Warning: This morning I'm GIDDY!!!  I got our packet sent off to USCIS.  Thanks to an INCREDIBLE team of people working on this adoption!!  Our Social worker ROCKED the home study and knocked it out in the SHORTEST TIME EVER!!!  Thank you - HA.P.!!!  I found out this morning that we only have ONE more packet of documents that have to be sent and we're about 90% through with those!!  One of our "team" told me this morning that this is the fastest she's ever seen this stuff come together...that we are, in fact, on a "miracle time-line" like I've been saying!  Just have to get the documents to Austin (when the last of the papers/approvals come back) to have them apostilled and then we WAIT for our appointment.  As INSANE as the past 3 weeks has been (it was 4 weeks ago tomorrow we first inquired about "Yuri" and 3 weeks ago today we began the process earnestly...) I'm feeling like the "waiting" part may turn out to be the hardest!!!

The Lord has reminded me several times through things I've read/heard that this truly is not my deal...it's His.  I was reading (again) in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young last night (2 days behind, but NOT feeling guilty!) and here's some of what I read: "I am a God of both intricate detail and overflowing abundance.  When you entrust the details of your life to Me, you are surprised by how thoroughly I answer your petitions.  I take pleasure in hearing your prayers, so feel free to bring Me all your requests.  The more you pray, the more answers you can receive.  Best of all, your faith is strengthened as you see how precisely I respond to your specific prayers.  Because I am infinite in all MY ways, you need not fear that I will run out of resources.  Abundance is at the very heart of who I am.  Come to Me in joyful expectation of receiving all you need -- and sometimes much more!  I delight in showering blessings on My beloved children.  Come to Me with open hands and heart, ready to receive all I have for you."  "THIS IS A TIME IN YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU MUST LEARN TO LET GO: of loved ones, of possessions, of control...As you relax more and more, your grasping hand gradually opens up, releasing your prized possession into My care.  You can feel secure, even in the midst of cataclysmic changes through awareness of My continual Presence....Herein lies your security, which no one and no circumstance can take from you."

Have I mentioned that if you don't have this little devotional book, you should go RIGHT OUT RIGHT NOW and get it?  It is amazing how it applies to our lives nearly every day (and almost everyone else that I know who has it says the same thing!!)-- maybe not directly for THAT day some days, but it is so FULL of TRUTH and OFTEN comes just at the right time...so here's today's devo:

(keep in mind that we are approaching the "waiting" period)
"WAITING ON ME means directing your attention to Me in hopeful anticipation of what I will do.  It entails trusting Me with every fiber of your being, instead of trying to figure things out yourself.  Waiting on Me is the way I designed you to live: all day, every day.  I created you to stay conscious of Me as you go about your daily duties..." Hello???  Anyone listening?

Oh Lord, I relinquish ALL control of all of this to You and TRUST that You will work Your will and Your way in this entire situation -- waiting and all.  It is CLEAR that Your hand is on it and that YOU have already paved the way.  Be with our sweet "Yuri" and comfort him in his waiting as well as he doesn't have any idea the efforts that are being made on this side to bring him home.

Over the weekend, we were sent a video (that I can't post now, but one day I will be able to!) that was done about the orphanage where "Yuri" is...It brought me SO MUCH comfort about knowing that he is safe and being well-loved -- even apart from us.  As an extra added bonus, we got to see about 4 seconds of him on the video.  It was surreal...we know him and have "seen" him and already love him, but we aren't even a reality in his world yet.

It's a pretty neat picture of how the Lord is with us.  He knows us and yearns for us to know Him.  He waits for us to get word that He is coming for us.  He wants a relationship with us.  It is up to us whether we will choose to accept Him and His love and His redemption or if we will just choose to continue on in our rut.  We are hopeful that "Yuri" will be thrilled with us choosing to come after him and that he will want to know us and love us all the days of his life -- just as the Lord hopes that for us.  He will certainly have the option of accepting us as his forever family or not...and we are longing for the day we can make a difference in HIS life -- as the Lord has made a difference in ours.

Sorry...LONG again!!  I've gotta stop this!!  8-)