The second time period in my life that I kept somewhat of a journal was during the adoption process for our youngest daughter Z. I look back over the journal now and remember especially how God gave us little assurances along the very rocky, difficult almost impossible way, that He was with us. He was providing for us in little providences and encouragements.
Many of the things I wrote about and remember were actually very little things. But they had such big consequences. For instance, at one point, we were told our paperwork had to be to Russia by such and such a day (which was only a 4 days away). The thing was that the paperwork had to be redone (again) because of mistakes and expiration dates etc. Then after getting the paperwork done one has to get it apostilled (which means the Secretary of State's office in your state has to put a special seal on each of the documents, verifying that the notary that notarized the document is authentic).
Of course, the Secretary of State is in Phoenix which is about 3 hours plus drive for us. Usually we mailed them to be apostilled, which would take roughly 7 days to be returned. But because of the demand from the Russian authorities, we only had a few days, D and I drove down to Phoenix to get the documents done. I had printed out directions for the nearest Post Office, from the Secretary of State's building. However, following the directions did not end me up at a Post Office. I drove around and around hoping to bump into one. But after 30 min of that I decided it would be better to drive back home. I hoped to find the Post Office in the town of Payson on our way home. It was only about 3 hours until closing time of the Post Office and I knew I had better hurry.
Just before the exit onto the correct highway, I saw a sign for an exit for what I thought was for WalMart. So I got off at that exit, because I needed something from there. But I didn't see a WalMart. Instead, there was the main Post Office for the city of Phoenix and the main distribution center for the whole State. If I had sent it from Holbrook or Payson by "overnight" mail, it might get there the next afternoon (24 hours later) or possibly even 36-42 hours later (yes we live in a very rural community). But from the main Post Office of Phoenix it took less than 12 hours to get to Washington state, to our agency. And from our agency it was sent on to the agency in Russia and it took 4 days! (Normal time frame would have been 7-10 days).
I had been super stressed when I couldn't find the Post Office near the Secretary of State's office. I stressed out even more when I realized I had forgotten the address I had to send it to. I was even more stressed when I found my cell phone was out of minutes and couldn't call anyone for the address or directions.
I had a mini meltdown and then I decided to pray (now isn't that how we so often do that!). I prayed like crazy. And God led me to the one place in the State, that would get my documents to where they needed to go, the fastest possible way. And after another saga (of which I won't recount here, but believe me, it was another almost identical saga as trying to find the Post Office) of trying to get minutes on my phone to call someone for the address, I got that accomplished too.
Thank-You God! It sure is a blessing to belong to the best Father in the Universe!
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| The PARTIAL stack of documents for the adoption. This stack is about 2 1/2 inches thick the final stack was closer to 4 inches! |
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| What an apostille looks like in the State of Arizona |
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