Though it tarries...

So it's been a long time since we have posted an update on our adoption progress. This is because it has been a LONG time since we have heard anything about our adoption progress. We have been in IBESR (the system in Haii that the paperwork has to go through) since mid April.  We were encouraged when 6 of our girls friends being adopted from their orphanage by friends in our area came out of IBESR in late May. All of the families adopting these kids submitted their dossiers the same day as us but entered IBESR 1-2 months before we did. There are others that entered IBESR before us that have not come through yet, and so far it seems the average timeline in IBESR is 3-5 months. We know some that have come through in a month and others that have been in for nearly 6 months now. We have been told repeatedly that it pretty much just depends on the person processing the paperwork...whether or not they care about the piles representing persons sitting on their desk. We learned that there is a new IBESR director and that anyone who had not come out before the new director took office should expect to experience delays. Delays. Let me say that again. Delays. This word used to infuriate me. I mean we are talking about orphans in often inhumane conditions...waiting. Waiting while their families that could provide for them wait to be able to do so because of red tape. Still not feeling any reaction. DELAYS. Perhaps making it bigger will do the trick. Uh, nope. Am I just numb to this word by this point, or is it because God has been teaching me that delays...even the ones that seem anything but good...the gut wrenching ones that make me scream WHY?, Lord WHY?...are His mercies in disguise?

But what if this process had been easy? Not that we have ever heard of ANY adoption from Haiti being described as easy. Adoptions from Haiti typically take between 2-3 years. This is the norm...sadly. We knew this when we submitted our dossier after Haiti closed humanitarian parole in April of 2010. We were hoping this would not be the case post-quake, but we knew it could be. We do not know of a single child that has come out on a traditional international adoption (what we are doing) from Haiti since the earthquake. We have watched kids come through humanitarian parole, student visas, and medical visas...but not adoptions....YET! While I may not be having a reaction to the word "delay", I do struggle with internal (sometimes external) reactions to others (who know didly squat about Haitian adoptions) who make comments and conclusions about why it is taking so long. I don't mind anyone asking. I don't mind explaining. I don't get my feelings hurt easily. But there isn't a week that goes by that someone (usually with a doubtful, you are ignorant to keep fighting for this adoption look) says, "Do you actually think they will ever come home?" Faking a smile I say, "Yes", while cringing inside at their poor word choices especially times like when we are at the airport welcoming the upteenth child coming home (not from Haiti) to families that started their process a year after us. Adoption is hard nomatter what the circumstances, country, or wait time. We get enough unlovely comments about the fact that we are adopting older children..out of birth order...that are black, that we are buying our children, that we are moving to a hopeless country that will never climb out of the hell it is in, that we are crazy to do so. I've never said we aren't crazy. I think you have to be at least a little crazy to do these things...or just crazy about following the Lord in whatever He leads you to do and wherever He leads you to go nomatter what it may cost. It is sad how few Christians actually get that. They say they believe it. But they don't get it. I'm not saying we get it fully, or obey fully, or trust fully. We don't. But I wish that there was more compassion and encouragement going around the body of believers in what the Lord calls us to do or calls us to endure. Let me put it this way. If your friend or family member is struggling through the wait of unemployment or an illness that doesn't have an end in sight, do you say, "Do you actually think he will ever find a job?....Do you actually think they will ever get better?" Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. Only God knows tomorrow. But seriously people. Think before you speak. Note to self to do the same. How bout instead of asking "why?", instead of asking if they will ever come home, if they will ever learn to read, if we will ever get through the many"issues"...what if you just prayed for this precious little girl? Pray what is written on the sign she holds that "He will cleanse their hearts. He will make them whole". Only God can do that. We need your prayers. We need your compassion in the hard times.

Many times when we ask "why?" we don't get answers. But God has been gracious in giving us a glimpse of the why and how this has been a mercy in disguise in many ways. If we had been able to use an agency for our adoptions, if things were not so complicated, if we had not had to do so much research on our own for our adoptions for so many months, there is no way we would have the connections and dear friends in Haiti that we do now. And it is through these connections and friends  that the Lord has opened our hearts, enabled, and provided for us to move to Haiti. It is a mercy that we have had the time we have had to prepare to bring orphans into our family. Knowing what we know now about our girls past, personalities, and the issues we will surely face would have been much much harder to face if they had come to us quickly in the way we originally thought they would. Many of these issues of great concern that I have prayed over and over in the past 18 months will be drastically reduced by the fact that our girls will be able to transition to our family in their own culture. God knew all this. All those months of asking why. God knew. He knows. We are blessed when we see these glimpses of His glory. When a tiny piece of our brain comprehends that He really is working together all things for good.

This morning I was sitting on the porch of my sister's country home reading Habakkuk. I didn't set out to to sit on that lovely porch in the cool morning breeze with Habakkuk in my mind, but I kept thinking about the word "delay" and set out to seek God's word on the subject. So I looked up the word "delay" and couldn't find it in the back of my Bible, but found the word"tarry" instead. I think I like tarry better than delay anyways. I am thinking Tarry should be the name of a future child. You can talk me out of that later. Back to Habakkuk...which we won't be naming a future child after. I stopped here for awhile.

"Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come, 

It will not tarry."

Habakkuk 2:4

Is anyone else puzzled by this verse? First it says "though it tarries...". Then it says "It will not tarry."in the same sentence. Huh? Seems like a contradition to me. I sought the big Bible scholar expert notes to see if they had a hunch as to what this is really saying. Summarizing what I found...God knows His plan and the outworking of all things in accordance with His purposes. While awaiting the fulfillment that will surely come, we must rest in the fact that the fulfillment lies in God Himself. It will not take any longer than God has planned. Our plans have changed. God's have not. We don't always understand, but we know that He understands it all. Thank you Lord for helping us to trust you while waiting. Thank you for giving us glimpses of Your plans for us and how You truly have been working all these things together for our good and for the fulfillment of Your glory. Thank you for Your Word that says, 

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways, 

And My thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9