UPDATE! (not what anyone expected)

Well, this week has certainly been full of emotions, twists, and craziness, and once again, it is very obvious that God’s plans are not our plans, and his timing is not our timing. 

This week we were blessed so much by the community coming together and showing love and support for us and “our” twins. We were certain that God was working everything out and clearing the way for our dreams to become reality! He was, but not in the way we would have hoped. We spoke with our agency yesterday, and we are not able to adopt the girls at this time (it is not our agency’s fault, it is just for a variety of reasons that we cannot go into). This is a crushing blow to us. We cannot say enough how hard it is to set your heart on someone so dear and beautiful as these girls, make plans to bring them into the family, share the joy and struggle with all of the cyber world, watch everything seem to come together, and then lose all of this. It is heart wrenching.

BUT, we have been told from day one by our agency that this international adoption journey is not one where we will be able to get comfortable in “certainties.” There were constant reminders that the children we pick may not be the children we bring home. The children we claim may only be in our lives for a season just so we may pray for them and love them and ask others to do the same. So in the back of our minds, we were prepared... but not totally. How can you be? In America we have come to simply expect plans to be fulfilled in a timely manner. But this is just not so... in either God’s world or the world of adoption.

So we will not be bringing home twins. What is God thinking???? This has had us in mourning since yesterday, and we will continue to mourn them. However, the Bible promises that while sorrow may last for the night, the joy comes in the morning...

So we are very thankful that God chose to immediately give us a beautiful, shy, and sweet little girl currently named Titina! She is between 3 and 4yrs, and we have “accepted” her referral right away, with no delay, thanks to the donations that so many of you gave! We were able to get right on it! So we are VERY excited begin making new plans for her. She has been on a “waiting child” list for some time now, so we are very happy that we can free her from that and give her renewed hope as she gives us renewed joy.

We say this with caution however, knowing now from experience that anything can happen... we still have court processing and legalities in Congo to get through. We still have 6 months of “wait and see.” BUT we are farther along now with Titina then we were before with the twins, so praise be to God! 

Right now we are learning so much about God’s sovereignty and our trust. And let us tell you, these are not comfortable or easy lessons. They are painful, frustrating, and rocking our world. They are showing us just how much we DON’T trust God enough and how much closer our hearts need to get to him. All that we want to ask is WHY LORD? But there are no straight answers from God, it seems. We know that we will see the beautiful and purposeful design in hindsight, but we just can’t see it now. This is just life.

But there is joy and hope, and that hope, through Jesus, is Titina!