"Mustard Seed Faith"

Matthew 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard see, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there' and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you."

It's been a while since I've updated the blog.  Several things have happened that I can only attribute to our Heavenly Father.  I am finding that adopting and being pregnant have a lot in common.  One thing for me is the emotional roller coaster that I am on at times.  As the conflict in Libya and Egypt have escalated, so has my anxiety of getting these children as soon as possible.  Our home study went great.  Our finger prints in the big scheme of "finger prints" went really well.  But a couple of weeks ago, I realized that our CAAN report hadn't come back.  I sent them in on January 21 and they should have come back within 3 to 4 weeks.  Our social worker told me that it's very unusual that the CAAN report doesn't come back before the finger prints.  She offered to call DHR for us to see what was going on.  Leslie talks with a lady, the only lady, that processes CAAN reports and gets some concerning news.  The lady at DHR says that because of budget cuts and lay offs she is the only one working on processing these reports and she is just now on processing reports that were received on December 26th, 2010.  Mine was sent in January 21, 2011.  She was nice enough to tell Leslie she would go through her stack of reports and make sure she received ours but there was really nothing she could do because she has to process them by the date they are received. Leslie kept reassuring me that she was a really nice lady and she promised to call Leslie back by the end of the day.  I started to pray, "Lord, what can I do now?"  I called Leslie back and said I need the name and number of the lady because if I have to drive to Montgomery and beg her to process this paperwork I will.  Thank the Lord for my faithful, God fearing, social worker.  She said, "let's give her until the end of the day to get back with me."  She "talked me of the ledge" and I agreed with her to wait.  I began to pray without ceasing for God some how to work out this problem.  I know He has handled much bigger problems than this.  Within the hour, not the end of the day, but within the hour Leslie called me back and said, "Are you sitting down?".  She said the lady just called her back.  She found our paperwork, approved it and even emailed Leslie a confirmation number which Leslie said is unheard of.  Leslie said stuff like this never happens.  She said the only way she can explain that the lady was able to get this done was because it was a "God thing".  I am almost in tears just typing that and this happened about 2 weeks ago.  God is faithful and I realize that even though my faith is growing, I have a long way to go.

The week before the CAAN incident something else amazing happened. I have been curious about the age of Joan and Derrick.  It doesn't matter to me how old they are but as a mom, I want to know when God put them on this earth.  There are no birth records of these children.  I don't think they are born in hospitals.  The moms have no rights to their children.  Many times they are raised by their grandmother's.   This culture is so different from what I know and I find it very interesting and it has challenged me to think about my culture.  I know that so much of who I am is because of my grandparents.  I was so blessed to have the most wonderful grandparents on the face of this earth.  I have so many happy memories of spending time with them.  My mom's mom, Nana, kept me and my sister, it seems like almost every day of my life. She did the most special things with us, especially when were sick.  One summer when I was about 14 years old, she and I went to Houston to visit my Aunt and her family.  Nana let me drive for several hours of the trip in her Mustang.  We had a great time!  I have many happy memories with Nana and I miss her greatly.  I had decided that if I had the opportunity to choose birth dates for Joan and Derrick I wanted to give one of them Nana's birthday.  I was still in the process of praying about this.  I had mentioned it to Todd and he said that would be fine with him.  Leslie, our social worker, sent me an email and asked me to find out if anyone knew their birth dates and last names.  I sent the request to Joel.  He shortly sent me their birth dates and their last names.  Joan's birth date is August 7, 2003 and Derrick's birth date is July 9, 2005.  July 9th is my Nana's birthday.  God is so faithful!

In Him,

Amiee