5/4/20

First off, thank you for being on this adventure with us. We love and appreciate each one of you specifically for your prayers and support and encouragement. We hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.

Second (off? on?), China has not been very forthcoming with information (surprise!), so we can’t get new photos or videos of our kiddo right now, but we’ve been told (for whatever that’s worth) that he is good and healthy. Paperwork will continue to flow, but it will be more like a trickle since most government offices around the world are understaffed. Visas for children being adopted to the US are still being granted and processed, so that’s a huuuuuge blessing.  

Third, I know it has been frustrating to see us wade through paperwork for 3 years. In a nutshell, our agency in Colorado has been suspended (they are not allowed to submit any more paperwork) due to an accreditation deficiency (*insert morbid sense of relief at confirmation that they were messing up for reals, and the hiccups weren’t my fault), and we are now transferring agencies. We will be with an excellent agency in San Diego that has proved to be professional and efficient both with our home study and with the adoptions of a couple of our friends.  

We have been frustrated but not discouraged, and we will not give up on bringing our kiddo home. A friend of mine whose son was struggling with severe health issues reminded me recently that “God is writing his story.” All the pain and time passed is not wasted. Each of us has painful experiences that have shaped us into something. We have memories and scars that feed empathetic responses we could not have otherwise. God is giving our kiddo unique experiences that he will be able to use in the future to better love other people. Because of this trouble, he will have a unique voice. We chose the name, Asher, for him because it means, “happy, blessed.” He will be. We will do everything in our power to make sure he knows that his story is special because God wrote it. It’s not going to be the way I would have pictured or with things I would have written into the timeline, but it will be so good. Ginny Owens says in one of my favorite songs,

“The pathway is broken, and the signs are unclear, and I don’t know the reason why You brought me here, but just because You love me the way that You do, I’m gonna walk through the valley if You want me to. ‘Cause I’m not who I was when I took my first step, and I’m clinging to the promise You’re not through with me yet. So if all of these trials bring me closer to You, then I will go through the fire if You want me to. It may not be the way I would have chosen, when You lead through a world that’s not my home, but You never said it would be easy. You only said I’d never go alone… I’ll remember the suffering Your love put You through, and I will go through the valley, if You want me to.”