Monday, January 01, 2007

I need to update more often…

For those who read this blog, I again apologize for such huge gaps between blogs. What has happened since my last entry? To sum it up: A lot. Since the last time I blogged Emma entered and exited Family Court and on Thursday (12/21) we received Embassy P.A. (Pre-Approval). You must think that we are very excited. We are. We will hopefully be entering PGN (Procuraduria General de la Nacion) sometime in January and then the next big wait will proceed which could be about 6 to 8 weeks…typically (and hopefully). We have seen it go much longer but I won’t go into that. Each case is different and we hope and pray that ours will go smoothly. We are trying to get everything in order in preparation for Emma’s homecoming. There is much to do and less and less time to do it. Tera’s family is helping out in many areas which is huge in helping us get ready. I think that things are going really well but all of it seems a bit overwhelming. I just wish that there were 48 hours in a day and I didn’t need any sleep… at least for this part of the process. I know we will get it all done soon enough. In other Emma related news: On January 12th Tera and I will be heading down to Guatemala for our second visit trip. We will staying till the following Wednesday. We are thrilled to go and we are eager to see how much Emma has developed. We have seen pictures (some of these can be seen at Tera’s “Guatemama” blog). We can see that she has physically changed like all babies do but we are excited to interact with her and her personality and developmental changes. When we made our first visit she was just three weeks old. She spent most of her time sleeping which was no surprise and fine by us because it gave Tera and I plenty of “let‘s hold Emma and hug her all of the time“ time.. I assume that this next trip will be more “interactive” which will be awesome experience as well. The sad part of the this trip is that this is only a visit trip which means that we will have to go through the process of handing Emma back to the foster family at the end of the visit. I imagine that this will be more difficult to go through than the first time since we have fallen that much more in love with this little Emma. There is hope because it might be our last visit trip and the next time we see her will hopefully be the trip that we bring her back home with us. So when we get home from this next visit trip we will be going full bore on the Emma projects and preparations.

We do have some prayer requests. I have not talked to Tera about how far into detail I should go so I will paint with a broad brush hoping that I will not be too vague.

PGN (Procuraduria General de la Nacion).
This is the final step of the adoption process that we will hopefully be entering into soon. This is also where pretty much anything can happen. When I say anything I mean anything, the good and bad and the ugly. Our case will be looked at by officials in Guatemala with a microscopic nuclear powered fine tooth comb made of a material unknown to man. This is where the rubber hits the road and all of our hard work is put to the test. Every document and piece of information is poured over and if anything is amiss then we get what is called a KO or “Kick Out“. The document is then fixed and we start over from the beginning of the PGN portion of the process. This happens all the time and it happens more often than not.
Please pray that this is smooth sailing. This part is often seen as problematic. Pray that the Lord shows us grace , mercy and favor.

Logistics and Timing.
Things are moving quickly. This is a good problem but a problem nonetheless. Finances are always important too. We have much work to do in a short amount if time. Timing is of an essence.

Patience and Trust.
The adoption process is touchy from start to finish. When Tera and I first looked into adoption it seemed so overwhelming. I must admit that some parts do appear overwhelming at times and sometimes almost impossible, especially when your in the midst of it . The process isn’t just the agency and the adoptive parents getting together and hammering out few papers and writing out a check or two. The process is laborious and requires organizational skills to keep everything in order and on schedule (thanks Tera). So many people are involved in every facet of the adoption. People you wouldn’t even think of can have such an impact on the direction and speed the adoption can go. Doctors, Notaries, clerks and officers and officials in other states or even countries that we may never meet can cause things to go one way or another. What does this all mean? We need to trust and be ever patient trusting in the Lord that He will meet our needs. From start to finish this is all up to the Lord. No matter how many people are involved in this adoption be it 5 or 5,000 He is still in charge. He moves things, situations and people in the ways that He desires. Tera and I have seen things during this process that blow our minds. Many times God has orchestrated things to work out just when we thought there was no way to get over whatever bump in the road that we were confronting. I confess that we did fret and shed some tears. But God heard our prayers and He did what He does best. I am so glad that it is not up to me to make things work. Please pray that we will continue to trust and obey and gain tons of patience during our time in PGN.

Emma and her foster family

Please pray for Emma and her continuing growth and good health. Also keep the foster family in your prayers as well. They are very kind people and have been taking very good care of little Emma Grace. I am very appreciative of the foster family and their sacrifices that they are making to take care of Emma.

Things are moving forward and we hope they continue doing so. As I type this I was just informed of a bit of a bump in the road it has to do with a document that needs to be renewed from our home study agency. Pray this taken care of quickly and accurately as possible because this could slow the process down considerably.

I guess that’s all for now. Happy New Year.