"Dossier En Route"

WOOHOO!!!  God truly does work in AMAZING WAYS!!! Thank you Lord!  And with getting this dossier on it's way today, it's all about who you know, not what you know. :-) Let me explain...

As I mentioned in my last post, our dossier came together VERY quickly. The filing system I set up for myself last time and never took the time to put away had neatly put away under my desk had so many notes I left for myself that made the process incredibly smooth. The Lord's favor helped a lot too of course! From the time I got the list of dossier documents from our facilitator to today, it was about one month. It could have been quicker, but it took a bit of time to get our home study updated and approved. Our social worker, Amanda, is AWESOME!  She worked REALLY hard to get it done as quick as she did. Thank you!

So, this past Monday I got the email that our notarized home study and agency licenses were ready to be picked up the next day. (They would have happily mailed it, but I asked to pick it up to save a day or two.) I drove down to the north side of Milw to pick them up and then over to Madison to drop it off at the Secretary of State's office to have it apostilled. Again, I could have mailed it, but it takes an extra day to get out of their mail room and up to the office. Every day counts right now. I asked to be notified when they were done with the apostilles, and even asked if they could give me 2.5 hr notice before closing so I could get down there in time (they couldn't promise it). Well, Friday afternoon at 3:45pm, the phone rings and our documents are done. Yay! But they close at 4:30pm and it's a 2+ hr drive. BUMMER! I would have to wait until Monday to get them and mail them out via FedEx. If I would have gotten them on Friday, I could have saved on FedEx fees. I'll explain that more in a bit.

Ok, so after Sarah hangs up with the Sec of State office and I whine calmly expressed my sadness about not getting our documents in time, she says, "What about Luke?"  (Luke is our next door neighbors' oldest child going to college in Madison.) "Luke could pick them up and you could go down and get them from him tonight."  I'm so thankful God gave me such smart children! I get a hold of Luke, but he's on a field trip (yes, they take those in college too). He won't make it in time, so he gets a hold of a friend. This awesome friend goes to the SoS building, gets my documents, gives them to Luke, and I have all those pretty gold stars in my hands a couple hours later! ISN'T GOD GOOD?!?

But wait...it gets better!  Several weeks ago, our pastor emails us and tells us that Max is going to be visiting our church on Sunday, May 1st. YAY!! We were so excited to see him! Max is just finishing up a 2 month state-side tour raising awareness and support for his ministry in EE.

(For those of you that haven't been reading here all that long, Max is a missionary in his own country, Elijah's former country, Jonathan's country - yep, all the same country. He has an absolutely AMAZING ministry to the hopeless of this country. Absolutely AMAZING!  Pat and Sarah ministered with Max last summer on a mission trip to EE, and in part, Max is part of the reason Elijah is now our son. He has a very special place in our hearts. Plus, back in Dec when I was in-country adopting Elijah, Max traveled to pick up my dear friend, Debbie, from the airport in the capital city and brought her down to me so she could help me bring Elijah home. What a friend!)

TODAY, I gave Max my precious dossier documents to carry back to his country and deliver them to my facilitator. No FedEx costs (which have almost doubled since last fall due to fuel price increases)! Max flies back on Tuesday and they will get there at the same time as they would have with FedEx. ISN'T GOD GOOD?!? His timing is always perfect! To Him be the Glory!