More Information

That has been the theme of our days earlier this week.  On Wednesday we got an email from ICAB (the Philippine government adoption board) asking us to provide 8 additional pieces of information.  At first this sounded a little disheartening.  We spent the last 6 months pulling together paperwork and now they ask for more.  In the end we viewed this as a good thing.  It means somebody has actually looked at our paperwork and it isn't just sitting in a pile.  Also, the things they were asking were not too hard to gather.  A couple of them were very easy and handled by Chrysalis House, our placement agency.  A few were things that we could easily take care of like getting a paper notarized and taking pictures of some bedrooms.  Three others needed to be answered by the social worker who did our home study but not really anything major.  Lastly was the request for the raw data from some psychological tests we had taken previously.  This one worried us a bit.  We had asked for this information previously and our psychologist would not give it to us.  Instead she wrote a letter explaining why she would not release it.  Well, we should have remembered that God has been in control of the whole process.  When I emailed the psychologist to ask for the info, she said all she needed was a letter from us acknowledging that the info was going to somebody who was not a trained psychologist.  That was a pretty easy letter to write.

As Jenn and I sat at the bank waiting for our paperwork to be notarized, the lady helping us was having some trouble deciphering what was being asked for.  The wording was a little funny so I said it was understandable since it had been written by a foreign government.  This prompted her to mention that she and her husband were thinking about adopting and it was a very overwhelming process.  We agreed with her and she then asked us for more information.  We were happy to share our experience so far and had a good conversation.  As these things go, she attends Reston Bible Church and has been to at least one HOPE event.  I hope that we will be able stay in contact with her and be a support for her during this journey.  We have felt blessed by so many who have gone before us that it would be nice to be able to do the same for others.