in our lostness without a Godly heritage, the Creator of the Universe looks upon us and says
"I know her. She's my baby". I appreciate that so much more now.
Thank you, Jesus, for claiming me!

Joy Comes in the Morning

Right now, I am struggling mightily not to become discouraged in waiting to bring Ezequiel home.
He is waiting. He needs a family. The only thing that stands between Ezequiel and his eager family is government action. The Philippines must do their part and the US must do their part. I am a bit down right now. Looking at pictures of our sweet boy does not, at least today, encourage me. It only makes my heart ache.
Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to look at our baby and feel the joy of knowing he is coming soon. Today, he is far off and I'm sad.

"Sorrow only lasts for a night but joy comes in the morning" Psalm 30:5