A Small Glimmer of Hope

We got our medicals completed on Tuesday.  We all ended up having to actually go in to see our doctor, because on the form it asked for the date of the last exam.  Our doctor would have been fine just filling it out and putting a current date on it, but he couldn’t change the date of the exam unless we actually all came in for an exam.  We weren’t sure how they were going to bill for it and what we would end up paying.  We just left it up to the lord and trusted that it would all work out.  We got there and the receptionists were very confused, so they ended up signing us all in and making us pay our co-pay for each of us.  Then our doctor came out and made them refund all of that money back to us.  He said that because of the circumstance he would do it all free of charge.  Plus he had no idea how to bill for it and didn’t want to mess with it.  We are so thankful for his generosity and consideration.  He really is the best doctor ever.  It is kind of an interesting story on how he became our doctor.  It all has to do with our decision to have no more biological children.  He was the one we were referred to for Jason’s vasectomy.  We liked him so much that we decided to switch over to him as our family doctor.  He was just so nice and funny and personable.  He is really good with kids as well.  Also, when we decided to adopt we were told that we would need to find a doctor who has done adoptions before, because we would need him to know how to fill out all the paperwork and also be aware of all the tests and exams that need to be done on children coming from foreign countries.  It turned out that our doctor has done adoptions before, so we were able to stay with him.  Funny how things work out, and he has just been great through this whole process.  This has been one of the only things that has actually gone smoothly throughout our whole adoption journey so far.  It is things like this that remind us that the lord really is on our side and is helping us along this journey.  It gives me hope to be reminded of this and helps me remember that we really will get through this despite how long it may take to get there.  

Our social worker emailed us yesterday to let us know that as of last week none of the new Hague home studies have been accepted by the USCIS.  She said that she was actually given some real guidelines that will help her know if there is anything our home study is lacking before we turn ours in with our I-800a.  That way there is a greater chance that ours may be accepted.  Why they are just coming out with guidelines for this 4 months after the new policies were put into effect is beyond my comprehension.  I know they are trying to protect the children of the world, but they sure are making it tough for any of these children to get adopted.  We just mailed in all the rest of the things we needed to update for our home study to our social worker today.  I guess our next step, once our home study is actually, finally finished(which it should be now), is to mail everything on to the USCIS and hope it gets approved.  We will definitely be needing a lot of prayers for that one.  I feel like we are so close to the end I can almost touch it, but something always happens and we just can’t ever seem to make it to the end.  This is why I chose the picture of the lighthouse for this post.  I feel like we are on a boat trying to get to shore.  We can see the light from the lighthouse which gives us hope and something to hold on to, but we just never seem to be able to make it to shore.  I am just thankful for the light and that is what is keeping us going.  We know we are on the right path and we will make it, but it is just hard to tell how far away we actually are.