Journey to Gracie Joy Part III

OK...here's the conclusion. Again, remember, this is how things were written as I was walking through this.

2/9- I have been frustrated the last couple of days wanting God to give me a clear, tangible, sign as I have seen him give others. I was praying asking for this and started to ponder what I should read in my Bible. What was my main problem? I decided it was faith. So….where do I read about faith? I didn’t know. I decided I would google “faith bible study”. There were many choices that came up and I decided that might not be such a good idea. Who knows who wrote those Bible studies and I certainly didn’t want to read some off-the-wall crazy thing. I decided I should go to my church’s site instead. When I got to that site, I decided to go to the sermon’s online. (I have never done this before) I found a sermon by Christine Caine. We had seen Christine a couple of weeks ago and this was the continuation of that service that night. It was titled “A Place For You” pt. 2. As she started to speak, she said to “turn to Hebrews 11…the faith chapter”!!!!!!!!! Wow…that was pretty tangible! She spoke about Abraham and Sara having Isaac when it should have been impossible. She read, “faith without works is dead”. You can believe but you have to act in order to conceive. In the same token, you can have works but if you don’t believe, you won’t receive. Believe-Conceive-Receive! “He who promised is faithful”. I knew that we believed. We decided we could adopt again. We conceived when we started our paperwork. Now it was time to receive! But who?

I have now come to the conclusion that if Gwynne is still on the list on the 18th, we would be foolish not to lock her file! Every child is a leap of faith. You will NEVER have all the information you want. Wesleigh was a leap of faith. There is no way we can walk all the way down this path and not choose this gorgeous child! Now all that is left is to wait for the 18th. Ugh…..
When I shared this with Richard, he smiled and said he was “waiting for me to come to my own conclusion”. He has never wavered on wanting to take her. I love that about him and am really glad I was the one struggling with the decision instead of him.

2/10- I was on my computer this morning emailing our agency to tell her that we wanted to lock Gwynne’s file ASAP, when I received an email from her with a great medical report from the CCAA!!! They report that she is potty trained!
I am so excited about this! I immediately called her and told her that we absolutely wanted to lock her as soon as we could. Thursday night is the magic “hour”. That is one week from tonight. I am a little nervous about it, but really feel like she will be there. I think God has really been working on me these past 3 weeks. My faith has definitely grown. I felt like this information came to me as a confirmation/reward for being obedient. The new shared list will be coming out very soon, so people are already looking forward to that being released. I really don’t think anyone will lock her file. I think they will wait to see what the new list brings. This is going to be a LONG week!!

2/17 – Tonight is the night. Tonight will be the 18th in China. My agency contact is at her computer waiting for Gwynne’s file to change to “special focus”. There are only 6 children on the list who are not special focus. As the night goes on, we are emailing back and forth. For some reason, Gwynne’s file won’t flip. The other 5 do, but hers just sits. At this point, I’m a little nervous, but mainly it makes me laugh. This has been such a roller coaster ride…of course, her file would sit!! Finally, 2 hours after the other files flipped, hers did too. At 9:30, I get a call “I just locked her file…she’s yours!” Whoo Hoo!!! The words I had waited to hear for almost 4 months. What an unbelievable journey thus far!!

3/10 - 797C arrives. I bring it to be notarized and certified, then pass it on to our agency.

3/16 - I get a call from our agency. She congratulated me that our dossier will be send to China on Friday!! She called it "record breaking" time! Whoo Hoo!!

This was not a journey I chose. This was not my plan. I was very comfortable with 4 children. I’m still overwhelmed at having 5! I can’t stand the look people give me when we say that we’re going back. That open-mouthed stare…. That’s ok. God never said his path was easy, and hands down, I’d rather be on His path any day of the week! We are believing that our faithfulness will be honored and Gracie Joy will live a healthy, happy life, safe in the loving arms of her forever family and her heavenly Father.