Yesterday we got some bad news. We will likely have to wait a bit longer to get Phillip. The SDA office in his country is closing to reorganize. The re-organizing could take up to three months. There's no way around it. This just stinks. It's frustrating. We've worked incredibly hard the past month and a half to get done what usually takes three to four months. We have felt impressed that Phillip needs us immediately. It's frustrating to be doing all we can and still run into delays, delays that will undoubtedly not be good for him. We have no reason to believe he is critical. We know he's likely been transferred and we know where he's likely at, although nothing can be confirmed. If we are right, his care is not as good as it's been, but it could be worse.... but it could also be better. He could be coming home.
The process of adoption is very hard. It's the decision to love a child you are not yet able to protect. We don't know what's going on in his orphanage. We don't know if he is being treated kindly. We don't know if he's being fed enough. We don't know if he's ever getting out of his play pen. We don't know if he's given toys to play with or if he's just staring at walls. We just don't know. But to keep myself sane, I have to assume the best.
Because I'm one to look for the bright side, and because there's nothing I can do about this anyway, here's what I've decided. While I can't know a timeline for sure, because we don't know how long their re-organizing will take, I know that we have probably five to six more weeks of work before we could submit our papers anyway. This work, really, isn't work at all. It's more waiting. Waiting for our homestudy report so we can send that into our government so we can wait on a fingerprint appt, so we can wait on our approval from immigration. That's the longest wait. While that's happening, we are also waiting on our passports. By the time all of this is together, we will probably be almost a month into the closure. From there, we will just have to see. There could be changes in our dossier requirements, which means Jeremy and I might have to re-do some paperwork, but that doesn't take long. Once they are open again, Jeremy and I will do our best to be one of the first in line. But it probably means traveling in Oct or Nov instead of September.
What do I intend to do with the extra time? Prepare. Now that I have an "opportunity" to slow down a bit, I can get ready. I have a bed to find for Hannah, so that I can move her bunk bed out of her room and into the boys room. I need to put together a photo book for our trip, to show to Phillip, the judge, the director of the orphanage and anyone else who wants to see, so that they will know that he is coming home to a whole lot of love and support. I need to get him some more clothes and look for sensory rich toys that would help him close the gap in his development once he's here. We need to learn a bit of his language so that we can communicate at least a little bit until he learns ours. And I need to take care of and have fun with my kids this summer. One of my girls, in particular, is really struggling. Not because of the adoption, but with the idea of me being gone for five weeks. I don't blame her. I'm having some problems with it too. I need to spend some time on that situation and prepare her. I need to get Adam potty trained. I need to paint the living room and our bedroom, because goodness knows I won't have time once I have three little boys at home. In short, I need to get my house in order. Which will make things that much smoother when this all comes together. Because it will come together. I know it will. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
We know Heavenly Father is aware of him and of us. We know He loves him even more than we do. We trust that he will be in Heavenly Fathers care until he can be in ours. We trust that the next few months will pass quickly and smoothly. We trust God to move mountains and perform miracles on behalf of one little boy. His son. Our son. Coming home soon.
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