Lost, but now found....

Our dossier, that is.

We now know one reason it has taken so long to hear good news from China.

You see, back on May 1st, incidentally the day this blog began and the day before we "met" Emmy Xiang, the rules and regulations changed for potential adoptive families in the China program. The rules became much more stringent as of May 1, and thus many families are no longer qualified to adopt from China. Consequently, in April dossiers from those affected families flooded the CCAA in China (thousands). Though our qualifications as an adoptive family has not been affected by the new regulations, our dossier was providentially among the deluge.

Apparently the department or company to whom the CCAA entrusts the dossiers for translation was understaffed, and decided to subcontract the translation process. Our dossier was in a batch that was sent out to one of four companies. Either it was "lost" for a time or someone lost track of it....but when it was finally found in September (along with about 14 other families' dossiers from our agency), it was poorly translated and needed to be translated anew.

Thankfully our file is now in the review room, but we hope that VERY soon it will be moved to the match room. That means that maybe in the next week or so, we'll receive our LOA. We still hope to travel sometime after Thanksgiving....maybe we'll spend some of the holidays in China!

I am grateful that we did not know of this when our dossier was "lost." I am grateful that the process for us should speed up now. Mostly, though, I am grateful that we have continued to trust in a God who is sovereign over all, even over lost dossiers in China.

Please continue to pray for Emmy Xiang, her foster family and for the government officials through whose hands God is moving our file. Pray that we will be patient as we wait, but diligent to prepare practically, financially, physically and spiritually for the homecoming of our daughter.

God has been so kind to us....we don't deserve it.