Update

Adam and I got a call on Friday to let us know that the young girl who recently came to the orphanage where "W" is staying, is his ten year old sister. After A LOT of prayer and talking to our adoption agency and our local social worker, we have decided not to accept these two children. We have been instructed that these two children would be better in a home with parents who have prior experience with adopting older children and/or older children in their home already. Please pray for our family as this decision was very difficult. We have been placed back on the waiting list and will hopefully receive a new referral within the next few months.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Lynsey

Thank you for your prayers!

We received word that "W's" medical information came back and it looks great!  We have not seen it yet but we were told that he is fine.  So THANK YOU to everyone who prayed! 

Along with "W's" medical information we found out that he "might have a sister."  A young girl around the age of nine or ten was brought to the orphanage and "W" and she were both very excited to see each other.  Our agency was sending someone who speaks Swahili to communicate with this little girl to see if they are in fact siblings or if they just know each other.  We do not have an answer yet so please pray that we would receive this information soon.  We also ask that you would pray for wisdom for Adam and I and that God would tell both of us what he wants us to do.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support!

Lynsey

His timing is perfect...

The weekend was not off to a great start. 

Adam picked up our Roanoke County background check letters and they were not done correctly so we had to start all over.  Then I opened the mailbox on Saturday to find our State background check requests had been returned to us because we filled out the wrong form when submitting them...this was the correct form 6 months ago but not now....so we had to start all over again.  It was a frustrating weekend for us...the never ending paperwork... then I woke up on Monday morning and I prayed.  I was determined to be joyful no matter what came.  I also prayed for a little bit of encouragement in the adoption arena.  A lady in my Bible study group said that she prayed last week for a little encouragement in a matter than she had been praying about for years and the Lord gave her some.  She suggested I do the same so that Monday morning, that is exactly what I did at 4:45 am before I began working...it was tax season after all :-)  The rest of the day played out like it usually does, taxes, breakfast, play, lunch, play, taxes, play, dinner, taxes...  and then I finished all of the tax prep I was going to do for the day around 7:30 pm and I closed down my computer and walked inside.  Adam was standing in the living room, kids at his feet, laptop in one arm and phone in the other.  He looked up at me with the biggest smile I had seen in awhile and said..."hold on, let me put you on speaker phone, she just walked in..."  And the conversation went something like this.

"Hi Lynsey, its Debra from EAC."
"Hi Debra!"
"We have a little boy that came to the orphanage and we want to know if you are interested in him."
Adam opened up the computer and I saw his picture...and the tears started.  This is the moment I have been waiting for, for over a year.   This is the encouragement I asked for :-)

"His name is "W", he is 3 years old.  That is all we know.  We are going to have his medical testing done and should have that back for you in about a week.  He looks pretty healthy but we wont know for sure until we get his tests back.  I want to know if you are interested in him?"

"I don't understand.  How can we get a referral if we aren't even on the list?  We don't even have our dossier submitted."

"You are almost there and you have been waiting in the Ghana program for awhile already and he meets your criteria.  He needs a home."

"Of course we are interested!!!  We will pray about him tonight and let you know for sure in the morning."

The next morning, I got up, asked God to speak to me directly about "W" and whether or not he is the child God has picked out for us and this is what happened.  I opened my Bible study questions for the day and that days questions were on Genesis 35 so I started reading.  I got to verse 11 and this is what it says...

"I am God Almighty, be fruitful and increase in number."

So I stopped and I prayed that if this is the Lord speaking to me about "W" that he would confirm that to me.  I finished reading chapter 35 so I started answering my Bible study questions for the day.  One of the questions asked me to go to Isaiah 1:16 and this is what it said...

¹⁶ Wash and make yourselves clean.  Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.^[a]Defend the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

I had written a note next to this verse over a year ago..."I know God is calling me to do this - how???"  And now God was answering my question.  I felt him tell me in my heart, this is how I want you to do this, this adoption, this little boy, this specific time. 

We started this journey long ago. 

I couldn't get pregnant and we prayed. 

We finally got pregnant and we still prayed. 

We knew he told us to adopt. 

We worked on paperwork for a very long time. 

We sent it all to the wrong country. 

We prayed and he told us to change directions. 

We started all over again. 

WHY is this taking so long???? 

I have asked this question over and over.  And now I know..."W" just got to the orphanage. 

God is sovereign and his plan is perfect.  His timing is perfect.

So we began the waiting again, this time for his medical information.  Debra told us this would not be an official referral that we could accept until they had his medical information back so we waited, and waited and waited.  We waited to share the news because it wasn't an official referral and we wanted to be sure but we are sharing this information now because we need your prayers.  One of the main things God has taught us through this process is that prayer works!  Ask him to move mountains to get "W's" medical information back to us.  Debra said it would be a week so at the end of the third week, Adam asked her if we should be concerned that it was taking so long and she said, "No, not at all, this is Africa." 

On Thursday, I started my day out like I have so many times lately, praying to God to please bring our FBI clearances in the mail today.  This was the last piece of information we were waiting on to send in our completed dossier.  Right after the mailman dropped off our mail, I prayed and walked to the mailbox and I was so excited to finally see a letter from the FBI but it was only my clearance letter.  Adam's was not there.  So I called Adam upset that the letter was not there.  "They should have been together, how could they get separated?"  Adam assured me it was no big deal and it would probably be in the mailbox tomorrow.  So I got off the phone upset.  I went to pick up Eva from preschool and on the drive home, I talked to God.  I asked him why he let the letters get separated?  He knew how bad we needed them and he just let one of them get lost.  And then I heard the perfect song on the radio for my situation, it goes like this... 

"I don't know what you are doing, but I know who you are." 

...and I told him that I trusted him even though I didn't understand.  So Eva, Eli and I walked into the house and I started making lunch and someone knocked on our door.  When I walked over, it was our next door neighbor, Mr. Scott standing there with a letter in his hand...he said, "this got put in my box today."  I jumped up and down when I saw the letters FBI on the front!  I told Mr. Scott how I had been waiting and praying for this letter and thanked him profusely for bringing it over!!!  How cool is that! 

So we have everything completed and mailed.  It will be translated and then sent to the Congo.  What we need prayer for right now is "W's" medical information to come back.  We cannot officially accept him without his medical information so please pray that it will come back quickly and pray for wisdom for Adam and I.  Since "W" is not officially ours yet, we have not told Eva and Eli so please do not mention this to them. 

I am SO tired of waiting but I am not tired of watching God perform miracle after miracle on our child's behalf.  I am not tired of asking him to speak to me and hearing his voice.  I am not tired of seeing his plan unfold and I am not tired of him showing me time and time again that he is sovereign and his plan is perfect.  Thank you God for not getting tired of me.

Lynsey