Astrakhan

The past few weeks have been difficult. We have been watching and praying for the Lord's intervention on our behalf. Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, emails, etc. They have truly helped to encourage us to keep pressing on.

Well, thankfully God has intervened! One week ago we received a call from our agency that we have been moved to a new region (I meant to update the blog sooner)! This is great news because other than the problem completely going away, this was the next best/easiest thing. We are so thankful that it was possible for us to move to a new region and that the Lord just did it. We weren't faced with a difficult decision - God made the decision for us. We feel confident that this is the best thing and thankful for whatever the Lord is doing. We're not sure why we weren't just placed in this region to begin with, but God does and we are trusting Him. We know His timing is perfect and many things need to line up for us to adopt the child God has chosen. This move must be one of the ways He is accomplishing His purposes.

Our new region is called Astrakhan (pronounced Aus-tra-han, the "k" is silent). It is located in southwest Russia and is very close to Kazakhstan. Our adoption consultant wanted to know how we felt about a child with Asian features because many of the children in this region have Asian features (probably due to the proximity of Kazakhstan). Of course we said we had no problem with that! She did say that for whatever reason it is more common in girls than in boys, though. Who knows?! Also, Astrakhan is about a two hour flight from Moscow.

Changing regions really will not put us too far behind. When you are moved to a new region, you get placed in line right were you should based on how long you've been waiting. So, we will be placed fifth in line, which means that those ahead of us have been waiting longer. It does seem, though, that this region may move a little quicker than Cheboksary and may also proceed with several adoptions at the same time, where as Cheboksary proceeded with one adoption at a time (I think). Also, I asked my consultant if she could give me an idea of a timeline for our wait and she said that she felt we should be able to complete our adoption this year! That was great news!

The other interesting thing about Astakhan is that we will not receive any information about our referral until we arrive in the country. So we are essentially traveling "blind". This seems scary, but we will be able to talk with the International Adoption Clinic while in country once we receive medical information on our child to help us make a decision about whether or not to accept our referral. If we decide to decline the referral, if another child is available then we'll be able to meet that child before having to travel home. Thankfully, the Lord is in control of all of these details, and we are confident that He will work them out at the appropriate time. Also, my consultant shared with me that two families just returned from their first trip to Astrakhan and were both very pleased with their referrals, so that is good news!

Thankfully, most of our paperwork from Cheboksary will tranfer to Astrakhan without a problem. I do have some documents to re-do, but I don't have to start over from scratch. I was very glad to hear that! So, I am now working to get this completed as soon as possible.

Thank you again for all of your prayers. We are so grateful and relieved to be out of a bad situation. It is a blessing that a resolution came so quickly and we can once again be waiting for a referral. Please pray for a smooth transition into our new region, for our paperwork to be completed quickly, and for us to receive a referral soon!

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save..." Zephaniah 3:17

If you'd like to see where Astrakhan is located, click on this link! Be sure to enlarge the map and you'll find Astrakhan by Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea (it's also near number 36).

Disheartening News

I was secretly hoping that the next post I wrote would be to tell everyone that we had received our referral. However, it doesn't look like that may happen for a while now. As some of you know, last Thursday we found out some very disheartening news about our adoption. It is a bit of a long and detailed story, so I certainly won't try to explain all that it entails. But, here goes...

As mentioned before there were two other couples assigned to the region of Cheboksary from our agency. One of these couples traveled last fall to meet their referral for a sibling group. It appears that something happened while they were in Russia to upset them. We found out last week that they are now attempting to sue Children's Hope. The problem is that in order for Cheboksary to continue assigning referrals to people from our agency they will need a few letters from this family stating that they desire to have their paperwork removed from the region. It seems simple, but now that a lawsuit is involved, CHI has no way of knowing how soon (or how late) they will submit this request. So, we are now in limbo and were told that nothing can happen until these letters are sent.

We are truly heartbroken, frustrated, angry, sad, discouraged, confused. What we have worked for for so long and that seemed to be within our grasp seems to now be completely falling apart. We are very confused as to what we are to do now. In talking with our adoption consultant, we have decided to take the next 3-4 weeks to see what happens and to pray about our next step. Our consultant will be talking to her contact in Russia also about what would be best for us to do.

The difficult thing is that there really is no easy, quick fix. We obviously have the choice to just completely give up, to change agencies, to change countries, or to possibly change to another region in Russia. Zac and I both feel very strongly against giving up completely. We also feel, however, that this is exactly what Satan want us to do (he would love for us to quit!) and that he is using this to try and lead us away. It just confirms in our hearts once again that this little boy must be something pretty special, and we believe that we must continue to fight for him no matter what.

Despite our sadness, we are trying to cling to what we know is true - that God is in control and that He is sovereign. This did not surprise Him and it does serve a purpose. He is a mighty God and He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He is capable of doing immeasurably more than we can truly ask or imagine. We are praying that we would see Him do that very thing very soon.

We are in great need of your prayers. Please pray for strength, grace to continue to wait, wisdom to make the right decisions, and for God to intervene and sort this problem out quickly. Please also pray for the other family to be grievously burdened to file the necessary paperwork so that other families are free to adopt once again.

Through this situation we are once again reminded that our hope can be in nothing else than Jesus. He is still good and we will trust in Him once again. It is all we can do. We have to continue to believe in the promise of a son that He has given to us. We long for the day when we can look back and rejoice over His beautiful timing and His wondrous works on our behalf.

The Lord led my dad to a verse a few weeks ago that reminded him of our adoption. It seems to be even more fitting today than when he first read it.

"For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay." Habakkuk 2:3