Passports and Visas!

For those of you who have ever gotten a foreign visa, didn't you have a nervous feeling in your gut when you had to send your passports away? What would happen if they got lost? I had that feeling. And now I have the fulfillment of that premonition - our passports with the Chinese visa stamps are lost on their return trip back to us!!!! Can you believe it? I can't. The courier said that he put them in the UPS box but the tracking number never hit the UPS system. What a mess! Now UPS has a trace on it, but with it never hitting their system to begin with, we might be starting all over again. UPS has another week to search for our package before considering it lost. Since we hope to be traveling in late August, we'll have to get expedited passports and visas, of course, at our own expense. Oh yes, and we have to redo all those pieces of previous paperwork that had our old passport numbers on them:-)

I know God called us to adopt Hannah. I love her already and have no doubt that we will hold her in our arms one day. God has a special plan for her. Sometimes, though, I wonder how much more paperwork, fees, bureacracy, etc. I can take. I will press on because Hannah is counting on us, but I am tired. I am encouraged because our dear friends just got their travel dates to pick up their son in China. It gives me tangible evidence that this journey will get us to Hannah eventually. I just need to keep trusting that God has it all worked out. Man, I must need a lot of work in the patience and trust department, huh? "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4