Letter of Intent

In the international adoption community, there are abbreviations for everything.  You can say LOI and they all jump up and down.  That stands for Letter of Intent.  It tells the Chinese adoption officials that we want to adopt a little one and ask, "Can we?"  We have all of our paperwork done to send our LOI to China.  We thought it went last week, only to get a Friday call from our agency saying the doctor failed to fill in a couple of blanks on our medicals.  Argh!  I've got a call in to the doctor's office, as does our social worker, so I am praying that this will be fixed today and that LOI will be on it's way to China. 

Just for fun and to give a little perspective, the notebook at the top of the picture is paperwork from Cassidy's adoption.  The one at the bottom is our current adoption notebook.  We have a "few" papers to go, but it's coming together!

Interestingly enough, God provided a Sunday sermon yesterday on developing patience.  Sigh.  I'm kind of wishing in just this one area, God will give up trying to teach me and just give me things on my time table.  Alas, I know He loves me too much to leave me with glaring faults.

Here's a few scriptures from the sermon that I need to memorize.

"You have heard of Job's perseverance, and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.  The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."  James 5:11

"I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for He has promised."  Psalm 130:5

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior, my God will hear me."  Micah 7:7

"The Lord says...No one who waits for My help will be disappointed."  Isaiah 49:23

And lastly, for my friend Connie, who is feeling a pressure that people think she's krazy for adopting again..."Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven." Matthew 5:11-12

So we wait expectantly for paperwork to be sent.  Then we will wait expectantly for the pre-approval to come back from China.  I cannot bring myself to say we will wait patiently.  God does know that I'm trying. 

~Martha