And Then There Were Two

Well God is answering our prayers with moving the process along. Today at lunch I received a call from Tiffany that it's between us and one other family!!! Crazy!!! All God's Children partners with Gladney Center for Adoption in China. Apparently they are a huge adoption agency that has been around forever. Anyway, the director of Gladney has been in Beijing and heard about our request to be submitted to the CCCWA. He "just so happens" to be friends with some big wig at the CCCWA (Tiffany referred to him as "the director" but I'm unsure if he's the director of a certain department or the whole shebang), so he offered to personally make the request for our agency. How merciful of God to do that for us?! When he makes the request, the CCCWA director says that the girls paperwork came with a note on it stating that the files should be locked for another agency!! What!!!???? CCCWA director says that the family with the other agency has been sponsoring the twins. Gladney director tells the CCCWA director that his family (meaning me and Nathan) are also sponsoring the girls. So the director requested both families' dossiers and he'll make a decision between the two!!! Can you believe that??? I feel like we're in a soap opera. So we have a 50/50 chance at this point.

We're so grateful to know how to pray specifically! The part that is hard is that now we know another family is in the same boat as us. They are hoping to get to parent these sweet little ones too!

We know there is nothing else we could have done, our files are before the eyes of the guy with the power to make the decision. Now we just pray and wait on God to reveal to us His plan.

p.s. A good friend just mentioned Psalm 30 to me. What great Truth to cling to during this time of waiting. Just wanted to say that I'm SO THANKFUL for this excitement! God is so good to give us such a fun time in life, even if it is nerve racking. :) I don't want to forget to be grateful for this even if His plan is not for us to parent these girls. 

Psalm 130

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
²     Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

³ If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

⁷ Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.
⁸ He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

Paper Chain

One of my co-workers suggested I make a paper chain with each link representing a day until the shared list. At first I honestly thought, "no need for that, we're going to hear something tomorrow. " :) After 6 days of waiting, I decided it was time.

The top white link is for January 28th, the day the shared list is released! We're so hoping we hear something before this thing gets much shorter. I joked with Nathan last night that I need a link for every hour. It's torturous to only be able to remove one link for a whole 24 hours of waiting. Over the last few days, I've been reminded twice that God isn't about the end result but about the process. This is definitely making us depend on Him so I'm going to sit in gratitude today for Him taking my eyes off of myself  to search Him!

WE'RE SO CLOSE

At the Currie/Henderson annual "fireball party".

Yesterday, January 10th, we found out the girls paperwork went from the local government to the CCCWA! It's both nice and nerve racking to get the play by play of the process at this point. Our agency is working on a request to lock their files. We are on pins and needles while waiting to hear their response. Last night I told Nathan that I feel there are very few times in life that we can so clearly anticipate knowing God's will for us in such a tangible way as we are experiencing now. I might have a heart attack while I wait. :)