Last night I said that we were planning to head up to Columbus this afternoon to have our dossier documents state-certified, and that way we’d be ready to submit our dossier as soon as the last paper arrives (should be early next week) and we have enough money (praying hard for that). Well, that’s not what happened today. We never made it to Columbus, because we found out this morning that our medical forms have to be filled out, for the third time! The first time we had to ask the doctors to redo them, I faxed blank forms over to the office several days ahead of time so that they wouldn’t be rushed when filling them out. I never even thought about the fact that most fax machines print a line of identifying information at the top or bottom of the page when the fax arrives. That didn’t even cross my mind. Apparently, however, that little bit of information is enough to invalidate the forms, so they have to be done. Again. That meant that there was no point in traveling up to Columbus today, since we’d just have to do it again as soon as our medical forms are done. So, we’ll just have to wait until next week to go.

We were obviously disappointed about this news, but we know that God is good and wise and sovereign, and that even this apparent setback is part of His plan for our adoptions. We want to get our papers done as quickly as possible so that our girls don’t have to stay in their orphanages one day longer than is absolutely necessary, but the truth is that we couldn’t have submitted our dossier today, anyway. My birth certificate is still in Pennsylvania receiving its state certification, and I won’t have that in-hand until Monday or Tuesday. And, we don’t have the money that we need to submit our dossier. So, even if we had made it up to Columbus today, we’d still be waiting on those other two pieces to fall into place. I don’t know exactly what God’s plan is in all of this, but I do know that He works all things together for the good of those that love Him (Rom. 8:28), and He has graciously encouraged us this past week that He is indeed planning to bring Isabelle and Hallie home to us. Why He wants us to wait a few more days at this point, I don’t know, but I suspect that it’s something similar to what kids experience when their parents tell them to wait. Most mornings, our kids start creeping into the kitchen while I’m working on breakfast. Matthias often tries to scale the side of his chair, Mikaela grabs hold of her seat and starts trying to buckle the straps (without her being in the chair!), and Josiah and/or Gabriela come out and say not-so-subtle things like, “What are we having for breakfast?” to let me know that they’re hungry. It’s especially confusing for them if they can see food on their plates and their juice cups ready, but if there’s something else that I need to do to finish getting breakfast ready, then they have to trust that I know what I’m doing (at least in that specific area) and wait for my timing. The analogy isn’t perfect, but I suspect that God is doing something similar here. I’m not saying that He has something better in store than what we’re expecting; we would be thrilled if He would enable us to send our dossier off one week from today. Even that would require some serious work of His. But we are trying to stay peaceful as we look to Him, remind ourselves that He is good, and wait for His timing.

Good night everyone, and have a blessed weekend and Sabbath.

Greg