No, this blog entry isn't about lettuce. Although, I can't wait to eat salads w/o praying for safety...
Okay, so in the last couple days I've been talking w/ my Guatemalan adoption facilitator about our case quite a bit. She has been very encouraging that we should here good news about PGN VERY SOON! I've been trying to hold out on blogging until then, but that could be awhile still. She has also been a little more up front w/ me about our case. Here's where the Iceberg part comes into play.
During this whole process I've not had a moment where we weren't bathed in prayer, and yet, from my perspective it seemed as though the process just kept getting worse. That created quite an uncomfortable amount of dissonance for me. For example, if God hears the prayers of his people then he must be either ignoring the hundreds of pleas or he's doing this on purpose/allowing it happen and get worse. Again, that's a tricky place to sit and wait. Well, the new perspective that I've come to after the past few conversations w/ our facilitator have aligned some of these festering questions. Apparently up until a few weeks ago, there was a very large chance that our case could have gone into 'investigation' here in Guatemala. The minimum amount of time a case stays in investigation is 6 months. It's one of the worst things that can happen to a case. Even after the six months, there's an undetermined amount of time before you are allowed to take your child home. So, here's my point. While I thought God was being passive, he was actually aggressively keeping us from a significantly worse situation. It's the Iceberg thing, where our perspective of it from the top of the water isn't even close to the enormity of the actual size. I don't think I've ever been so thankful for anything before in my life.
So, all that to say: Keep praying!! It's working!!! Hopefully w/in the next week I'll be blogging away about getting out of PGN and getting passports, etc. !!! Eliot's first birthday is May 16th and I would LOVE to be home to celebrate that!
(This picture was taken at a friend's first birthday party yesterday! Eliot was about 3 minutes away from his naptime!)
reflect and redirect... and make sure you do the hand motions that go with it! -emh
ReplyDeleteOnce again, what a fantastic word! As I also sit and wait in my own period of "limbo", it's refreshing to be reminded that God is working behind the scenes where we don't always have an "all access" pass. I'm reminded of a forgotten poem a friend gave me many years ago:
ReplyDelete"WAIT" Desperately,helplessly, longingly I cried. Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied. I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate, And the Master so gently said "Child, you must wait!" "Wait? you say, wait?" my indignant reply. "Lord, I need answers, I need to know why! Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard? By FAITH I have asked, and am claiming your Word. My future and all to which I can relate, Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to WAIT? I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign, or even a 'no' to which I can resign. And Lord, you promised that if we believe, we need but to ask, and we shall receive. And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry: I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!" Then quietly, softly, i learned of my fate, as my Master replied once again,"You must wait." So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting...for what?" He seemed then to kneel and His eyes wept with mine, and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign. I could shake the heavens and darken the sun. I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run. All you seek I could give, and pleased you would be. You would have what you 'want' -but you wouldn't know ME. You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint; you'd not know the power that I give to the faint; You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair; You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there. You'd not know the joy of resting in Me, when darkness and silence were all you could see. You'd never experience that fullness of love, as the peace of my Spirit descends like a dove. You'd know that I give and I save...(for a start), but you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart. The glow of my comfort late into the night. The faith that I give when you walk without sight. The depth that's beyond getting 'just' what you asked, of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST. You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee, what it means that 'My grace is sufficient for thee'. Yes, your dreams for your loved ones overnight would come true, but oh the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you! So be silent, my child, and in time you will see, THAT THE GREATEST GIFT OF GIFTS IS TO GET TO KNOW ME. And though oft may my answers seem terribly late, My wisest of answers is still but to WAIT." (Author Unknown)
Blessings and strength, Katie! HUGS, Kristi Daughtrey (ckdaughtrey@yahoo.com)
I know that you would much rather be home with Russ, but I think it is great that you have gotten to experience so much in Guatemala. You seem to really know Antigua and will be able to truly tell your son what is native town is like.
ReplyDeleteSo many people who just get their child at the end of the process miss out on all that bonding time that you are having and also don't know anything about the life and culture that their child came from.
Oh, Katie, that's just unbelievable--all that about the investigation possibility. I can't tell you how much I've thought of you guys over these last 4 months in particular while I've been doing the Beth Moore study on the Patriarchs. Time and time again we're reading about delayed blessings... I'm talking some serious delays--like slavery in Egypt for 400 years kind of delays. Anyway, the reminders that God is working out so many things not just for our good, but for the good of those we don't even know about ALWAYS... the most incredible blessings are the ones that take the longest! I've shared with the women in my study about you guys so many times and some of them who don't even know you personally are praying for you, too.
ReplyDeleteWell, know that you are loved and are being lifted to our Father in heaven even as you sleep :o)
Tammy