It Is Easy To Forget

I believe in the power of prayer. That is one reason why I am quick to ask people to pray for all kinds of things. It is easy to think of things to ask people to pray for. Even when God’s answer is no, or not yet, God responds to our requests. This past week I was reminded how easy it is to forget to take the time to thank and praise God for all the ways He answers prayer.

It is for that reason that I want to take some blog space to honor and praise God for some of our answered prayers. I am thankful that He has brought us this far in the adoption process. I am amazed that we are where we are in the process, I sometimes can't believe we are waiting for a court date . I sometimes think that I might actually have gained a half-of a smidgen more of patience than I did before we began adoptwaiting. I am thankful for the support and encouragement of our family and friends, it has been priceless.

We prayed that my fingerprints would be readable and not need to be re-done. I did not have to have my fingerprints redone, what an answer to prayer. When Jeff and I were working on our dossier we were getting some of our final paperwork notarized because we wanted our dossier to go to Ethiopia as soon as we had our I-171.  I never prayed for paper as much as I did when we were working on our dossier. We had our I-171 verification form signed and notarized before we received our I-171 form. I thought I was being so on top of it. When we met with our adoption worker, she asked me why we signed and dated it because it had to match the date on our I-171 form. I started to panic, I thought it will take days to get the new form notarized and sent to our adoption worker. We had met between her office and our home. There was nowhere to print a new form. But as we looked at our notarized form and our I-171 form, the dates matched! We had our form signed and notarized on the day our I-171 was issued! Only God can orchestrate such details. Of course there was another form we filled out wrong. We needed a new one. I prayed that the Starbucks we were having our meeting at let me use their computer to print a new form. Stores do not usually want their patrons to do such things. However, this Starbucks did and I was able to print a new form so we could re-sign the necessary form. We left our completed dossier with our adoption worker that day. What an answer to prayer.

We met a couple that lives in our town that adopted a 6 year old girl who was on a waiting child list, our boys were waiting children. This couple had been praying to meet someone who was adopting from Ethiopia that they could support and encourage through the process they had just completed. We had been praying to meet someone who had adopted from Ethiopia who lived close to us. When we went to our next adoption group meeting, we met this couple. What an answer to prayer for both of us.

I participate on an Ethiopian adoption forum. As a group we have been praying for families who were waiting for embassy dates who had them and are now home with their children. We have prayed for families: to receive referrals, to get submitted to get assigned a court date, and that they would have all the correct paperwork so they would pass court their court date. It is amazing to think of the many prayers we have seen answered. 

These are just a smidgen of thanks and praise for the answered prayers that I have witnessed as we have moved forward in our adoption. I would love to hear how God has answered your prayers.  Please comment and share how God has answered your prayers. If you are unable to comment publicly please email me and share.

I am so thankful for the many ways that God has answered prayer. But I am also keenly aware of the requests that not yet answered. I found encouragement from this post from Streams in the Desert as I continue to wait on God for some of our prayer requests. Hopefully, you will too.

One Piece of Paper

I never new one piece of paper could be so important, until I began adoptwaiting. They don’t start off talking about it. They kind of ease you in to it. They tell you, you will create a dossier. Since you have never heard of a dossier before you are thinking a dossier that sounds easy. The thing they forgot to mention is that gathering a dossier is like trying to pick up paper in wind storm when everyone else’s trash is blowing all around as well.

A good example of this is when one of my friends who was writing one of the two recommendation letters we needed. She is at the bank hoping to get it notarized but she realizes that it does not have all the words the notary was suppose to write. Because it is important to note that not only are there detailed instructions on every piece of paper you need, there are detailed instructions for what the notary is suppose to write and how they are suppose to sign. It is also important that the notary does not expire within 6 months of when the document was signed. Right, then you need to get it state sealed. So the state the recommendation letter and notary originated from need to be sent to the Secretary of State of the state the letter and notary came from and they verify the notary. They put an official piece of paper on it all and it is State sealed. Repeat 25 more times.

In the midst of what I have heard referred to as the great paper chase, you apply with immigration to obtain your I-171 form. Once you apply they mail you appointments to go and get fingerprinted. Even though you have already been fingerprinted you get to go again. Once they have your fingerprints they are able to process your I-171 form. This form takes the longest to get so it is usually the last piece of paper needed when gathering your dossier.

When ours came in the mail, I am not sure what we thought it would say or what it would like. While we were waiting for it, everyday had the hope that today will be the day it comes in the mail. Then when it is not in the mail there is a bit of disappointment. So when it came this past Thursday, we were surprised and unsure. Is this it? Does it say on it I-am-the-most-important-piece-of-paper-that-you-have-been-waiting for? Ours did not. My husband called me at work and read it to me. We were unsure. Is this it? I asked him to send me a picture because I wanted to see it. Maybe if we were both looking at we could figure it out. 13 phone calls later, my ever-patient husband was able to send a photo I could print off and read. That is when we both saw it I-171. This is it. This is the paper we have been waiting for just under 3 months to receive.

Now our dossier is complete. We met with our social worker on Saturday to give it to her. She reviewed every piece of paper. She pointed out one that had been done wrong. Being at Starbucks about an hour from our house how could we print a new one? Starbucks to the rescue, they let me use their computer to pull up my email and he printed another copy of the page we needed. Then she saw our I-171 verification form, not to be confused with our I-171form, the verification form had been notarized. She asked me why did I do that? I told her we thought we needed to. She was on the verge of saying it was not going to work when she realized that we signed and dated it the same day our I-171 form had been approved. She said how lucky we had been, I corrected her, and I said it was providential. Only God could orchestrate that we have our verification form signed, dated and notarized on the exact date our I-171 form was approved. Just writing that reminds me of my previous post about trusting God and how can I not trust a God who is the God of such details?