Clinging...

to this verse for Harrison:

For I know the plans I have for Harrison, declares the Lord, plans to prosper Harrison and not to harm Harrison, plans to give Harrison a hope and a future.
Jermiah 29:11

Ya'll have had some questions regarding how things are going with Harrison. I have to be honest, last week, I kind of struggled after hearing about another delay with paperwork we're waiting on. I take care of anything and everything that a I can ASAP regarding our adoption. I do not let things go a day without being done. Brandon can vouch for that. I refuse to make our baby wait one extra day without a mommy and daddy because of something I have procrastinated on. Any waiting or delay is so far from my control.

I feel like, until last week, I haven't really gotten too emotional about things. Right now we are waiting on our translated home study and our power of attorney forms from Taiwan. We thought we were going to get them while we were on vacation and I was planning to come back and take care of the notarization and county/state certification and overnight it back to our agency whenever that happened. It didn't. Last week, our agency said they should get them at their office Monday (today) at the latest and then they would overnight them to us. No word. So I am assuming that the papers haven't arrived there.

The most discouraging part of all of this was that I asked what they thought we were looking at once we got these forms back over to Taiwan as far as a timeline. They have a hard time being able to accurately quote anything because it is a pilot program. Only one little baby girl has gone before Harrison in the process. She is still in the orphanage and her family is waiting on their final decree. So anyways, here is what we're waiting on and the timeline we are possibly looking at:

1. Agency is waiting for paperwork from Taiwan to be able to overnight to us so that we can complete dossier (currently)
2. Once we get them, I will go to Nashville ASAP to notarize and certify the documents and overnight it all back to our agency.
3. Our agency will send all documentation to Taiwan and then our agencies coordinator there will work to get us a court date.
4. Estimated time to be issued the court date after our contact applys for it (which we hope is ASAP) = 1 month
5. Estimated time to the court date after it being issued = 1 month
6. Estimated time to hear our final decree after the court date = 10-15 WEEKS!!!!! We travel after this.

So, if you add all of that up...that puts our travel at our (HOPEFULY) worse case scenario....December. Our baby boy will be 1 in December. Why in the world does adoption have to be so crazy with all of the red tape? It is so sad for me to think of our son having to wait so long to enjoy the comforts of mommy and a daddy when we're here and we're ready and he's there and he's ready. It's up to bunches of people that have a very different kind of connection to the situation to work on our behalf. There is always a chance though that we will be super blessed and get through more quickly! That's what we're praying for.

When I start to have anxiety over the thoughts that take me captive when I look at our families timeline, I soothe and remind myself of the verse we're claiming for him. That's all that will get us through.

P.S. I hope to have the cookbooks to send out within the next 2 weeks. Myself and my mother-in-law have been working along on them. The original plan was to send them off to a publisher...but the time it was going to take to get them back just added up! So, we're doing it ourselves!