'Labor Pains!'

So, I was told by a friend that was adopting that there can be frustrations, problems, delays, etc. during the adoption process and she dubbed those hiccups as 'labor pains'. I can say that last week I experienced some of those 'labor pains' for the first time. The last time I gave an update about the adoption I had mentioned we had to wait 6-8 weeks for our FBI fingerprinting to come back and there may have been a problem with them since we left 3 fields blank on the cards and so it could take a little longer.

On Thursday last week our adoption social worker contacted us to let us know that we only had 4 forms left to turn in. We were aware of that and even had all of them filled out but were waiting to turn them in just in case we left something off of the other forms then we could turn it all in at once; besides, we had the time to wait to turn them in since last Monday just marked the 6th week of our fingerprinting being received...or so we thought! I was curious about her wording in saying that we only had 4 forms out and so I asked her if the FBI prints had come back yet. She responded and said that yes they were back and have been since April 7th!! Seriously??? 21 days?? They had been back for 3 full weeks and no one contacted us to make us aware of that even though they had commented on how on top of things we were and how we were just flying through the paperwork and getting it all turned in very quickly.

So, I had me a little bit of a breakdown and cried for moment. Then after some encouragement from a dear friend, who has been through the adoption process and could relate, I gathered myself and realized that everything was working out how it should. It was hard for me to swallow that, and you may be thinking "So? What's the big deal? Get over it!! At least they came in after 3 weeks and not 6-8! Be thankful!" (If you are thinking that then you aren't alone because I was telling myself all of that!) The reason it was difficult was because from the start of the adoption we asked just how long each step would take and how long would it take to get to the 'waiting phase' to be picked by a birthmother. What I loved about the response was how we could dictate the amount of time it took-so we could be waiting to be picked 2 1/2 months out! I loved that it could take so little time since we had been already waiting to add to our family. This was also good news to me since I like to have control of things(it's scary how much I'm realizing that to be true!) and can get things done in record time when I'm excited about something (and I am excited about this!!). So all of that careful rushing to complete the other paperwork and the first phase did me no good, or at least it felt that way. Plus, we could have started our homestudy 3 weeks ago!! So that was frustrating as well since my timeline was all messed up now! I realized that even in the phase that I thought I was in control of that God really was the one in control! I was served up some humble pie, you could say! :) I'm thankful that God has it all planned out for His glory and His timing and that I'm really not in control. If I was in control then we may have missed out on an unexpected detour that we may be taking. I will update you on that later! :)