Our Official Referral!

Yesterday it happened--we got the call from Duni! All of the information for our daughter is complete so Duni sent us her information in an email. I spend Thursdays out all day with my kids. I guess it's on the road-schooling since we leave the house after breakfast and don't get home until a bit before dinner. Imagine our surprise when Duni's message played! We had stopped on our way home at the store to pick out a few things to send to our kids. Mel graciously agreed to bring a few things to the transition home when she travels to pick up her daughter next week. We are so thrilled with this! My mind is still reeling, because we didn't expect to hear from Duni so soon.

Our daughter is beautiful. In one photo she has a gorgeous smile, and in the second she looks like a total grump. Ella is thrilled with these pictures, as she was concerned earlier this week when we only had a picture of her brother. When she prayed last night, she said, "God, thank you, I got to see a picture of my sister on the computer."

Oddly enough, my ticker yesterday said 9 months of waiting. We got our referral exactly 9 months after our dossier was accepted. Isn't that funny?

Along the same strange lines...I have a prayer journal. That sounds a little more formal that it is. It's just a composition pad that I started writing in 2 years ago. I spend time with God daily, but I don't write in it everyday. I think I even let 6 months pass without writing in it once. Though sometimes, it's nice to pour your heart out on paper. Then praise God when he brings peace in a hardship. It has been a blessing to read through it to see what we struggled with and how God has answered our prayers over time. He is so faithful! So, this morning, I was writing about our referral and a thought about dates hit me. I was wondering how long we have actually been in the 'process of adoption'. So I turned back, almost to the beginning. There, was the date Feb 22, 2006. And I read, "Last night I told Seth about my prayers for adopting again and he agreed that we should adopt."

I don't know why we waited 9 months, I never would have expected it. I don't understand all of the history of my new kids. BUT I do know that the date of our willingness to trust God and the date of our referral--that isn't a coincidence! God is in the details. He puts His mark on our lives, showing us that He is listening and He does care. Did He slow things down so that we wouldn't get our referral until now, just so these dates would match? Nah, I don't think so. I think He's got more important reasons for the timing of this. But would He tweak the day that Duni calls, just to reveal himself to us? Certainly.