Embassy Appointments- Take 2

As most of you know, our lawyer missed our Embassy appointment drop off on August 30.  It was a huge bummer.  Like made my cry for days.  I guess because we were so excited and it wasn't expected that he would miss it.  We just knew that we would travel in September to bring our daughter home (in fact we would be there right now), and it was such a HUGE disappointment to find out that that would not be the case.

That first week was rough. I talked about getting on a plane and going to Congo anyway.  Even if I didn't have an embassy appointment for another month at least I would be with my daughter and know that she is ok.  Then I talked myself out of it.  Then back into it.  And the pattern continued a million times until I finally decided that I would just wait patiently.  I just came to grips that God has perfect timing.  (And let me just say- it is super easy to say this, but much different to actually believe it.)

So, our new embassy drop-off date is September 27- just 2 days away.  The actual appointment is October 1. 

Would you all please, please, please pray for this?  Pray for our lawyer to actually make the document drop off.  Then pray that all paperwork that is needed is there and we are approved.  We really NEED this to happen.  Our daughter NEEDS this to happen.

I posted this earlier in the week on facebook:

"Get your "YES" straight at the very beginning. Decide on it. Roll around in it. Put it on the table and shellack it. Because you cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption. When you say YES, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES ...to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because it is hard," but all that is garbage. You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like hell to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will." --Jen Hatmaker, Author of Interrupted and Seven and mother of five (two all the way from Ethiopia)

 

I needed to hear/see that this week.  I can relate to everything that Jen Hatmaker says. This past month- the crying, raging, screaming, wailing- has been me.  But so is the fighting and so is the determination to get our daughter home!!  

 

Thank you friends and family for your love, prayers, and support.  This adoption journey would be so much harder without you.  It is true that adoption is not for the faint of heart.  It is HARD. But would I do it all again?  You betcha. 

 

 

 

Because this precious girl is WORTH it!!

 

 

 

 

Brittany

Sad news

This is gonna be short and sweet because I am still trying to process everything.

We were so excited today that we got our visas in the mail. Unfortunately, the news about Embassy is not good.  We just got an update from our agency director.  She said that our lawyer in Congo was in a car accident last week and missed our Embassy appointments.  They have been rescheduled for Sept 27 and Oct 1.  That puts us a month behind where we thought we would be.  Another month without our daughter :( 

My heart hurts.  I feel like it's in a million pieces. 

Thanks for your prayers!


Brittany

Embassy Appointments and Other Things

Thank you so much for your prayers for our adoption process!  We are getting so close!!

I wanted to give you a brief update on where we are.  Since my last post, we got our Embassy appointments.  They were actually last week.  However, we have not heard anything about them yet (i.e. did they go ok?, was all the paperwork there?, etc.).  We are praying and hoping to hear something this week!

We have also sent in all the paperwork to get our visas to travel.  It was a little weird putting our passports and yellow fever vaccination cards in the mail and hoping they didn't get lost somewhere.  They didn't though.  They have arrived at the Embassy in Washington, D.C. (we may have stalked the USPS website with our tracking number) and we hope to get them back at the end of the week.

So once we get our visas and hear that Embassy went ok, what's left?  Emmalyn has to get her visa and then we can travel to Congo!!  It is seriously so close!  Like we are down to just weeks away (at least we hope)!

The question has been asked several times- "What can we do?  What can we send?" 

Well, you can send a couple of things if you so desire. 

1. Small toys- we are going to take these to pass out to the kids at the different orphanages.  They need to be fairly small since they have to fit in one suitcase/dufflebag. 

2. Non-perishable Candy- we are also going to take some candy with us to pass out to the kiddos.  I am thinking like dum dum suckers, smarties, etc.

3. Size 3T clothes- these would be for Emmalyn.  I am just guessing that this is the size that she will wear.  We have several things already, but we don't have many bottome (shorts or pants) or pajamas.  Please don't go out and buy anything.  I am just saying this mostly for people who may be cleaning out their  closets and may have some hand-me-downs that would work.  We know that she will grow quickly so we don't need tons of stuff just yet. 

Most importantly, though, you can just pray.

1. Pray for Emmalyn- that she will remain healthy, that she is being fed, that she is being taken care of, that she will not be moved again (she has been moved to a different place again since my last post), that God is preparing her for our family

2. Pray that we will hear good news about Embassy quickly.

3. Pray that we get our visas back by the end of the week.

4. Pray for our family- that we will trust God in His timing, that God is preparing us for Emmalyn

5. Pray for timing of travel- We need someone (preferably our parents) to take care of our children while we are gone to Congo.  However, my sister and Eric's sister are getting married the 2nd week of October and it doesn't look like our parents can come to AZ if we travel in October.  Also, Eric is the one marrying the two couples so it would be a good idea if we are home by then :)

6. Pray for the other families within our agency's adoption group.  Many of their children have jiggers in their feet that are absolutely awful!  They need surgery as quickly as possible.  If they do not get the surgery, their feet will get infected to the point where they could possibly lose limbs or even worse- death could occur if left untreated. Our agency is trying to raise the funds to pay for the surgery for each child.  They also need about 3 people to travel to Congo to take care of the children after the surgery is over.  If you would like to read more about this go to www.projectfeet.wordpress.com

Oh how I love her and can't wait to hug and kiss her!

Love,
Brittany