Drum Roll, Please.....

Tonight, we received the announcement that has felt elusive for the past year. Christopher is now a Hires!

In November 2011, all our translated, legalized documents were sent to Haiti. It took the lawyer a total of 5 1/2 months to finalize Christopher's paperwork just in time to have the Haitian IBESR close their doors to new dossiers (May 1, 2012). We happened to be in Haiti with our agency director when he picked up the final paper May 3rd. Every adoptive parent in our travel group circled together on the porch of the orphanage guesthouse, petitioning God for a miracle that we could somehow get into the system. God answered a silent "No" which was sooo hard to hear. We prayed through the whole summer that IBESR would open at the end of May, then in June, then July. Finally, August 16th IBESR opened. We waited for news. Our lawyer has never explained why she waited until September 11, 2013 to file our dossier. We will never know the delay. It was hard to trust God, knowing that we had no control. We wanted to get angry, yet we knew there was no point.

On the flip side, we will never know why we have been blessed to see such incredible speed in the past month. What I do know is that God is God and I am not. God is a God of miracles whether he answers prayers "Yes", "No" or "Wait". While we wait, while we question His timing, there is one thing we know for sure - God has always known. He is here with my family in Colorado and He is there with my family in Haiti. He intimately knows our lawyer, everyone that works at our agency, our orphanage director and all the men and women who work tirelessly taking care of my children. He knows the families that have gone before us and the families that are walking with us. He intimately knows me.

Yesterday was a day of sorrow. Today was a day of rejoicing. Through it all, I am confident that God was present and felt it all. He knows greater pain and greater joys than I can ever experience. He carries my darkest burdens and puts me on His shoulder when I cannot walk. I can sink to the depths and rise to the heights with assurance that where I am there He is also.

The wait is not over. And as the cheering dies down over today's amazing news, I pray this:

God, stay in my sights so that I am not tempted to believe I am alone and take over. 

Each morning, show me what you need me to learn 

and prompt me to be still so that I can draw closer to constant dependence on You.