Twists and Turns

The highs were of the nosebleed persuasion, but the lows, well-their nosebleeds were caused by the swift connection of face to pavement that accompanied some of the moments here this past week.

If you've been on the Ark for any length of time at all, you know that our family is about to increase in size, through the miracle (and I can't stress the true miracle it is enough) of adoption. While you've heard and seen a few blips on the radar about the process, I've guarded my heart tightly with any news of real substance.

Why? It's not you. It's me. No, really, I mean it, it is.

By holding all the cards in my own hand, I thought that perhaps I could keep myself from becoming too emotionally involved or too attached to the little baby girl that we've been holding in our hearts for several weeks now--waiting for the paperwork process to catch up with the longing of our hearts. But my plan (go figure) is backfiring miserably.

If everything was moving along smoothly, I would be overjoyed to share our news, our excitement with you, dear friends. Thinking along those same lines, and with my knowledge of scripture, why then, would I have decided that I could single-handedly bear the heavy burdens of this trial alone?

And to boot, wouldn't you know that in this funny blogging world, I would find this morning affirmation of the self-same thing over at Margaret's place. God didn't create us to be alone. He created us as many, unique parts, with specific gifts and talents to be shared within the Body of Christ. No one part (or person) is any less important than the other and when one part is broken, the whole body is affected, which sounds like a terrible curse, right? But, in reality, it is the most wonderful of blessings, because it offers encouragement to those of us who find that when our crosses become to heavy to bear alone, we know that the prayers, sufferings and sacrifices made on our behalf by our brothers and sisters in Christ will help to heal us.

So, with that I'm coming clean.

To date, we have had:

• a glimpse of a referral of a beautiful, baby girl, who has some minor medical needs that would be better treated in the US
• worry for her, followed by encouraging news of her improved health
• concern about the completion of dossier paperwork, followed by papers which were miraculously expedited for us
• hope that an "official" child placement referral would arrive in our hands this week
• difficult news that there was a glitch with our official, notarized copy of our homestudy, which might delay the processing...which, in turn, might lead us to miss the court closure in Ethiopia...which, given the urgency of this precious baby girl's health needs (and here comes my worst fear of all) might strip us of the referral in order to place her with a family, who is paperwork-free and ready-to-go
• multiple phone calls to discern the best way to attack the situation
• and a most blessed priority package in the mail containing the official referral...
• which we are unable to "officially" sign until we hear back about the homestudy next week
  

And so it goes...in the meanwhile, this part of the Body could desperately use a little help from the Body's other, stronger parts.