We wanted an end of the month update so I asked our adoption specialist if this would be our last move up the ladder for a while. She had told us previously we would see more movement but I was not sure if she meant just to #4.
I just saw her response now (we were out voting!). She said she expects further movement in the next 2-4 weeks since there were still referrals pending (referrals that were given out but had not been officially accepted) and since she mentions 4 weeks (Families only have 2 weeks to accept a referral.) I am sure they are waiting for medicals on new referral as well. Anyway VERY exciting!!!
My heart has surely been full with prayers for our baby boys. wondering who they are, where they are and when we will "meet" them. Abba has been faithful to give me HIS grace to stand and wait, knowing HIS plan is perfect!!!
I asked our adoption specialist if we had a new waiting list number and the answer was YES!!! We are now #4!!!
So for fun... Four: four sides. Ancient Hebrew, the four sides of a square On day 4 the foundation of the earth was complete and ready for life. Commandment 4: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy! 4 winds of the earth (Rev. 7:1) 4 corners of the earth (Rev. 7:1) 4 horns of the golden alter
So you have no idea what this is? Well I had no idea what this was either until this month! The VISA 37 cable is a cable sent from our local USCIS office to sent to the National Visa Center who then sends it to the Embassy, in our case in Ethiopia. It lets them know we have been approved to adopt along with information about our aproval like for how many children, the gender, the expiration of our fingerprints and the expiration of our approval.
At the request of our agency, I put together an email to the Embassy in Ethiopia to have them confirm their receipt of our VISA 37 cable. Our adoption specialist said it would take a day or two to hear back from them.
Oh, still no word about our dossier being picked up by the facilitator.
Our dossier has arrived in Ethiopia!!! Praise God! Now it will be picked up by the agency facilitator and begin the translating process. I am not sure how long this usually takes but will find out.
The other news we received today is confirmation that our official standing on the list will not change until the family who received the referral officially accepts the referral.
As we pray for the boys we wanted to ask you all to pray along with us.
Please pray for the babies' health. We have heard of several babies who have died during the process (this happened in Viet Nam as well).
As we move up the waiting list and knowing that it is God who sets the solitary in families, please stand with us as we pray for "our" children to be referred to us, those are are truly in need of a family, those boys He has called to be our sons, those boys we can bless as a family and train as arrows for His Kingdom.
Agree with us that there will be some connection with these boys so that we can discern they are "ours".
As far as the process please pray for our paperwork to arrive safely in Ethiopia and for the translation be completed without hitches.
Please pray that the boys paperwork is in order and without issue.
Pray specifically for all the necessary signatures to be on all the documents, and all documents needed are available for the court process.
Just got an email a bit ago from someone with our agency who I have been corresponding with for a few weeks.Her family had been #3 during the court close down and was recently told they were #2 .Anyway she let me know that they got their referral today!! They are going to have his medicals looked at on Monday or Tuesday, just to be safe, and then accept the referral.I am sure they are going to have fantastic weekend!!
So if you are keeping up with my mind here you know what I am thinking.We have probably just hopped into another place…well at least unofficially!You do not “officially” move up the list until the family accepts the referral (signs the paperwork) but unofficially we are 4 or maybe even 3 since they were #2 before the referral!Ok, so at this point I am preparing my heart to sit at our next number for a bit, as I am sure this flurry of activity will be over soon BUT it sure is fun and amazing to JUMP up the list so quickly!
Just got an email letting us know that our dossier is bundled up and awaiting the DHL man to come and take to begin the journey to Ethiopia! It will be picked up today by 4pm and typically takes about 5 business days for it to arrive in Ethiopia.
Just heard that our adoption documents will be sent out to Ethiopia either tomorrow or Tuesday of next week. (Our adoption specialist is off on Mondays.) When it arrives back at the agency tomorrow it just needs some post-it notes marking somethings for the facilitator in Ethiopia, our Power of Attorney added along with our passport photos. It will then be shipped via DHL and will typically take about 5 business days for it to arrive at the agencies facilitator in Ethiopia. Of course they will be tracking it every step of the way!!!
We just got some great news from our agency that was wonderful and a revelation of God’s goodness.This week there was a flurry of activity at the agency and we are now OFFICIALLY #5 on the wait list. I just KNEW in my heart that the next official number we were going to be was 5!Why?Five means grace!!!So we have the boys' names and our agency's name which all mean God is gracious and now we are number 5!Just another reminder that this adoption is the Father’s plan and can only be completed by HIS grace!!!
And there was more news.Our documents, which are presently in at the Ethiopian Embassy in WashingtonD.C. being authenticated, are expected to arrive at our agency tomorrow!!The next step will be for them to be sent to Ethiopia. Our adoption specialist also said she expected there to be more movement in the next week or two. WOOHOO!!!
