Holding Pattern

First, although I risk you not coming back here to actually read this update, I have to direct you to our recently-added online photo album of our first real visit with Anna. (You can always find pictures, news, etc. at our website: www.thomasfamilyweb.net.)

For the past week, we have had the pleasure and delight of visiting Anna several times to get to know her better. At the moment, the status of things is that we have been given permission to visit, but have not been given the final 100% yes about adopting her. As best we can tell (information is limited and received via translators), this is because there are one or maybe two(?) people who have direct responsibility over her case who are on vacation and won't be back until August 7th or 8th. So, we are waiting to talk with them and hopefully to convince them that joining our family is in her best interest. The normal process is that the adoption officials would find a child for us and present her to us, but the way it happened with Anna was a happy accident. We met her by chance while visiting the orphanage and fell in love immediately. So, we're ruffling a few feathers by taking this unusual route...

The bureaucratic hurdles and lack of complete certaintly have made it hard to simply enjoy our time together with her, yet we wait with trust in God's wisdom and power to bring about whatever He knows is best. We feel on a very deep level that this is right and are praying daily that God would bring everything together so that she can join our family forever. Despite the difficulties, we are finding moments of great joy because of the delightful little person that Anna is. This past week we have enjoyed:

• seeing her warm up to us (the first few times she cried when we arrived--a healthy sign because it shows she can distinguish between known and unknown people, some kids in orphanages exhibit "indiscriminate friendliness" which is actually a dangerous trait because it shows a lack of ability to attach to close caregivers above others)
• no tears today when we arrived--just a big smile, obvious pleasure at our presence, and cooes of recognition :-)
  
• taking her on walks around the grounds of the orphanage
• playing on the swing together and singing "Rain, Rain, Go Away..." (she started mimicking the tune and trying to sing along with us :-)
• watching her try to take her first wobbly steps
• the immense pleasure she gets out of eating dinner--which we have been feeding her (as part of helping her get more used to us taking care of her)
• learning her bath time routines (how many grown adults does it take to get footy pajamas on a baby? :-)
• her adorable gestures like great big laughing smiles, blowing kisses, nodding her head while saying, "Yo, yo, yo!" (something like, "Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh" in Czech), and scolding the other babies when they do something naughty (she mimicks the caretakers and shakes her finger at them :-)
• her precious intermittent thumb-sucking
  
• her beautiful, curly brown hair and pretty brown eyes
• the endearing raspiness of her little voice (the kids seem to pass colds around to each other constantly)

So, while we feel like we are in a holding pattern on the bureaucratic side of things, we feel very, very blessed to be spending time with her and pray that God will allow us the privilege of being her family forever.

Right now, there are some major things that need prayer:

• for my (Jenny's) visa to come through THIS WEEK--without it, everything is on hold because we need to have legal status in the Czech Republic to complete the adoption (praise God, Matt's visa came through back in late June--a real miracle!)
• for favor with a woman named Mrs. Hessova, whom we need to convince that our adopting Anna is the best thing for her and that we are ready to face her special medical needs
• for the meeting that we hope to have this week with Mrs. Hessova and whomever else will need to sign off on the adoption
• for peace and trust as we wait through the uncertainty (this is really hard...)
• for our time with Anna in the coming days and weeks, for growing trust, love, and tender hearts toward each other--that she would feel deeply loved and honored
  

Thank you everyone who has been praying and sending words of encouragement. We really feel it!