Amy Medina

Pouring rain today. 

But determined to visit Social Welfare.

My plan was to visit the big kahuna. I’ve only met him once, but this man is a blessing to the adoption world. If only there were more like him. If there would be anyone who could help us in this situation, it would be him.

Unfortunately I found he is traveling this week.

But since I was already at Social Welfare, I decided to visit Mrs. A, just in case. She had told me Friday that she still did not have Lily’s police report. Well, today was Wednesday. Worth a shot.

When she saw me, she said, “I think I have your report.” She took out 25 files and leafed through them. I think I held my breath for 5 minutes. I probably turned blue.

And then suddenly, there it was. A piece of paper that had our name and Lily’s name on it. Blessed, blessed piece of paper.

She read it in my presence. Furrowed her brow. Asked me some questions. Uh oh. She had some concerns about the report. And I almost had a heart attack.

I pulled out my phone and got ready to call our lawyer, the director of the orphanage, and the president of the United States. She calmed me down. “I think it will be okay,” she said. “Call back on Thursday.”

So next week, we’ll either be super close to getting our final letter, or back again where we were three months ago.

Consider the lilies.

Grace will come when it is needed.

I’ve struggled with this waiting.  July has been the hardest.  And still there is no end in sight; the report has not been received.  As I have asked around and pushed and pleaded, I have come to realize that the report is likely in a wasteland….figuratively, of course.  I have no idea what it will take to get it out of there.  There are many others in the same place as we are. 

It’s been three months since I met her, and I’ve had to come to the hard realization that we are still not close. 

I want her, desperately, of course.  And that’s not going to go away.  But I’ve also been worrying.  And I’ve needed to hear from God. 

Suddenly, I got it.

Lilies. 

Of course. 

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…Look at the birds of the air:  they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of life?…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

…O you of little faith!  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we wear?”  For…your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

(pictures taken in my Daddy’s garden….by Gil Medina, of course)

Consider the lilies.

Because God knows what we need.  He knows what she needs.  He knows when we need it.

Because He is the Provider of all good things.  Because He is Sovereign over the hearts of kings and men and social workers.

Because worrying won’t get her here a day sooner.  Because He gives grace for today, and for tomorrow only when tomorrow comes. 

He knows all.  He sees all.  He sees the big picture.  His plan is much bigger and better than mine. 

And all of a sudden, Her Name has a Story.

People keep asking me about something. 

What is it again?

Oh….that would be Lily. 

Not that I’ve really been thinking about her.  Very much.

I haven’t really had much to tell you.  I promise, if I did, I would be shouting it from the roof tops.  I would probably even use CAPITAL LETTERS.

We’ve just been waiting. 

Social worker in Mwanza told us she sent the police report.  I keep calling the social worker down here (we’ll call her Mrs. A) to see if she has received it.  Yesterday and today I made the hour drive to go see her in person.  Yesterday, no luck…she wasn’t there.  But today we talked.

She hasn’t received it.  But she also explained in detail to me the many layers of bureaucracy that must happen before she receives the letter.  Apparently the procedure changed in the last year, so things are going differently than with our previous adoptions.  Once that police report gets down to Dar, it goes through at least three other desks (for a stamp, a signature, a glance…) before it actually gets to Mrs. A.  And apparently there is pretty much no way to trace it until it appears on Mrs. A’s desk.

So our police report could be in three possible different places.  Or four, if you count the Mwanza social worker’s desk, since we still don’t have irrefutable proof that she mailed it.  Or five, if you count the post office, stuck behind a wall somewhere. 

Once Mrs. A gets it, she will write the final-final-final letter which allows us to go pick up Lily.  But she will write it by hand, someone else will type it (if there is power that day), and then it will go back through three other desks for signing and stamping before we can receive it.

It exhausts me just thinking about it. 

I so much want to bring Lily home before August 8th.  Because that week, we plan to go on vacation to our favorite beach house.  And it’s the very last week before Gil starts teacher meetings, and two weeks before Grace starts kindergarten.  I so desperately want us to have that week together as a family before we all split up again. 

Will you pray?  I know so many already are, and it means so much.

It seems impossible.  But we are trusting God is in control, and we wait for His will.