Today's Headline, Tomorrow's Old News

In a day of fast moving information, and often more details are shared than you'd prefer to read - you would think we would know everything about our current adoption status at the moment.

But, the reality is no human knows everything, and sometimes when we feel in the dark, it directs us to look at the One who holds the light.

So, here is the latest and greatest on our adoption, and those 'in the dark things' we are praying for:

We received Approval from Thailand on May 21st. We need our agency to receive the physical paperwork from that Approval for us to proceed with next steps. Today marks 8 weeks, and our agency has not received that paperwork. We are 'in the dark' as to why this has taken so long, and simply continue to wait...because that's all you can do :)

Once we get that paperwork, we are ready to file our I800 to USCIS, Dept of Homeland Security. This is critical as it allows our daughter to enter the United States as an immigrant with our intention of adopting her. We have heard that the I800 approvals are taking much longer than usual. We are ready to move onto this step of waiting - but cannot apply until we get that Thailand paperwork. So, we wait :)

Once her I800 is approved, typically we would be assigned a Thai Adoption Board meeting date and Visa appt date at the US Embassy in Thailand. However, no meeting dates are being sent as Thailand borders are only now starting to open slowly. And they are only open to people of certain criteria that we would meet none of.

Our agency has given us very little guidance on when travel will happen, and it seems no one has any answers. And with what appears to be a pandemic that is not going away any time soon, we see that someone somewhere has to act if any movement will be made in getting kids together with their families.

Last week, I sat on a call with over 400 families adopting children internationally throughout the world  asking our U.S. Secretary of State office what they are doing to help unite families. They get that it is better and safer for these children to be with their matched families. They get that governments must work together to unite families. They had the call because they know that real families with real adoption stories will be what moves 'the powers that be'.

The main positive of this call was that up until then, they had not heard many families adopting from Thailand speak up - and we did on that call. So, since last week, our adoption agency has been in contact with the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, and the Thai Embassy here in the states advocating for adoptive families. We still cannot travel until our I800 is complete BUT we are highly encouraged of this movement that will Lord willing, get our daughter home sooner rather than later.

We presently have no major concerns about our daughter. She is in a good foster family, and seems to be excelling there. However, the 400 families represented on that call - not all could say that. These children have families, and the extended delay for everybody is not the best. And although we are not worried about our girl trusting the Lord has her in His hands, our hearts so long to have our daughter and little sister with us. Being reminded 'she should of been home by now' is hard to stomach, especially without seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The current peace and trust we have is only of the Lord!

So, please be praying that God would continue to move to unite children with loving families. That God would protect the many children around the world in vulnerable situations. Please pray for our daughter's foster family, that they would continue to love our daughter well, and that they would have endurance and hope in this long, drawn out season. Please pray for God to continue to move mountains in our adoption to bring our daughter home in God's perfect timing.

We so appreciate every single one of your prayers. <3