Today we got a couple of tidbits of information from our adoption specialist. The first is that there are no families ahead of us (or after for that matter) currently waiting to adopt 2 baby boys. That mean that if twins do become available (though a rarity it is of course possible) they would be referred to us.
The second tidbit was very exciting. The last document our agency needed for our dossier (a document they generate) was received by them today from the their states Secretary of State. This means that tomorrow our dossier is going to get packaged up and sent to Washington D.C. for authentication. They should have it back by late next week and then it is off to Ethiopia! PRAISE GOD!!!
All these "baby" steps really add up and we are so blessed to know when we are "past" each of them. We are extremely grateful we have such a wonderful adoption specialist who is on top of all this and who is sensitive to keep us in the loop.
Well it looks like our place at #7 will not be for too long. I just saw on our agencies Yahoo group that a family received a referral for a baby boy which means we may be hearing soon that we have moved up the list and down in numbers!
Earlier today I tracked our new agency license and was quite relieved to see it had arrived. Our adoption specialist was kind to send us an email to confirm it's arrival and also let us know they still needed a copy of our USCIS VISA approval. After getting it to them via email/PDF we are officially all done with our part of the dossier! The agency has one document that they are waiting on from the Secretary of State of Colorado, (I believe it is their agency license) which should arrive any day now, and and then our entire dossier will be complete and go to the Ethiopian Embassy to be authenticated!!!
Samuel left early this morning to Raleigh to gft our last dossier document certified. He called during the say to let us know when it was all done and had already taken it to Fed Ex for it to go to oue placemnt agency. It looks like tomorrow might be the day we are finally done unless they was the new court document.
When we found out we would not be getting our last document into our agency when we thought I decided to ask our adoption specialist what number on the wait list we WOULD have been if we could have gotten on the list next week. This was her response:
Sent:Fri 10/10/08 1:19 PM
To:kniseleynook
"Hi guys- I'm sorry for the trouble you are having! I am going to make a special consideration and place you on the wait list today. You did such a quick job correcting your documents and I have no doubt that this will be corrected soon too.
You are family #7 on the wait list. However, these lists are going to be moving in the next couple weeks. We are waiting on medicals for children and then will be giving referrals. Have a great weekend!"
I was floored when I saw this and was between shouting, screaming and crying. I know the journey ahead of us is long but to finally be waiting to meet our babies is such a milestone!!! We praise God for this gift, HE IS SO GOD!!!
Did you notice we are 7? Isn't that just perfect? The number of perfection, completeness, wholeness, HIS sabbath and HIS rest! Isn't God awesome???!!!
Amazingly right after this email we received a call from our homestudy agency. Miraculously they had received the new license, NOTARIZED!!! Samuel had them send it to us USPS overnight so he can take it Monday to be certified in Raleigh (The girls and I will stay home and cook up an Ethiopian feast!) and then send it to our placement agency via Fed-Ex. Amazingly it should arrive at the agency when it would have originally!
We just got a message for the director of our homestudy agency stating that the new license should be at their office by Monday. That means our Monday trip to Raleigh to get it certified will have to be postponed to Tuesday. Just one more day but after months of paper tracking, pushing and peddling one day seems like forever. Not to mention the fact that we cannot get on the waiting list until we have all our documents in to the placement agency. My honey's response? Just more water to pour on the altar!!!
Every adoption has its bumps and easy paths, valleys and high places...and this one is no different. Amazingly when the new license arrived at our agency yesterday it was NOT notarized. Our agency director was very apologetic, even though it was really not his fault and planned on contacting the social servoes department who take care of this as so as possible. The new plan is to have them resend the license...but this time notarized!
Just got word from the director of our HS agency that their new license has been issued! Hopefully we can get it either tomorrow or Friday, then after getting it certified we pray it will be on our adoption specialist's desk by Tuesday. Once that happens we will be on the waiting list!
On 2/14/08 I posted in my blog about the miracle of God’s provision for our adoption.We were completing our application for USCIS and were about to fill in the box that would determine the maximum children we could adopt.For those who have followed along in my blog you might remember Samuel's income was barely enough to adopt one, but with renewed vision, and unbeknownst to us, Samuel called the last company that had not sent him his 1099. You should have seen him when he came down this morning with calculator in hand. He asked me to look up the USCIS chart and how much we would need to adopt 2, and then with a BIG smile turned the calculator to reveal the amount. Adding in his reimbursement income the amount surpassed what we needed. Well that day the girls and I had been writing baby names on the board.Of course one was Courage which we had already felt led to use, and among several others was Triumph.As soon as Samuel showed us the amount we all looked at the name and yelled out, “Triumph”!
