Well nothing much has happened in our process recently.
Actually not much has happened in many waiting family's process recently and there is a lot up in the air in the China adoption community.
The adoption side of the Chinese government shut down at Christmas to re-vamp their system and website. Things were suppose to be back up and running on the 5th and since then things have been well...sparse to say the least.
So that means we still have not heard word on her file and we really have no way of knowing when that will come. We have been waiting for it since September but I have been reassured that her orphanage is a very good one and they are working on getting it done.
The good news is we are moving full steam ahead with our home study and dossier so that when her file does come we will not be behind with the process at all. We have our home study interviews next weekend, have taken our finger prints, and have our physicals coming up. Things seem to be moving very quickly with the paperwork...which means fees are coming due.
Trying to remember that we are trusting God with this journey He has placed us on. Even though we have adopted twice before, the fear of the costs, and the trip, and the adjustments to our new life are all overwhelming some days. This is a new special need for us as well and so that adds another factor into this journey of our's. However, I know more than anything that this little girl is our daughter, that God has placed her before us, and that there is great purpose to her life and this road we travel. I cannot wait to show you her picture and tell you more about her and the story!
Until then... I will leave you with the #2 of the 30 Seeds of Change devotionals:
An Invitation to Know God
"God's heart for orphans is huge. Throughout scripture God shows this. He calls Himself the Father to the Fatherless, He says He delights in setting the lonely in families, and He asks us to care for the orphans, the fatherless, and those who don't have a family. But also we know God loves orphans simply because we know God loves us. For while we were still worthless, abandoned, hopeless orphans, God showed us His great love by adopting us into His family, and giving us the "Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:15). As John Piper says, "Adoption is the visible gospel."
God desires that we show his love to the world by going out and in the same way caring for orphans in their distress (James 1:27). This is not about you fulfilling your responsibility. This is not, "You better do it or else." God comes to us as a Father, full of love. We are not His children because of what we've done, what we've accomplished, or because of any merit of our own. God clearly says that He predestined us to be adopted into His family, to become His children, "according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:5-6). He did this to glorify Himself because He loves us and because He gets the glory! "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1)
When I was in China worshiping at an orphanage singing, "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord...I want to see you," the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "Open your eyes, I am right in front of you." And when I opened my eyes, I saw this little orphan girl who had crawled into my guitar case while I was singing and was now sitting there staring up at me. I had said I wanted to find God, and He answered by showing me that He is there, right where He said He would be, among the poor, the needy, the orphan-the least of the least.
God has poured out His love to us. At some point in our lives, He revealed himself to us, showed us our need for Him, and now here we are-no longer orphans-but fully adopted sons and daughters. As we recognize the love of God for us, as we recognize Him rejoicing over us, we simply say, "I want to respond to Your love, what can I do?" And I believe God says, "Let me recreate that love in your heart. I want to show up in you, My people, My church."
We pray for revival; we pray for God to move in powerful, earth-shattering ways, and I believe God is saying, "I want to show up infinitely more than you want Me to." I believe the millions of waiting children represent innumerable opportunities for God to show up and reveal His glory through us, His church. And that's the invitation from God, "Come and know me, and I will make myself known through you, members of my body, the church, as you care for orphans in their distress."
What are the things you want more that anything else in this life? How might God answer your heart's deepest desires through serving and glorifying Him among the needy? What would you say to God in response to His invitation to know Him by loving orphans? What are some practical ways you can begin answering His invitation?
~Steven Curtis Chapman
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