Good news and Bad news!

Well, the good news is that -- after a week of repeated phone calls & emails and intervention from our Congressman's office -- Phil received his U.S. passport renewal in the mail yesterday "just" 13 weeks after we sent it in! I had alerted the local newspaper about our situation last week, and a front-page story and photo ran in this morning’s paper.

The bad news is that -- a mere two hours after the long-awaited passport arrived -- we got an email from our orphanage director saying there was yet another unforeseen delay. The visa-granting official at the U.S. Consulate in Haiti has now decided he wants to review each family's completed dossier (over 200 pages’ worth!) before he will approve the child's visa. No one knows how long this could take, but obviously we all hope it won't take long … although I've been saying that since Christmas! So, we won’t be traveling by the end of this week as we all (including the orphanage staff) had anticipated.

So, we're still waiting for our son’s arrival 15½ months after we submitted our paperwork. I have never been pregnant (nor do I ever want to be), but I truly believe that what I’m feeling right now is what it would be like to be 15½ months pregnant. Don’t ever think that adoption is easier than pregnancy! You have no guarantee that it won’t last months beyond the “due date;” you can’t induce an adopted child’s homecoming; and there is no epidural to help ease the pain of labor. On top of that, in adoption, BOTH parents experience the same turmoil and labor pains. So please keep praying! Phil and I both know that, no matter how discouraged we feel now, all the ups and downs of this journey will have been worth it once R.J. is home! :)

~ Romans 8:26-28 from The Message ~
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our expectant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.