Publishing His Glorious Deeds!!!!

Last Thursday, exactly one month into the process of switching to Colombia, God totally blew our minds! 

In the middle of the day I got a phone call from Beth, our social worker. I expected her to be calling about the corrections that needed to be made on our homestudy before it is finalized. But it took a very unexpected turn!

Beth: Do you have a minute?

Me: Sure!

Beth: Are you near your computer?

Me: Sure! (Thinking she's going to email me the corrections and go over them together.)

Beth: Is Brent home?

Me: Ummmm... no. He won't be home until 1pm. Why? (Still not catching on to this line of questioning even though I am a dedicated adoption blog reader that has read this EXACT dialogue scenario with other families! LOL)

Beth: Well, we think we might have a sibling group to match you with!

Me: WHAT! I thought you were calling about the homestudy!

HA!!!! Next, I stumbled over my words, tripped over my laptop power cord, shushed the kids as they tried to ask what was wrong, tried to find a private, quiet place in my room, and mumbled incoherant words of confusion and elation to Beth. I think it was something profound like, "Wow. Oh. Wow! Oh. Really? Wow!"  LOL!

She asked me if I wanted her to wait to send their pictures (WHAT? We get pictures too?) and referral papers until Brent came home.

Uh, no! No way I could wait!
Sorry, Brent, but after a year of crazy adoption stuff, I couldn't even wait one more hour until he came home to hear the news! (Thankfully, he totally understood and wouldn't have had it any other way.)

She then explained that this is not a formal referral yet. Just an informal "match". The incountry staff already had the kids' information and when she sent our Psychological to them to check, they immediately told her that these children match our specifications exactly.

The ICBF could decide that we aren't the best match for them, which we understand. We don't even have our homestudy finished or immigration update complete! Our dossier isn't finished or in Colombia yet!  So all of this is very tentative. We are obviously excited, but we're trying to temper our excitement with reality, knowing all too well how easily we could lose the match. Been there, done that twice this past year. Not fun.  So we're proceeding gently. Preparing and planning as if it will succeed, but not going crazy with emotion and excitement, yet.

Unfortunately, I am not allowed to post their photos on my blog until a formal referral has been accepted. I know! Bummer!
But, we are happy to say that it is a 7 year old girl, 5 year old boy and 3 year old little girl! We sent in our Letter of Intent yesterday and are waiting to finish our paperwork hopefully this week!

At this point in time, we are looking at traveling to Colombia in January or February. The Colombian courts close down from Mid-December to Mid January, so even though we could get a formal referral before then, we most likely won't travel until the courts re-open. That's ok. We have SO MUCH TO DO! (You should see my To Do list. It's more like a TO DO BOOK!)

Back when everything fell apart with the Mexico adoption, and we had to make a decision about what to do, we really felt so unsure about everything. We still felt the call to adopt a sibling group but even then, we doubted our hearts. As we made the decision to switch to Colombia, Brent and I both commented that we felt we were "tiptoeing" into Colombia, full of questions, not sure if this is where we belong. We were at total peace if God closed the door because then we would KNOW for sure he was closing the door to adopting and wanted us to go in another direction. 

BUT, so far He has made it more and more clear that He is pushing this speeding train full steam ahead. I mean, how in the world do you get a match when you aren't even homestudy ready? How do you get FBI fingerprints in 6 days? REALLY? Come on! Only God can do these kinds of miracles.

So, today I want to live out Psalm 96:3. I want to...
Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does!

Taste and see for yourself how good He is!
Tiffany