--

“I am convinced that God longs to put His fingerprint in our lives, to act on our behalf and surprise us with His magnificence. I am equally convinced that most of the time we do not give God a context in which to do this. The mundane is not really the best context for a miracle. When we play it safe, we squeeze God out of the formula. If we go only where we know and do what we’re certain will succeed, we remove our need for God. Whenever we respond to God’s invitation, our need for God becomes heightened. Whenever we take on a God-sized challenge, self-sufficiency is no longer an option.”
Erwin McManus

phone call

we received a phone call from Terra today...our "Family Coordinator"

i don't think we can expect to receive many phone calls from our agency through this process. most correspondence will be through email and mail.

so, i'm documenting it.
for me.
and for those who might be interested in the details of this process.
i wish that i had been able to follow someone closely through this.
i kind of feel "alone" in it.
similar to when i was pregnant way before any of my friends.
but, i've done it before.
and i'll do it again. :-)

she said, "this is your official "welcome to the rwanda program" phone call!"
and then proceeded to tell me about an email she had just sent with about 100 pages for us to print out and read (all the info on our homestudy and dossier).

i just spent awhile organizing all the paperwork we have so far that is "adoption-related" and trying to get a good system going. it is VERY important to keep track of all these agreements/certificates/receipts/etc.

she said we should expect to hear from our social worker in the next few days in order to start our home study!

the next step

we've submitted our initial agreements and fee.
we've completed the online training course.
we are waiting to be assigned a family coordinator and start the home study.

for some reason, it's all feeling very "real" in a new way.

and i feel like i'm falling off a cliff...but being held in the safest, strongest arms as i plunge over the edge.

telling

we told our families tonight.
they seemed genuinely excited.
and not super surprised.

we will begin telling others now.

it's making it all feel "more real."

--

"Of course, for most of Africa's ten million, fifteen million, twenty million orphans, no one is getting a room ready. No one will ever come."
Melissa Greene

from another adoptive mom

"Our eyes were opened to a need. We felt a responsibility.
We are scared to death. But the only thing more scary to us is not doing it."

amen.

--

...ONCE OUR EYES ARE OPENED WE CAN'T PRETEND WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. GOD, WHO WEIGHS OUR HEARTS AND KEEPS OUR SOULS, KNOWS THAT WE KNOW, AND HOLDS US RESPONSIBLE TO ACT. -PROVERBS 24:12