Here’s a note from Samuel:
Last night I was irritable because I felt frustrated at not accomplishing what I thought I should have accomplished. I was also frustrated because I felt like I didn’t have the tools necessary to accomplish what I felt I could accomplish. This morning when I was talking to the Lord, I heard Him ask me if I wanted to continue pursuing success and accomplishment or if I wanted His triumph. I then remembered the following verse: But thanks be to God, the One always leading us in triumph in Christ, and the One revealing through us the odor of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2Co 2:14 LITV)
Triumph=G2358 θριαμβεύωthriambeuōthree-am-byoo'-o From a prolonged compound of the base of G2360 and a derivative of G680 (meaning a noisyiambus, sung in honor of Bacchus); to makeanacclamatoryprocession, that is, (figuratively) to conquer or (by Hebraism) to givevictory: - (cause) to triumph (over).
When I looked up the word “triumph” in the Hebrew, I found the following, which correlates with today’s feast (Yom Teruah-Feast of Shouting):
Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to Elohim with a voice of singing! For יהוה Most High is awesome; A great Sovereign over all the earth. He subdues peoples under us, And nations under our feet. He chooses our inheritance for us, The excellence of Yaʽaqoḇ whom He loves. Selah. Elohim shall go up with a shout, יהוה with the sound of a ram’s horn. Sing praises to Elohim, sing praises! Sing praises to our Sovereign, sing praises! For Elohim is Sovereign of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. Elohim shall reign over the nations; Elohim shall sit on His set-apart throne. Nobles of peoples shall be gathered together, The people of the Elohim of Aḇraham. For the shields of the earth belong to Elohim; He shall be greatly exalted. (Psa 47:1-9) Singing (Triumph KJV) H7440 רנּהrinnâhrin-naw' Shouting: kjv: cry, singing, rejoice, joy, gladness, proclamation, shouting, sing, song, triumph.
As I was meditating on this, the Father reminded me of something that I didn’t even connect. A while back He had told me that I had been resisting His grace. Now He was asking me if I wanted to continue chasing accomplishments or if I wanted His Triumph.Then it hit me that Hannah and the girls had come up with the name “Triumph” for one of our sons’ middle names. I was also reminded that children are an inheritance from the Lord and felt Him show me that He was bringing the inheritance (the two boys) He had called to be a part of our family!
It is good to give thanks to יהוה, And to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High; To declare Your kindness in the morning, And Your trustworthiness each night, On ten strings, and on the harp, To the sounding chords of the lyre. For You have made me rejoice with Your work, O יהוה, I shout for joy at the works of Your hands. O יהוה, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep! A senseless man does not know, And a fool does not understand this. When the wrong spring up like grass, And all the workers of wickedness blossom, It is for them to be destroyed forever. But You, יהוה, are on high forever. For look, Your enemies, O יהוה, For look, Your enemies do perish; All the workers of wickedness are scattered. But You lift up my horn like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. And my eye looks upon my enemies; My ears hear the evil-doers Who rise up against me. The righteous one flourishes like a palm tree, He grows like a cedar in Leḇanon. Those who are planted in the House of יהוה Flourish in the courts of our Elohim. They still bear fruit in old age; They are fresh and green, To declare that יהוה is straight, My rock, and in Him is no unrighteousness. (Psa 92:1-15)
By this I know that You did delight in me, Because my enemy does not shout for joy over me. (Psa 41:11)
Shout (Triumph) H7321 רוּעrûa‛ roo-ah'
A primitive root; to mar (especially by breaking); figuratively to split the ears (with sound), that is, shout (for alarm or joy): - blow an alarm, cry (alarm, aloud, out), destroy, make a joyful noise, smart, shout (for joy), sound an alarm, triumph.
I will know you are pleased with me if my enemy doesn't defeat me. (Psa 41:11 CJB)
There is a battle. The enemy knows that if we don’t know there’s a battle and we try to accomplish things in the flesh, we will be defeated. Therefore, his greatest weapon is to tempt us to try to accomplish things in the flesh. However, the word says “the battle belongs to Yahaveh.” The enemy is afraid of the man who pursues Yahveh and waits for His Triumph instead of trying to accomplish something in the flesh.
And the Spirit of יהוה came upon Yaḥazi’ĕl son of Zeḵaryahu, son of Benayah, son of Yeʽi’ĕl, son of Mattanyah, a Lĕwite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly, and he said, “Listen, all Yehuḏah, and you inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and Sovereign Yehoshaphat! Thus said יהוה to you, ‘Do not fear, nor be afraid of the face of this great army, for the battle is not yours, but Elohim’s.
(2Ch 20:14-15)
But Dawiḏ said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the Name of יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of the armies of Yisra’ĕl, whom you have reproached. “This day יהוה shall deliver you into my hand, and I shall smite you and take your head from you, and give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines today to the birds of the heavens and the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the earth know that Elohim is for Yisra’ĕl, and all this assembly know that יהוה does not save with sword and spear, for the battle belongs to יהוה, and He shall give you into our hands.”
