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Happy Birthday, Baby!
Feeling:
Tuesday, Jul. 08, 2008, 10:38 am

I've been wanting to update for a couple of days. Never got around to it, though. Now, I have some really good news to share...

Coppelia's case is out of PGN (the Guatemalan attorney general's office)!! Allow me to copy Shawna's e-mail into here, she explains it much better than I ever could. :-P

(July 7, 2008)
Dear family and friends,

Finally, the news we’ve been waiting to give you for 9 mos.: We’re out of PGN! OUT! OUT! OUT! !!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

Jonathan called me today at 2:33 p.m.: He’d just gotten a call from our facilitator to say that our file is back, approved and properly signed. Coppelia’s adoption is final! She’s a Miller!! Praise God! Hallelujah!

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen!”

Whew!

We still have awhile before Coppelia will be able to come home, perhaps a month or two. She won’t be coming home with us this trip. Now we’ll begin the final paperwork that will enable her to enter the U.S. She needs a GUA birth certificate with our names (10-20 days), a GUA passport (1 day) and the results of a final DNA test (7-10 days). When those documents are submitted to the U.S. Embassy in GUA for her visa, we’ll be about one week away from bringing her home. And we’ll keep you updated every step of the way!

We feel so relieved to be finally out of the black hole of PGN – as if a huge weight has been lifted from us. Since the first week of June, every waking thought has been about hearing from PGN. Dreading that the file wouldn’t be approved again and afraid to hope that it would, indeed, be approved. Now that it is, the relief we feel can’t be described. We’re so happy to be going down to visit for Coppelia’s birthday with this added gift!

Again, we find ourselves packing wrapped presents for a trip to GUA. We’ve got plans to do Coppelia’s birthday right while we’re there. We have so much to celebrate! Although it will just be us three, we’ll have the requisite presents, streamers, and – of course – cake. Wait till you see the pictures … they’ll be proof that everything made it to GUA safely.

As we visit and return without her for the last time, we have many last-minute things to do to prepare for her homecoming. I hope all of those things will make the next weeks fly by!

One last thought to leave you with. I can’t describe the nightmare of this last month-plus. The constant limbo was so wearing. It was so easy to question our motives and whether we’d made a wrong turn and were being punished for something. But a novel I read brought this verse to my attention: Proverbs 16:9. “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” (NIV) Last year, from the urging God put in our heart, Jon and I decided to adopt. In our naiveté, we had the process all mapped out and knew about how long it should take. We didn’t mean to, but we put God in a box. We did all we could do to ensure Coppelia’s case would go quickly and then we gave what was left to God, confident that He’d do the same. But God had other plans. He showed us how much we limited Him with our box. Rather than being content to just bring Coppelia home, in the process, He showed Jon and me that He wants to be with us in every painful step of the way. He showed us that we can trust Him; that He is faithful. “He will not fail [us] or forsake [us]” (Deut. 31:8). We decided on a course, but God directed each step. He was in every detail: around, in, through and encompassing our entire journey. That’s the way He wants to work in all of our lives: supporting us in everything – not tucked away and only applied to as a supernatural vending machine. He won’t give me all I ask for: I don’t just put my prayer into heaven and wait for a blessing to come out. He gives me what I need as I need it: support, strength, mercy. When I rely on Him, He gives abundantly and proves that I can trust Him to meet my needs. He may not do it the way I want Him to, how I expect Him to or when I expect Him to, but that’s another life lesson that’s been taught more eloquently elsewhere: It’s not about me. It’s about me learning to trust Him and to put Him first. Praise God for being so patient!

Thank you for praying for us and Coppelia. Please continue. In the coming weeks, I hope to be able to shower you with good news of our regular progress through these last stages of paperwork. But first, we’ve got a birthday party to plan and a birthday girl to visit. We’ll try to send some updates and pictures from GUA. We’ll be there from this Friday through next Tuesday.

Adopted in Christ,
Shawna & Jonathan (ready to celebrate with Coppelia!)

Our baby will be one year old on Friday. One year old!! I can hardly believe it. This year has gone by so quickly; I had so hoped that she would have been home before this time; I had so prayed that she would be home before this time, as I'm sure many, many others have. However, we have also prayed that God's will would be done. Obviously, it was not His will that she come home sooner. It's been hard for me to accept, hard for me to understand, why that is, why He would leave her there, away from her family, for such a long time. However, as I've discussed before, I know that His plan is perfect; I know that "all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord" and that He is with us no matter what, helping us through the tough times. I also know that now it is almost over. She'll be home soon. The waiting will be over. I'll get to meet my first niece for the first time. I can hardly wait. However, I've waited this long, and, as Shawna stated above, it will probably only be a couple of months more; I can do this. I can wait that long. Our baby's coming home soon. (Wow, I better move on to something else...I'm starting to tear up here. Whew.)

So Shawna and Jonathan are going to celebrate her birthday with her, and, again as Shawna mentioned, they're taking presents. Mom and I have already been shopping. (No, we didn't go crazy and buy everything in sight...the stuff does have to fit on the plane. LOL.) So far, all we got is earrings, but I think Mom wants to go shopping a little more tonight to get a toy or two. Mom ("Grandma") bought some little gold heart earrings. I think mine are cuter, though (hehe). They were way more expensive, though. But that's OK. This is the first birthday of my first niece; this moment in time will never come again. hehe. Anyway. The earrings I have have a little pearl in the center and (*cough*fake*cough*) diamond chips surrounding the pearl, so they look like little flowers. Wonder if I can find a picture of them? ...Nope, no luck there. You'll just have to take my word for it...they're really adorable.

I was going to add other news to this blog, just every-day junk, nothing special, but I think this is getting kind of long, so I'll hold off on that. Let it suffice to say that we're leaving for the beach on Saturday (the same beach we went to last year), and we'll be gone for a week.

Glorious vacation!!

...And I just hit myself in the face with the phone. Wonderful.

last - next

My Last 5 Updates
Long Time Coming # Wednesday, Sept. 03, 2008
Hi, There # Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008
Spiderman # Thursday, Aug. 07, 2008
Busy Week # Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008
Back Home # Monday, Jul. 21, 2008