This morning, I woke up feeling compelled to share with our church family a burden we had concerning Brielle's lengthy adoption process, and ask for prayer that God would help us "move a mountain" in getting her adoption finalized.
So this was the request that was put out on our church's email prayer chain around 10am.
"Our family has a little prayer request that will make
a big difference in one little life.
It’s concerning our little Brielle’s adoption finalization
through the State of WA.
All we need for the adoption process to be finalized is the
return of one of our 3 background checks. We submitted this Child Abuse
and Neglect form on July 1st, so we have been waiting for it to come
back for 10 weeks and counting. We have asked a few times about its
whereabouts, and hear back that the department is backlogged. But
we think that all it requires is a few minutes to enter our names into a
database to see that we are clear. We have received the other 2 clearances
(even the fingerprints that go all the way to the FBI in West Virginia) a long
time ago. And we have finished all the updates to our home study a while ago. So, this little clearance is the only thing that is keeping us
from having Brielle’s adoption finalized. Until then, she technically
still belongs to the State (with all that entails) with her given birth name.
We are happy to wait if it be the Lord’s will and perfect
timing. But we are feeling at this point, that we just need some prayer
from our SVCC mighty prayer warriors for God’s mountain-moving-power to get
this accomplished! And we’ll keep you updated as soon as the
mountain has been moved! Thank you so much!"
Just now, I was able to send out God's awesome answer to their prayers! Below is the update I sent, which describes the amazing thing God did today when His people prayed and asked for such a seemingly tiny thing like adoption paperwork to be finalized!
"Dear Wonderful Prayer Warriors,
We are sooooo excited to update you all on the prayer
request we sent to you this morning!!!!! I know we shouldn’t be a bit
surprised when our awesome God does super, duper amazing things when we pray
and ask . . .even in the little things like paperwork for an adoption
process!!!! Because our awesome God loves hearing our requests and
answering them, and sometimes loves to bless us with an obvious,
extraordinarily supernatural answer!!! So we just can’t wait to share
this very special and super speedy answer to your prayers!!!
It’s a bit of a long story, but hang in there, as we just
have to write it out so you all can see how God moved a mountain today for you
all!!!
After sharing our prayer request with you all this morning,
I felt compelled to see if I could find a phone number to call the Child Abuse
and Neglect clearance department. (This was actually prompted by an email
I received from Judy P. I wasn’t sure how to find this, so I just
“googled” Child Abuse and Neglect clearance in the state of WA, and found the
form we originally filled out with a phone number on it. Thanks so much,
Judy, for your part in God’s answer!)
So, I called the number (probably around 2:10pm) and a very
sweet lady named Eileen picked up the phone and was genuinely interested in
helping me! At first, she couldn’t find us in the system at
all. So she said she would call me back after Lucy, the social worker who
could help her, was back from lunch. A little while later, she called me
back to say she found us in the system after all, (Lucy was still away at
lunch), and that we had been “logged in” on August 8th (We
completed the form on July 1st!). As I was asking Eileen what
this meant, and if she had any idea of how much longer it would take, she all of sudden saw that our clearances had actually
been COMPLETED!!! So, then she said that when Lucy came back
from lunch, she would ask her if they would be able to get them faxed over to
Antioch Adoptions for us.
At 3:14pm, Eileen called
back to say that she was able to get them faxed already over to Antioch
Adoptions!!! After 10+ weeks of waiting on these clearances, it was
DONE!!! Just like that!!!! ; -)
Now, for the rest of the
story. (We think Eileen might be an angel. ;-)
I copied these two emails
below that Stephanie, our case worker at Antioch Adoptions, sent to me after I
emailed her about what I had learned about the clearances being in.
“Wow! That
is great news! I have no idea as to who Eileen is, but I’m sure glad that
she was the one you talked with! (The person that I had communicated
wasn’t anywhere near as interested in speeding things up. I had gotten
the impression that being persistent would only upset her, and I didn’t want to
delay things any further). I’ll check in with Suzanne to confirm that Antioch
has received the faxes, and will let you know as soon as I hear more. Yay
God!!!”
A few minutes later:
“I just received
them! You want to know something else that is totally like God? The
checks were completed today, and faxed at 2:17 pm. So, either your call helped
to prompt things along, or it was all transpiring as you were in contact with
Eileen. Additionally, they were completed by the person that I was in
contact with . There is no mention of an Eileen in the paperwork . . . hmmm"
Praise the Lord!!!
Thank you sooooo much for joining us at the throne of grace this morning,
and for being a very special part of God’s work in our family. To God be
the glory, great things He has done!!!"
10 comments:
Praise the Lord!!!!! Rejoicing with your family, as you're one step closer to adopting Brielle!
God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good!
Praise the Lord!
That's such a great answer to prayer:) I echo Kyle's comment:) to God be the glory:)
I did some investigating regarding this person Eileen. Her full name is:
Eileen Notonmyownunderstanding
Her address is:
3:5&6 Proverbs Way
Straight Path, Wa.
Blessings, Grammie & Papa
Dear Heather, Elanee and Grammie and Papa,
Thanks so much for rejoicing with us and leaving us sweet words of encouragement! It means so much to us! We are very grateful for your love and prayers!
So happy for you all to receive an wonderful answer to prayer so quickly.
So nice that the missing part of the adoption process has been put in place.
Hopefully the wait won't be long now.
We will continue to pray to that end, Love, Meemom
Praise the Lord! We serve a great God! Loved Grammie and Papa's comment! :)
Praise the Lord! :) So happy for you guys!
Praise God!!! Hooray!
That's such great news! What an ordeal the looooong wait has been for you. I hope the rest of the adoption process moves speedily along to its legal completion in no time at all. That sweet little girl is especially blessed indeed to have such a wonderful loving family longing to make her their own.
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