His Timing is Perfect!

Our home study is complete! It was sent to the USCIS office and Acres of Hope yesterday. In a nutshell it means we wait for immigrations to approve us as adoptive parents that we can bring children into this country without them ever becoming a burden on the social welfare system of this nation! What we are waiting on is the I-171 approval letter and that can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months. I have come to find out it is the waiting on every step in the bureaucratic process that is the hardest. It is the unknown. At least when you are pregnant you pretty much can guarantee within a 2 week time frame your delivery date. Here you wait on others; it is out of your control.
I look on the Acres of Hope website and have watched the children available list dwindle to just a few. While I am excited for those children getting their forever families I wonder “When will my children appear on that list?” So we wait.
We have learned in the last few days that there is a change in policy at the US Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia due to a new US Consular. Wither it is her way of establishing her position or directions from higher up is unclear. But she has decided that she will only allow visa appointments on Thursdays. That means they will be taking one fifth of the amount of appointments as before which wasn’t enough at that. There are over 100 children with Acres of Hope alone waiting for visa appointments; and if only 5-6 visas are issued a day…you do the math! Acres of Hope’s orphanage is filled to capacity and they can not take in any more children until some of those waiting go home to their forever families. It looks like it will be a longer waiting period till children are added to the list of available children.
My heart goes out to those families who are so close to bringing their children home and now…it is so uncertain when their visa appointments will take place. Again…they wait.
My heart has been saddened this week too by the realization that we will not be able to take two of the children we were originally interested in. They are special needs. And due to our new insurance since May we realize we can not take on their needs. It was with a heavy heart that I had to tell the office we could not take them. Once I surrendered to my husbands concerns (and he had other good reasons) I felt a peace that God would provide two little girls that will fit perfectly into our family. I know that His timing is perfect even in light of this new slow down, I still trust that. I serve a big God who is able to move mountains (and a US Consular), who knows when someone will be sick and out of the office for a day or a week at the immigration office that will hold up my approval letter because He is working on the heart of the family half way around the world who will bring my children to the Acres of Hope office at just the same time as we are ready to begin receiving information on available children. My God can hold back waters in a mighty river, as well as calm the heart of a hurting soul. I serve a mighty God and in that I can rest, for I know one thing…HIS TIMING IS PERFECT!