A Long Overdue Update

Wow…so much has happened the past few months that I hardly know where to begin. I know I’ve neglected this blog terribly, so I’ll attempt to make up for it in the few posts.

Here I sit on an airplane, on my way to pick up 2 beautiful girls and bring them home. It’s not happening quite the way I originally planned, but it’s happening nonetheless. The original plan was for me to go and spend about 10 days in the DRC while the very last step of their process was completed: their exit permit. But now, I have decided to go early and stay there with them as long as it takes, until I can bring them home. There are still a few steps left in their processes, but the general summary is that the adoptions of both girls are final (they are legally mine), but I am still waiting for them to receive their US visas. Both of them are lacking one or more documents which must be present before their visa application can even be submitted to the US Embassy. This means I am looking at perhaps a 4-6 week stay. Quite a big difference from the 10 day trip!

So why did I decide to do this, you might ask? To be honest, there are a few reasons, but the biggest one, and the most important, is that I truly felt like the Lord said, “It’s time.” And so here I go!

The downsides to this? The biggest one: leaving my Matani for so long. Not an easy choice, even though she’s in good hands with Nana and Papa. Secondly, it’s not cheap to live here, so it increased my costs significantly. Ugh!

The upsides? More time spent here with the girls, bonding with them in the context of their own culture and language. I am also hoping that my presence here will help to speed things along a bit and minimize unnecessary delays.

Prayer requests: Please pray for speedy processing of all our paperwork and the girls’ visas! Pray for our health and safety while there. Pray for the bonding process with the girls, particularly with the language barrier. Pray that I will be a light for the Lord while there and that I will be able to impact those around me. Pray that I will be wise and frugal with our finances. And please, please pray that we will be able to come home soon!