What Now?

As you know from following our story, an exciting thing happened this last week.  We got our approval from our government for Jacob to immigrate to America.  The adoption process always amazes me.  There are so many things you have to get done, in just the right time.  I must say that this process with Jacob has gone a little more smoothly than with Naomi.  I think the fact that we "have been there and done that before" has helped us during the times of uncertainty.  However, you could do the adoption thing over and over and still have your heart tied in knots many times. We know for sure though, that once you have your little one home, everything you went through will be like a blur .  We have seen first hand how adoption changes you.  Once, you take the plunge, your life and your families lives will never be the same.

Naomi right after she came to America - what an expression!

Many of you have asked us, "now what, when will you be traveling and how can we continue to help you guys?"  I wanted to answer some of those questions that you might have in the back of your mind.  First off, we really have no idea when we will travel.  I was able to call the National Visa Center  yesterday and find out that they had sent our stuff over to the Embassy in the Philippines.  We have a case number now - that is huge!  It will be up to the Embassy to schedule the visa appointment for Jacob.  We are not sure how long it is taking for them to schedule those appointments but have been told that they sometimes "speed up" the appointments for adoption cases - especially if the child is an older child.  Please pray with us that the appointment comes quickly.

Once the Embassy has the appointment scheduled, Jacob and his social worker will get on an airplane and fly to Manila for his appointment.  The appointment consists of an interview and medical evaluation.  After all of that, the Embassy will issue his visa.  It is around that time when we get "the call" - the REAL call that we can travel anytime after 10 days.  So, they give us a 10 day window to get the tickets and have everything ready.  Not a lot of time at all. Please pray that we will have the needed funds for the plane tickets and that they are not super expensive when we begin looking during that 10 day period.  As you can see, we are just waiting - again.  Adoptions are like that. You just seem to wait and wait and wait.  Until you get the call.

What one of our friends had done for us while we were away

This last part of the journey is both exciting and super hard at the same time.  I remember with Naomi that I was at the end of my rope just about now and had told Marshall that if they didn't call within the week, we were done.  I had enough of the wait.  Guess what?  They called the very next day.  God is like that - showing up just when you think you can't go on anymore.  And, as you can see, we are super close to hearing the phone ring and our adoption agency saying...it is time.

Our family is still on the journey.  In fact, the journey doesn't end with the "call".  We will continue to need your prayers and support even after we bring our Jacob home.  Just this week, we were told about a disrupted adoption.  It happens all to often.  You have supported us thus far, will you continue being part of our journey when all the waiting is over?  We appreciate you all so much and continue to watch with wonder and amazement the work of our Lord.

Lorrie