On the adoption front...

I realize that I haven't posted much about our adoption of Monroe on here since we announced our intent to bring him home. I could say it was unintentional and that "life" got in the way of it, but that wouldn't be completely true.

In reality, I have been avoiding the subject here. As you know from my post shortly after our announcement that we committed to Monroe, about RR's integrity, this adoption is tied in with some animosity from another family. And though we sought the Lord's will, sought Christian counsel and counsel from family and friends before committing to Monroe, there are still those that have other interests in mind and are not fully supportive (aside from that family). We were prepared for that, and know that God's will generally is NOT accepted by everyone-- Christian or not! In fact when we adopted the first time, got pregnant with Lynae, and when we adopted James we were met with some of the same people saying the same things.

Generally, these people are looking out for a "best interest" somewhere. Whether it is the "best interest" of our children already in our care not to have to share their parents and family any more, the "best interest" of us for not having even more work to care for another child, the "best interest" of an organization for not having to allow a long vacation leave (3 weeks), the "best interest" of themselves to not have to share US and our time any more than they feel that they do with our current kids. But none of those is looking out for the best interest of our family unit, of Monroe, or of following in Faith what we believe is God's will for such a time as this.

Just because they aren't strongly supporting our adoption does not mean that they are not Christians, nor does it mean that this is not God's will for our family. It simply means that God has revealed this to us that this is His plan for us and that He doesn't always tell the entire world "Hey, I've called the Cornishes to do this!" Oh how I wish He did sometimes though! And so, as we've processed through the different things that have resulted from those that are not in support of our adoption, I've been hesitant to write about it.

I've been hesitant because of concern that someone would try to cause harm to us. Yes, seriously. When people are angry about things, when they are hurt, they tend to hurt others. So not speaking openly about the adoption has been one way of us closing out that possibility for the people we are concerned about to not feel further strife towards us and possibly just leave us be. So far, that has been the case. But that is not what our Faith says. Our Faith says that God called us into this and that we should be sharing the JOYS and the TRIUMPHS of the Lord, as well as going to others to request PRAYER. Not hiding away in fear.

I've been hesitant because one of the people that opposes our adoption holds a 'key piece' to our dossier at their disposal. My mind and humanity have feared that this person will not agree to provide it, and that we will end up, in the end, having to release Monroe. I know that God has brought us to Monroe, and that this is all for His will and His plans for us. So that fear needs to be released. Not hidden away. We have faith that in the next few weeks as we are trying to complete our dossier, that we will be given blessing in that area and that we will receive what is needed.

Holding out those areas of my life for you to see, those things which I'd much rather keep hidden away, I am asking you to please pray. Please pray that the fear of what others can do in this situation will not be something that we hold on to, but rather that we will be able to continuously release it to God. Knowing that He has revealed His Will to us, that we can carry forward knowing that He will provide everything that we need for it to all happen. MAN cannot stop what GOD plans to happen, except by our reluctance to follow His will.

And so... On to an update on our adoption. Because God is in control and has already done GREAT THINGS for us that we should be celebrating instead if hiding!

Our homestudy was completed last week and sent off to USCIS! We are awaiting a fingerprinting appointment and then hopefully a quick approval. We are asking for your prayers that our file will make it to the desk of someone that recognizes that Monroe is living on a short time frame before being transferred to an institution, and that we will have approval in our hands before September 13th! The significance of that? I will be traveling to Ukraine on September 17th and feel led to pray that I can hand-deliver our dossier at that time. Is that incredibly fast and on all 'reasonable' fronts not going to happen? YES. But God doesn't ask us to pray only for what might happen already but to ask GREAT things in His name so that there is no other explanation than the power of prayer! (For those of you outside the adoption realm, USCIS is the US Citizenship and Immigration Department of Homeland Security. They provide clearance for international adoption which is a required part of the dossier. It is currently 5-12 weeks for immigration approval.)

We have already begun putting together our dossier and have our county paperwork, our marriage certificates, some of our financial documents, our agency and social worker licenses and homestudy. We've sent away for notarized state clearance letters and are waiting for those. Our CSP and POAs have been sent overseas which will help the SDA and the orphanage to know that we intend to adopt him and to submit our dossier soon. We sent these via FedEx last week and they were supposed to be delivered on Tuesday (tomorrow). We received word from another adoptive parent that they were picked up by our facilitator on Thursday! What a blessing for them to arrive 4 days early! We pray that because they have those forms they will 'hold' him at the orphanage baby house until we are able to travel. If you followed our first adoption journey from Ukraine, you can understand why that is another part of this journey that the fear creeps in on. Our Sasha was transferred from the baby house to an institution much like Monroe is at risk of and she was then 'unavailable' due to the views of her institution director toward adoption and Americans in general. We pray that God's hand be on Monroe and that he will wait right where he is for us to come and get him!!

Thank you for joining us in prayer, to pray for us, for our hearts to continue to seek God and His will, and for those parts of this process that are being met with reluctance to be smoothed. For prayer and protection over Monroe as he waits, unknowing, for us! And, please stand with us in prayer that our dossier will be complete for me to bring it to Ukraine in mid-September!