One Paper Away

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning..." James 2:17

 "..A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.." John 3:27

So many of you have been texting/emailing/asking on Facebook, etc about where we are in the process. I wonder why??? I am CONSTANTLY updating this blog.. just look at the last time I wrote. ;-)  Honestly, I wish I could say we have new and exciting news, however, we aren't much further in the process than we were the last time I wrote.

One exciting thing that has happened is that we passed court. Hooray! We didn't find out until months after, but we officially passed court on December 5, 2012. This means Judah and Jewel are officially Neelys! We are so thankful and excited that we have two more children. Truly it is a blessing from God!

So many ask, "If they are officially Neelys, why can't you bring them home??" Oh how I wish this was how it worked! To make a long story short, there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be filed with the US government (USCIS) and the state of Alabama (DHR) in order to bring them into the country. Without it, they cannot approve the babies to be brought onto US soil.

The paperwork has been in the hands of the missionaries at the orphanage for a couple of months now, however, we are missing one document. ONE DOCUMENT.

As soon as the lawyer (in Africa) brings this document to the orphanage, the package of papers will be mailed to us.  It will take about 5 days to get here and as soon as we have it translated, we can file with the US government and the state of AL. Once they approve it, we travel!

We assumed this would have been in our hands back in February, early March. And that we would be traveling by now. Oh how our plans are so different from God's sometimes.

In my flesh, it is so easy to lash out and say,

"Really?! One document??! ONE DOCUMENT IS BETWEEN US AND OUR BABIES?!"

It is so easy to grovel and complain in what I would think would be a worthy and deserved response to this looooooong and frustrating waiting period. It would be so easy to say to God, "Haven't you heard my cries to you? Don't you see us, more importantly, don't you see the babies lying in those cribs hour after hour? Waiting? Sometimes crying themselves to sleep? MY babies? Alone. Don't you see?!"

Then by God's sweet grace, He hears my cry, comforts me, and then gently reminds me that His plans are best. His timing is best. He will never leave me nor forsake me. He is El Roi, "the God who sees." He sees me, them, our family, just as He saw the Israelites in all their turmoil in Egypt (Ex 3:7). And just as he heard their cry, He hears ours. And just as He chose to wait to deliver the Israelites, so He has chosen with us.

It is not one document holding us from our babies. It's Him. 

He is sovereign. He is God. He wrote the story. It is for His glory. We are His. He is good and He loves us.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose" Romans 8:28

I need to be reminded of this daily. Hourly. Minute by minute.

Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Thank you that it is not all about me. (Oh the mess we would be in if it were!) Thank you that it is not all about the babies. Thank you that is is all about you and your glory. And thank you for loving us in the midst and calling us according to your purpose.

Here are the next steps:

1) Lawyer in Africa brings the last needed document to the orphanage.
2) Missionaries go to DHL and mail the package to us.
3) We receive package 4-5 days later.
4) We have documents translated.
5) We receive translated documents 3-5 days later.
6) We overnight package of translated documents to USCIS.
7) We email translated documents to our social worker to send to AL DHR.
8) WAIT (yes, again) for approval. The wait time can be 10-90 days. (We expect somewhere around 40 days.)
9) Get letter saying we are APPROVED!
10) Wait until the approval reaches the US Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. (about 10 days)
11) Make Embassy Appointment on the next available Tuesday. (They only do appointments on Tuesdays)
12) Travel the Wednesday before our appointment to pick up babies from Guinea Bissau and take to appointment in Dakar.
13) Get visas and COME HOME!!

Please pray God's will over all these steps and that our hearts will continue to be drawn to rely on Him and Him alone. Please pray against fear and anxiety. Please pray our babies' hearts will be ready to meet us, and our hearts to meet them.

Thank you, as always, for all your support! We love each of you and praise God for you!

By His Grace,

Kimberly

PS: This truly deserves a blog post of it's own, but we have officially raised over $25,000!!! Praise be to God Most High! He will ALWAYS provide if He has called you, my friends. ALWAYS.