Blessings and Chaos

It always seems like the more we have going on in our adoption, and the more we need prayer from everyone, the less time we have for blogging or emailing about it. Of course that makes sense, but it can also be a bit frustrating.

Last week was a time of intense trial and attack. As many of you know, we spent the last two weeks of November at my parents' house watching their children while they were in China adopting two more children. It was a wonderful time of reconnecting with the kids, but it was also very draining as we tried to balance the needs of the Rosenow kids with the needs of our own kids. Several of the younger Rosenows have neurological complications that make it difficult for them to cope during any time that deviates from their normal routine. It took a lot of my time and attention to help them feel safe and stable during this time without their parents, and my own children, especially Mikaela, had a hard time accepting that so much of my time and attention were consumed by others. We did find a balance that worked very well for everyone, and made some really fun memories, and I am thankful for the experience.

The trip, however, ended on a very challenging note. Five or six of the Rosenow children came down with a stomach bug right at the end, and they were pretty miserable. During the last couple of days of our stay at their house, I learned that my background checks (for my employment, not for the adoption) had never made it to the proper department, and if I couldn't track them down, I would be in danger of losing my job. We came home exhausted and frustrated by the confusion with my background checks. Last week, we all came down with the stomach bug, and I continued to fight to find my background checks. I made phone call after phone call trying to get in touch with the right person. Josiah and I were both running fever, and I had terrible body aches and chills the whole time. Everything just felt black and grim, and it was so clear that there was a spiritual component to the whole thing. Then, on top of everything else, our Jeep stopped running again. We have taken it in to the mechanic three times in the last six months, and we could not afford one more mechanic bill. We also can not function with only one vehicle. We just didn't have any idea what to do. Then suddenly, and unexpectedly, everything turned around starting Thursday afternoon and throughout the weekend. Some young friends made a small donation to Isabelle and Hallie's adoption. The mechanic agreed to fix the Jeep without charging us, because he felt like he should have caught this problem the last time he repaired it. They found my background checks, and everything is completely fine with my job now. We were awarded a $4000 matching grant!!! (More on that in a minute). Our 797 came in the mail!! Two more people made donations to our adoption! After a full week of wondering where God was and why He wouldn't rescue us, He began pouring blessings in faster than we could even process them. It seemed like we were still in the middle of thanking Him for one blessing when He sent the next one.

Now that we have our 797, we are in the process of putting our dossier all together. We have all the pieces of it except for one reference letter that we are going to pick up tomorrow, and all except for three pieces have their county certifications. We are going to try to get the state certifications on Friday, and then we will be able to mail it off to the agency. We won't be able to send it to China until we finish paying them the agency fee, but we are going to send it out and trust God to send those funds quickly. If we are able to raise the full $4000 for the matching grant, that will give us $8000 of the approximately $10,000 that we need, so we would be pretty close. That is our prayer right now. I am going to do a separate post about exactly how the matching grant will work, so it is clear and concise.

We are thanking and praising God for all of His blessings, and praying that He will sustain us through this very difficult week of intense dossier preparation. Please join us in praying that He will supply everything we need to submit our dossier. We know that He is good, and He will do this think in His perfect timing.

Kristie