One of the privileges along this road is meeting many little loves who are such beautiful creations of the Lord. I would have never had the chance to meet these kiddos in Haiti if it weren't for God calling us into adoption. I am blessed to know them. In the last post I introduced you to little Whitney...the newest little girl at Rivers of Hope. She, as of that post, was not a part of a forever family, but now I''m so happy to report to you she has a Mommy and Daddy to call her own. It is a privilege to watch a little girl go from being an "orphan" to being a "member of a family". Also, two other little boys at the orphanage will be heading HOME in the next several weeks! What a blessing and honor to watch these women I have come to know as friends and extended family hold their babies in their arms on this side of the water! I just can't wait!
Of course the privilege I consider the greatest is being called Mama by this little one...
As cool as those privileges are, there is one, however, I have found to be the most outstanding in my book. That privilege is watching God's hand at work. His power and movement is beyond amazing! I could go into so many different stories of how I have seen Him answering my heart's desire throughout this process and how incredible that looks, but I want to narrow that down today to one recent example. I have been filled with a new and passionate desire to be praying Nora home and to be praying all these orphans of Haiti out of these orphanages and into their forever families. I can not express enough how crazy cool this has been for me--I have never considered myself a person who is "good" with praying. It has taken work and discipline and I have lacked both throughout my past in this area. For some reason, this is something different. These prayers are easy for me. They are not birthed out of a discipline, they are birthed out of desire. Pure desire to see God's will for these children coming to fruition--for these children to be surrounded by their families.
So, on Sunday morning I woke up and found myself lying in bed praying once again for God to continue the movement of our paperwork for Nora in record time. I kept thinking/praying, "Wouldn't it be so amazing, God, if I could report to our supporters and church body on May 6th at our fundraiser meal, that You have done the miraculous once again and we moved out of IBESR!" For those unfamiliar with the Haitian process, this would be pretty much next to impossible in earthly standards--it could ONLY be a testimony to God's hand at work! I was also praying for all of the other paperwork currently held up in the Haitian process to be moved along not by the governmental process, but by God Himself. You see, there are many people who have been stuck in different sections of the process for FAR TOO LONG--like YEARS too long!!!! It has to stop! There is no reason it needs to be like this. Satan has had his hand in the adoption process for far too long and it is time we step up and claim this process for Jesus. He is the one who has won the victory over the darkness and evil in this world and He wants nothing less than these children to be HOME with their familes! I have been praying these very things for a little while now and it has boosted my faith in ways I can not explain in words. I am SO excited at what I know in the core of my soul God is doing behind the scenes.
It was out of this desire I found myself compelled to be praying again on Sunday morning--that God would just continue His work on moving these adoptions along in record time. For our own adoption, our paperwork has been in IBESR for two months now and we will have NO idea how long it will be there. Could be 3 months, but could very easily also be over a year. I've just been praying and praying that God is moving it along in there and trusting Him to be a God BIG enough to do just that. I have no way of ever knowing if that is actually happening--I have to trust Him because it is proven over and over that the process of adopting can not be trusted. And now for the testimony of God's GOODNESS...
On Monday morning I woke up and started my day off with reading a post in a Haitian adoptions facebook group I am a member of. The post was informing everyone that as of this past week, IBESR was not going to be taking any more new dossiers into the system until after June 1st. The reason???? They wanted to get a handle on the dossiers they did have and try to "clean up" the back up of paperwork. Can you even believe it!!!!!!!! As soon as I read it, my eyes filled with tears as I just know this was not an original idea from the director of IBESR...this was an act of God alone! If you have been to Haiti, you know how counter-cultural that idea is--it just isn't quite "Haitian" to care much about time or how long things have been backed up. I believe God has taken the reigns of this process and has decided to speed up the paperwork again by making the Haitian social services take a break from new dossiers in order to catch up on all of the ones currently stuck in there. That means HUNDREDS of dossiers representing HUNDREDS of children and families waiting to be in each others arms are going to hopefully get the "fast pass" into the next step of their adoptions! That means that NORA is one of those children since our dossier is one of those HUNDREDS in IBESR. Isn't our God so awesome! I am privileged to watch Him work...it is unlike the work of anything I have ever seen before. Here is part of a blog post from a different orphanage director (Dixie, director of GLA) in Haiti confirming my initial reactions and thoughts about the news...
'"IBESR will not be taking new dossiers until the 1st of June in an
effort to complete studying and authorizing the ones already sitting on
their desks and also finish the ones that have been given dispensations
in the last few weeks.
According to a source, the director of IBESR is wanting to clear the
dossiers that have been sitting for some time waiting for approval.
There were many in IBESR when she took over the position of Director in
November 2011. None were signed until after February 2012 and so they
are way behind."
God is so good, friends. He is trustworthy. It is a privilege to hand Him the reigns of this adoption and join Him for the crazy ride it is. This certainly doesn't guarantee a specific time frame when our paperwork will get out of IBESR--it could still be a year or more. It doesn't mean I will for sure have amazing news on May 6th for our fundraiser meal. What it DOES mean, however, is God is at work and I will keep praying fervently for Him to have His way with our adoption and all the adoptions! It means He can be trusted to care about the orphan and He can be trusted with our hearts' desires. I can not put my trust in anything of this world--only in Him! What an exciting time this is!
"Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." -Psalm 20:6-7
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." -Romans 15:13
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