From Kazakhstan to Arkansas

You hear the saying when God closes one door he opens another...well sometimes he doesn't even close one before he opens another!! We just had a DRASTIC change in our adoption plans... just last week we were waiting on Kaz to open and dreaming of little Asian boys and now this week we are counting down the days till March 25 (which btw is 187 days :) and dreaming of little Marshallese babies!!
So... for the details. I spent a couple hours writing this once and when I hit 'save' the computer crashed so just now got enough courage to rewrite. :( For those reading this may get a little boring, but wanted to write the details so we wouldn't forget!
Way back in our research of countries we ran across the small adoption program in the Republic of Marshall Islands. We looked into it a little and found the people and their culture very intriguing! After finding out that only one U.S. agency is licensed to work there, making for a very long wait, we decided to put our name an the waiting list to even get into the program. Our estimated timeframe in January was 3 years before we would be able to start our adoption process, which we thought would be about the time we would be thinking of adding #3 to our family. Every several months we would get updates on the program and where we were in line and it would always spark enthusiasm, but of course we had started our Kaz adoption so always had it on the back burner for the time being. One day while reading back posts on a RMI blog I had joined I found people talking about this large group of Marshallese that had settled in Arkansas and this adoption lawyer that facilitated adoptions primarily for this group of people. After posting a few questions I found out that it is a lot quicker and easier process than going the traditional route to the islands. I told some of my friends about it and told them they should check it out!
Fast forward to last Friday. This attorney from Arkansas called one of my friends who had inquired about it and told her he had a mother with a baby due in March and he had just matched the last family currently in his program...would they be interested? As luck God would have it they had just been matched with a baby and so she passed on the info. When I read it I just had 'that' feeling... forwarded the message on to Bill and he promptly called and wondered what in the world that was about :-) Nonchalantly told him just had read it and decided to forward it on for fun ;-) He didn't see any reason why we wouldn't at least call the attorney and get some more details. E-mailed him and when he did't respond in 10 minutes decided I would have to call LOL He didn't answer, but e-mailed back and said he had a birthmother in his office and couldn't talk, but I could text a few basic questions and he would answer. Now..how in the world do you ask 'A FEW BASIC QUESTIONS' when you have a gazilion DETAILED questions you need to know NOW!! He did as promised and answered a few more than a few ;) and then said let's talk tomorrow in detail. Saturday came and went and he wouldn't return phone, e-mail, text, nothing, zilch! :-( Now my dear hubby had proclaimed at this time that HE wasn't getting his hopes up (but was talking about it nonstop like it was a done deal) love that enthusiasm babe :) But now me on the other hand was not even proclaiming such, and was very disappointed that it had all fallen through, because after all we couldn't get up with him for a whole day!!! Trust me it's different when your in it! :) So as one last feeble attempt I text him late Saturday night and asked if he had found another family? He text Sunday morning and said no he hadn't found a family and still had us in mind, but had gotten very sick and was hoping to be good enough that we could talk Monday afternoon. Ahhh another ray of hope :)
Finally, Monday when I thought it was far enough past 12 to be considered afternoon I called him.... and he answered! He answered all of my questions and gave me all the info on the situation...he said if we were interested he would talk to the mother about us and if she agreed we would talk on Skype and go from there.
After talking it over with Bill we got back with Vaughn and told him that yes we were interested and wanted to pursue it. Little did we know what the rest of the day would hold!! He calls in 30 minutes and says his translator had gone to talk to the mother and she was very excited and could we talk at 7??!! TONIGHT?? To a lady we had never even heard of a few days ago?? Oh the emotions of adoption... one moment nothing can move fast enough and the next moment its going way beyond comfortable speed and your world is SPINNING!!! Now what would YOU say and ask to a lady that was scrutinizing you to see if you would make the most wonderful parents for her unborn child???? Scary doesn't begin to describe it!! Of course Bill worked till WAY to late for my liking and per request I had his clothes all ironed and ready :) I asked him if he wanted to wear his suit HA (which btw they couldn't get their video to work on their end so she couldn't see us anyway so guess we could have been lounging in our pj's..maybe would have been more relaxed...or not!!) We had a special prayer, and leaving it up to God to direct our conversation. The call went very good, and we loved her immediately! (this may be really weird, but I had all kinds of 'what if' thoughts.. like what if she was grotesquely fat and ugly and sounded weird?) She was a very sweet lady and easy to talk to!
We let Vaughn know that the call had gone well and we were comfortable and...err..willing :) to continue. He said she had just called him and said she wanted us to be the parents!!!!!!!! REALLY??? WHY??? WHY US????  Do we laugh or cry or scream or all 3 at once? God is so Good!! We feel so unworthy and humbled that this happened so quickly and easily, but we will very thankful accept!!
to be continued...

"This is the Lord's doing; and it is MARVELLOUS in our eyes!"
                                                                         Psalms 118:23