Dear friends,

In the book of Proverbs it says in chapter 16:1-3, "The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit you work to the Lord, and your plans will be established" This past month, this verse has rang true in our journey to adopt in so many ways. His plans have proven to be different than our own, and we been striving for the answers of our tongue to be from Him. We are committing this work of adoption to Him, trusting that He will establish our home and family.  

We are on target to finish our home study and dossier in less than one month. We have had our first visit by our social worker, and it went very well. She is coming back next week to meet one last time and interview us again. The legal paperwork trail is just that, a trail. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are on the last steps, collecting reference letters recommending us for adoption, financial paperwork about our jobs and income, and meeting with a psychologist to make sure we aren't too crazy. :) 

Three days before Mother's Day Katie was walking outside with the little one she part-time nanny's for, and her phone rang from our agency. It was Kate, the Philippines program director, who we don't usually talk to yet on a regular basis. She explained that she is calling for a very specific reason and that this phone call might catch us a bit off guard. Katie's mind starting racing, and then she heard the words, "There is a little girl. She's 18 months old and was just put on the list." I'm trying to find her a family, and I'm calling to talk to you about your interest in her case, even though you aren't done with your home study yet." 

To say we were in shock was an understatement. The next 4-5 days were a dizzy blur of reading up on her special need, talking to a pediatrician who specializes in international adoption cases, praying, crying, consulting with our best friends and family, crying some more, and praying even more. Hundreds of questions swarmed our hearts and minds, and swimming through the myriad of doubt, fear, love, desire, hesitancy, and family identity issues, was very difficult. 

After about a week of initially working through these issues, we have decided that we WILL BE pursuing this little heart! She will be little indeed, for she has a rare genetic mutation that will impair the bone ossification of her legs and arms, making her a bit shorter than the rest of us, but allowing her to live a long healthy life otherwise. We have ALL her history, her WHOLE story, ALL her medical records, etc. We are so very thankful for her sake that she has so much documented about her life and story, even the hard painful stuff. So we will continue to refer to her as our little heart, as we have always done (ironic eh?) in the public spectrum. We have five pictures of her, which will not be released until we find out for sure that she is ours. 

Within the next week we will submit a family profile with pictures to the Inter-country Adoption Board (ICAB) of the Philippines. Other families from other agencies may have seen her as well, and might be submitting profiles too. ICAB might take up to 3-5 months to respond and tell us whether or not we are chosen to be her family. In the meantime we will send our completed home study to them and pray for God's purposes to be fulfilled for her life and ours. If we do not get awarded the amazing blessing of being her mommy and daddy, we will be thrilled she gets a family either way but probably heartbroken its not us. In the Lord's strength we will then begin waiting each month to look through the profiles of other waiting children. Ultimately, it will be one less lonely orphan sleeping in their orphanage crib without a mommy and daddy, and that is what we want. (Tissues, anyone?)

Please pray that our hearts would be guided directly from God during this time, that this sweet little heart will be protected and cared for under the care of her orphanage, and that His will and purposes will be fulfilled through this for all of us. Please also pray for our finances, as this situation makes the rate at which we fundraise in overdrive. We will be immediately eligible for grants after our home study is done, and will also do some local fundraising through our church this summer. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support you've already given, and we are so excited to see what the end of this year will be like for this little heart. 

With love, 
Joseph and Katie Murrey