Dear Friends and Family, 

       It has been one month since our last update and many things have been happening with our adoption journey since then. It has been said that adoption is not for the faint of heart. If we had to define our adoption process thus far, we would say its a process characterized by thousands of opportunities for us to be humbled and fall on our faces and declare, "We don't know, but you do God." Its a journey of one thousand, "Lord willings" and one thousand or more moments to say, "We need you God." We have to keep reminding ourselves that even though we keep hitting walls and struggles, we must climb over them, pick up the pieces, and press on in the direction we feel God is calling us. We have great peace in knowing that His way is better than our own. 

       In the last month, we have begun our psychological evaluations, submitted all our local, state and FBI background checks, ordered our birth certificates, dove into our home study paperwork and required homework, and had our medical evaluations. Our medical evaluations ended up being the most shocking experience, because we came out with the most shocking diagnosis, that Joseph has Type 1 Diabetes! Apart from the immediate impact on our everyday life (which is life altering), diabetes poses a potential problem for our adoption in several ways. First, we have a new financial barrier. This is of course super intimidating and reminds us how much we need God's help. Secondly, we must submit a doctors letter to the country's adoption board this month explaining our diagnosis. The hope is that we would hear from them in the next few months about whether or not they are comfortable with us still submitting our profile. After discussing this with our coordinator, it seems there is a good possibility it will not be a problem and we might not hear back from them at all about it. Waiting for a response from them might take months, which is both scary and discouraging. Worst case scenario, when we request a child, they deny us and we take this as God's sovereign plan and we look at other international programs within All God's Children. Best case scenario, we take this as God's sovereign plan and we continue walking in faith in our home study process before we hear back from them, if ever. Either way, we must believe in God's sovereign plan.

      The reality is that every adoption board and country must pick the best family for each child because it is about the child's wellbeing. Our immediate feeling is of inadequacy, that we are being marginalized in a sense to the outskirts of the "ideal family." The feelings actually call us to relate a little bit with how the orphan must feel. They ask the same questions, "Why must it take so long? Who is there for me?." The orphan has been even more marginalized, and they are the ones who struggle the most with feeling inadequate. 

        Jesus never promised that being a light and hope to the world would be easy, in fact he promised that by being his disciples and following his way that we we would experience sickness, persecution, and maybe even death. However, He did promise that He would be with us, Immanuel. This is the greatest gift and greatest calling on us, to know God more and follow His way, not our own. Thank you so much for your prayers and support, for we have said before that we cannot do this without you. 

Looking forward to the day YOU meet our little heart, 

Joseph and Katie Murrey