Many people have been asking me how I'm holding it together. Well two things. One, I KNOW that, I KNOW, that I KNOW from this journey, that God is in control and His timing is perfect. Secondly, because I haven't been able to book any tickets yet, put anything on hold, look into hotels, since we have to wait for the Korean Holiday to be over. I am a procrastinator by nature, which makes it really hard to be aware of all that truly is happening, until it really starts to happen! Mark just loves that about me! NOT!!!! These next couple of days will become REALITY very quickly that we are really doing this and about to cross oceans to get our baby girl, while leaving parts of our hearts back here.
Our Korean agency is off work Tuesday and they will be back in the office on Wednesday due to Korean Thanksgiving. So tomorrow, I am able to finally work with our travel agent to temporarily book flights for the 24 hour period. Once we have that information, we can send it to our agency in New York along with our request to stay in the SWS guest house. Our information will be sent to Korea on Tuesday evening, so the SWS staff will have it to approve while we sleep Tuesday night (or I pack all night) and we WAIT (again) for Wednesday morning. The airline tickets are more a technicality as they will fall into the schedule SWS would like. However, the bigger thing now is accomodations. We are really hoping that we can stay in the Guesthouse, since it is right there at SWS, and the price is right! :) However we won't find out until Wednesday morning if it is available as they only have one 2 bedroom suite, so than we may have to book hotels from there. We also aren't able to make any plans about meeting foster mothers until Wednesday either when hopefully Welcome House hears back from their contact at Holt. The last we heard was that Narae's foster mother may be available to get together this weekend, though we would need a translator, and they hadn't been able to get in contact with Adah's foster mother. She is no longer fostering and the number they have on file is disconnected. We have already told Adah we may not get to meet her foster mother, but that we are just going to keep praying about it and trust God to continue to guide each and every one of our footsteps. It sounded like Holt Korea was going to try again to contact her. If we aren't able to meet her, than I'm just going to pray that God would show us a precious woman that could be encouraged by the gifts we had picked out for Adah's foster mother. Believe me, Hanna's Mum is well covered.
I have goosebumps to think that this time next week we will have laid eyes on our beautiful baby girl. My thoughts wonder whether she will have been accepting of us. Will she have taken one look at our Western faces and gone clinging to her foster mother? That's where I think the miracle of Narae and Adah will come in as Hanna tries to figure out how their some what familiar type faces fit in with her new forever Mama and Daddy. We need to keep our expectations in check. We have so much love for her, yet she has no clue. How I think of the heart of our heavenly Father in the same way. He has so much love for us, yet how many days do I live as if I have no clue. I know as I look at the searching eyes of Hanna I will be reminded of myself. As she looks at Adah and Narae to find connection with them, as she studies how they fit with us and how they trust us, I pray that my life shows others that my God is trustworthy and safe. That if He has loved and accepted someone with my stubborn will and pride, He can love and accept anyone and His forgiveness runs deep. So many days I can feel like a failure as a mother, and I am awed that God sees something that He is willing to grant me the joy of parenting another precious girl. I pray she knows that she is a daughter of the King, and that as she learns to trust me, she will learn to trust a Heavenly Father that thinks she is priceless. I still don't think I accept that, so maybe Hanna and I will learn together, that we are loved not because of what we do, but because of WHO WE ARE! Daughters of the King!
Thank you so much for your prayers. A lot to do in the next couple of days, and many things that need to fall into place. We look back at God's faithfulness and the signs of His fingerprints all around us, and use that to remember that He will carry us the rest of the way.
Our Korean agency is off work Tuesday and they will be back in the office on Wednesday due to Korean Thanksgiving. So tomorrow, I am able to finally work with our travel agent to temporarily book flights for the 24 hour period. Once we have that information, we can send it to our agency in New York along with our request to stay in the SWS guest house. Our information will be sent to Korea on Tuesday evening, so the SWS staff will have it to approve while we sleep Tuesday night (or I pack all night) and we WAIT (again) for Wednesday morning. The airline tickets are more a technicality as they will fall into the schedule SWS would like. However, the bigger thing now is accomodations. We are really hoping that we can stay in the Guesthouse, since it is right there at SWS, and the price is right! :) However we won't find out until Wednesday morning if it is available as they only have one 2 bedroom suite, so than we may have to book hotels from there. We also aren't able to make any plans about meeting foster mothers until Wednesday either when hopefully Welcome House hears back from their contact at Holt. The last we heard was that Narae's foster mother may be available to get together this weekend, though we would need a translator, and they hadn't been able to get in contact with Adah's foster mother. She is no longer fostering and the number they have on file is disconnected. We have already told Adah we may not get to meet her foster mother, but that we are just going to keep praying about it and trust God to continue to guide each and every one of our footsteps. It sounded like Holt Korea was going to try again to contact her. If we aren't able to meet her, than I'm just going to pray that God would show us a precious woman that could be encouraged by the gifts we had picked out for Adah's foster mother. Believe me, Hanna's Mum is well covered.
I have goosebumps to think that this time next week we will have laid eyes on our beautiful baby girl. My thoughts wonder whether she will have been accepting of us. Will she have taken one look at our Western faces and gone clinging to her foster mother? That's where I think the miracle of Narae and Adah will come in as Hanna tries to figure out how their some what familiar type faces fit in with her new forever Mama and Daddy. We need to keep our expectations in check. We have so much love for her, yet she has no clue. How I think of the heart of our heavenly Father in the same way. He has so much love for us, yet how many days do I live as if I have no clue. I know as I look at the searching eyes of Hanna I will be reminded of myself. As she looks at Adah and Narae to find connection with them, as she studies how they fit with us and how they trust us, I pray that my life shows others that my God is trustworthy and safe. That if He has loved and accepted someone with my stubborn will and pride, He can love and accept anyone and His forgiveness runs deep. So many days I can feel like a failure as a mother, and I am awed that God sees something that He is willing to grant me the joy of parenting another precious girl. I pray she knows that she is a daughter of the King, and that as she learns to trust me, she will learn to trust a Heavenly Father that thinks she is priceless. I still don't think I accept that, so maybe Hanna and I will learn together, that we are loved not because of what we do, but because of WHO WE ARE! Daughters of the King!
Thank you so much for your prayers. A lot to do in the next couple of days, and many things that need to fall into place. We look back at God's faithfulness and the signs of His fingerprints all around us, and use that to remember that He will carry us the rest of the way.
1 comment:
Somehow, all these things work out and fall into place. It's a wonderful moment to finally be able to see and hold your child. Enjoy every minute of it!
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