Praise. Today we found out that the Secretary of States office has found the new Hague format for the apostilles and is creating one to match for Louisiana. Thanks to some hard work by Sen Francis Thompson and his friend Secretary Jay Dardenne this got done very quickly for the State of Louisiana.
Now a little bit about how these men were used of God. All last weekend I had to work our booth at the home show in Monroe. About 2:00 AM Sat. I woke realizing that even in my dreams I was crying out to God to do something about this situation. I kept praying, and about 1:30 PM sat Sec. of State Dardenne's assistant (who lives in Baton Rouge) was in my booth at the home show. He took my information, told me that the Sec. would be in Monroe on Monday. Monday morning Leigh called Senator Thompson, he handed Sec. Dardenne a letter about what we needed, and the rest as they say is history. So even though we were frustrated by someone who said our paper must be square, we can know we saw God move in this. We know we grew in faith, and can continue to trust that he will answer our prayers.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
The wait will be longer
Big news day Friday. Two major themes, and I will address each.
1. There has been a blacklist published in Russia of home study agencies that have 1 or more delinquent post placement reports. Our home study agency made the list. We don't know how this will ultimately affect us. We could have to find a new home study agency, our agency could get their name cleared from the list, or since our adoption agency Buckner is not on the list and they are the ones to guarantee our post placement reports we may not have anything to do. Our social worker has been very open and helpful so I think this can be resolved. I also think that this will not be a problem until the court hearing, so we have several months to deal with it.
2. It seems that the Hague treaty on adoption set a new format for apostilles. Until this week that had not been noted by too many people. But in the true style of a bureaucrat somebody decided that only documents appostilled with this new format could be accepted. Our documents had made it all the way to Khab, they had been translated, and they had been delivered to the governmental officials in that region and been accepted. The only thing they lacked was the official notice of registration. This edict about only accepting the Hague format came down and our documents were returned to the Buckner officials in Khab. So we are waiting to see if these documents can be grandfathered, or they will have to come back to us and we can go to baton rouge and get them re-appostilled. The wording is all the same, the difference is that instead of being done on a piece of 81/2 x 11" paper they are to be done on a 9cm by 9cm piece of paper with some other random margin requirement.
Even in my dreams I find myself crying out in prayer for our kids. I pray every time that God is holding them, and that when we get to they will recognize our touch as His. I don't know how God will be able to affect the heart of a non-believing government employee in Russia, so I pray that there is a believer who will work on our case and God can use them. Or that he will use somebody that doesn't even know they are being used of God, just that they are willing.
I don't know what this does to our time line. At least we know that our documents were acceptable, and we are almost registered. We will be in contact with the secretary of state's office on Monday to see if they can prepare to make the changes. Jay Dardenne, here I come...
1. There has been a blacklist published in Russia of home study agencies that have 1 or more delinquent post placement reports. Our home study agency made the list. We don't know how this will ultimately affect us. We could have to find a new home study agency, our agency could get their name cleared from the list, or since our adoption agency Buckner is not on the list and they are the ones to guarantee our post placement reports we may not have anything to do. Our social worker has been very open and helpful so I think this can be resolved. I also think that this will not be a problem until the court hearing, so we have several months to deal with it.
2. It seems that the Hague treaty on adoption set a new format for apostilles. Until this week that had not been noted by too many people. But in the true style of a bureaucrat somebody decided that only documents appostilled with this new format could be accepted. Our documents had made it all the way to Khab, they had been translated, and they had been delivered to the governmental officials in that region and been accepted. The only thing they lacked was the official notice of registration. This edict about only accepting the Hague format came down and our documents were returned to the Buckner officials in Khab. So we are waiting to see if these documents can be grandfathered, or they will have to come back to us and we can go to baton rouge and get them re-appostilled. The wording is all the same, the difference is that instead of being done on a piece of 81/2 x 11" paper they are to be done on a 9cm by 9cm piece of paper with some other random margin requirement.
Even in my dreams I find myself crying out in prayer for our kids. I pray every time that God is holding them, and that when we get to they will recognize our touch as His. I don't know how God will be able to affect the heart of a non-believing government employee in Russia, so I pray that there is a believer who will work on our case and God can use them. Or that he will use somebody that doesn't even know they are being used of God, just that they are willing.
I don't know what this does to our time line. At least we know that our documents were acceptable, and we are almost registered. We will be in contact with the secretary of state's office on Monday to see if they can prepare to make the changes. Jay Dardenne, here I come...
Monday, February 16, 2009
Still Waiting
The good news is that we haven't been told to redo any paperwork, but we also haven't heard that we have been registered in Khab. Valentines turned out to be a little bit of a hard day. We were on the phone with Lesley talking about how sick Caleb was. (Caleb came home from China to be part of our family.) Lesley and Leigh visited about how much Caleb liked to be held and comforted when he was sick, and all Leigh could think about was who would comfort, and hold, or pat, or cuddle our kids when they are sick. We prayed, through tears, again that God would continue to hold our kids and that when we were able to, they would recognize that touch. God has done some pretty neat things lately to remind us that we are right were he would have us to be.
At a Kari Jobe concert last week I got some time to meditate and pray over the fact that God really does hold the world tight in his arms. Since that is the prayer we are praying, he just reaffirmed that while we are waiting he is holding on to us too.
Keep praying this prayer. Lord hold our babies until we can.
At a Kari Jobe concert last week I got some time to meditate and pray over the fact that God really does hold the world tight in his arms. Since that is the prayer we are praying, he just reaffirmed that while we are waiting he is holding on to us too.
Keep praying this prayer. Lord hold our babies until we can.
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