Paperwork, blessed paperwork

Today was a good day for the paper to flow. We got the fax from Singapore with all the items signed. We faxed those right over to our lawyer just so he could rest easy and take a look in case something was amiss. We are still in need of the originals of those documents to be sent, we cannot go to court with a faxed copy but it is a relief to see progress being made.

Our lawyer also said that he got the documents from their lawyer and was reviewing them before sending them on to us. We are thankful that now we can have an idea of what all the fuss is about from their side. We are praying that it will not be something to cause the plans to fall apart at this point. I feel too weak to take another hit in the disappointment department.

We spoke with Jennifer today and our gratitude to her grew. Her understanding of the levels of grief a child goes through during the transition stage of adoption made it easier to ask her for favors like taking lots and lots of pictures of everything and everyone and to safeguard Sweetpea's heart from obvious trauma. She did not know where she is staying in Singapore as the parents are making those arrangements and seemingly not wanting us to know. The amount of control that is being exerted on the mom's part makes me sad for her and stirs my compassion to pray for her. We hope when Jennifer finds out she will let us know and then we can establish communication when she is in Singapore and with Sweetpea.

It is officially T Minus 9

This was timely and encouraging to our unsteady hearts this morning. I wanted to share it as I know many are in the same season of waiting.

Waiting

from Our Daily Bread

Make haste to help me, O Lord!” the psalmist David prayed (Ps. 70:1). Like him, we don’t like to wait. We dislike the long lines at super-market checkout counters, and the traffic jams downtown and around shopping malls. We hate to wait at the bank or at a restaurant.
And then there are the harder waits: a childless couple waiting for a child; a single person waiting for marriage; an addict waiting for deliverance; a spouse waiting for a kind and gentle word; a worried patient waiting for a diagnosis from a doctor.
What we wait for, however, is far less important than what God is doing while we wait. In such times He works in us to develop those hard-to-achieve spiritual virtues of meekness, kindness, and patience with others. But more important, we learn to lean on God alone and to “rejoice and be glad” in Him (v.4).
F. B. Meyer said, “What a chapter might be written of God’s delays! It is the mystery of the art of educating human spirits to the finest temper of which they are capable. What searchings of heart, what analyzings of motives, what testings of the Word of God, what upliftings of soul. . . . All these are associated with those weary days of waiting, which are, nevertheless, big with spiritual destiny.” — David H. Roper
Be still, My child, and know that I am God!Wait thou patiently—I know the path you trod.So falter not, nor fear, nor think to run and hide,For I, thy hope and strength, am waiting by thy side. —Hein

God stretches our patience to enlarge our soul.