Roadblocks and Prayers

It has been almost three weeks since out last posting. No forward progress to report...

Here we are, almost mid-February, and our application still has not gone to the Kazakh Embassy... The last piece of our paperwork was delivered to our agency on Dec 18th, but many little things have contributed to big delays. Although the bulk of our application had been delivered to our adoption agency the first week of November, nothing was sent to the translator until mid-January. In the mean time, our Home Study Agency's license expired at the end of January and we had to get a copy of their new license. And we just found out that the medical forms our adoption agency gave us were not the right ones, so we have to get those re-done as well. Let us just say that we are not happy with our adoption agency at the moment and leave it at that.

One of Bill's co-workers, an older gentleman (and truly a gentleman he is), constantly reminds Bill that we're taking on another 21 years of obligation and challenges as we strive to bring two children into our lives and raise them. He also mentions that God will surely toss a few roadblocks our way and we definitely will have to pray about whether our desire to adopt is part of His will for us. Over the years, we have come to see on several ocasions that we did not get what we wanted, but ended up in circumstances better than we could have arranged ourselves. We hope that our latest set of challenges works out the same.

A quick side story...
A man of great faith heard on the tv that a big storm was coming and that flooding in his area was probable. He thought to himself, "I have great faith that God will provide." The storm did come and soon a sherriff's deputy knocked on his door, advising the man to head to higher ground. "I have faith that God will provide," said the man. "Thank you for coming." then he closed the door and remained. Soon, the waters began to rise, surrounding the man's house. A boat came by and the boater saw the man on his porch looking out at the rising waters. "Come on!" said the boater, "I'll give you a lift to higher ground." "No, thank you," said the man. "I have faith that God will provide." Soon the waters swirreled around his home and the man was forced to climb onto the roof. A helicopter came by, but the man waived it off, stating, "I have faith that God will provide." Not long after that, the house was swept away and the man perished. Soon thereafter, he was standing before Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. "I have only one question," said the man. "I kept my faith that God would provide, but here I am. How could this happen?" "Well," said St. Perter, "we had the weatherman tell you, then we sent the sherriff, the boater, and the Coast Guard... what else could we provide?"

Keep us in your prayers so that, a) we will recognize the roadblocks and the signs trying to keep us wandering in a direction that we should not go, and b) we will see what He wants for us and that the path in that direction is clear.