Smingerprints

(My blog is looking a little boring so here is a recent photo of Henry who turned 1!!! Just hanging out in the food cabinet and playing with electrical cords... all in a days work for him.)

So, I have coined a new word for "smeared fingerprints." :) Remember the police officer getting sick in a previous post?? Well, turns out that uncontrollably shaking hands cannot produce nice prints. In January, I saw that they were rejected. So I waited patiently to get a letter of rejection and asking for more prints but it never came. Long story semi-short, I made a phone call, mailed new prints.... AL shut down their print processing for several weeks while they changed software... the SBCN (place in VA that processes prints for the FBI) misplaced my other print card... they told me to call ABI (the FBI of AL) who in turn acted like I was crazy for calling and referred me back to the SBCN, who then found my card and FINALLY got word from DHR this week it had been processed! I was so surprised that I said to the lady on the phone "So I passed?" To which she quickly asked "Excuse me? Do you have a criminal record?" Then she called back 2 hours later to say she forgot that my paperwork was in a batch where the place in VA had forgotten to fill out the whole form for a bunch of us so it was having to be mailed back there and finished before I get clearance....... why does this all matter? Well, you can't finish your homestudy until you have FBI clearance and Derek's cleared weeks ago so we are waiting on mine!

That was maybe way more info than you wanted but needless to say, at some point I was pretty much annoyed. I felt frazzled and felt like I kept calling people who told me to call people who told me to call people.....and was getting no where. But at some point, God reminded me that I have been saying over and over in this journey that He is in every detail....like amazingly in every detail. I got a bit convicted that I was excited to proclaim it to the world when He is in the details and I LIKED the details. But when the details annoyed me, I didn't want to rest that He was in these details too. God brought me to a place of peace and even excitement to see Him throw in a delay. Of course, I want our daughter as fast as I can get her....but it is cool to think that God will cause whatever delays He needs to because His timing is perfect....He knows exactly where our daughter is and when we need to be finished with paperwork to match up with when she gets on the list of available children... He will match up the timing of both events PERFECTLY. So the delays now excite me as I sit back and watch God do his thing and rest in it.

I had just told my bible study group that I felt at peace about the smingerprints and then 30 minutes later while still at biblesudy, the place in VA called to say that they'd gotten it figured out and were processing my prints! Pretty awesome to see God's timing in that phone call.

I haven't had much to update lately other than that. We have been truckin' along with paperwork, required reading, meeting with our social worker, etc. Hoping to wrap up the homestudy by the end of March.

The kids continue to make me laugh as they process the adoption. Rollins ran into the kitchen the other day and screamed "I know how to write Chinese!!!!" I followed him to AR's room where he had taped up pieces of paper with chinese all over them. (He had found some chinese in a Tranformer's coloring book and copied it). He got the biggest smile on his face and continued "I can't believe I know Chinese! Maybe I am adopted! Am I adopted? Daddy will think I am adopted because I know Chinese!!!!" When Derek got home, Rollins greeted him with "did you know I'm adopted?" We reminded him that he was in my tummy and we were there when he was born. There is so much I love about that funny moment but the best is to see that adoption is such a positive word with our kids... nothing to be whispered about like a secret... but a beautiful and exciting thing! I pray that our little girl will always feel a sense of pride and joy when she hears that word in the future... although it will also involve incredible loss for her, I hope and pray that her natural inclination will be to beam with joy over her adoption!