I know the plans I have for you ~

Last Tuesday, on Valentines Day, we received the news that "our" little one will indeed be placed with an Italian family.  There were tears and sadness and we had to work really hard to pry open our fingers and let go of this little one that we were supposed to be holding onto loosely.  It was beyond difficult, especially for this momma.  I placed her picture in my Bible in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".

God's promise for this sweet little girl.  

I'm so thankful that she will no longer be an orphan - that God did place her in a family.  We'll continue to pray that she will come to know and love her Heavenly Father and spend her life discovering the plans that He has for her.

And we'll continue to follow God's plan for our family and wait for the little one He has chosen for us.  

Update: It's not happy news

We got an email from our Agency late this afternoon with the subject line: "It's not happy news".

We'll now be waiting until next week to see if our little girl's name is on a "list" - that "list" will tell us whether or not she has already been promised to an Italian family.  My heart says, "she was already promised to us", but since the Italian agency holds the Abandonment Decree, our "promise" is really only words with no official backing.  

We'll wait for next week.  We'll wait for the "list".  We'll wait to see if this little girl is the one God has chosen for our family.  

We'll still wait, pray and trust.
We're not the only family from our Agency that this "list" will affect.
We'll be praying for them as well.

Col. 1:17 "He is before all things and in Him all things hold together."

Wait. Pray. Trust.

The past few days have been...interesting.  We're still waiting for that one document that means that we can move forward in our adoption process. This document - an Abandonment Decree - we found out last month is in the hands of an Italian Adoption Agency.  There has been a lot of back and forth, but we're still being told that they are willing to hand it over to our lawyer - when that happens we'll start moving along again.

We were told that our lawyer would be meeting with a representative from the Italian Agency this past Sunday or Monday.  We were told on Tuesday that didn't happen as planned, but they promised to meet on Wednesday. Our Agency was going to talk with the lawyer after that meeting and would let us know what transpired.  We got word from our Agency Director this morning that they tried several times yesterday to call our lawyer, but didn't get through.  They would try again this morning.  We're still waiting for word from them.  

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm feeling right now.  

Worried, No.

Disappointed, Yes.

Frustrated, Not Really.

As much I would love to have all the answers and feel like I'm in control of this situation.  Here's what we know...

God is in control of all things - big, small and everything in between.  He's never taken by surprise or caught off guard.  

We trust Him.  Period.  

Wait. Pray. Trust.  That's all we can do right now.  Thanks for joining us.  We appreciate all the prayers. We're happy to answer questions the best we can.  We love knowing that the arrival of our little one is greatly anticipated by family and friends.  We're trusting that we'll have news to share with you all very soon!