The Not-So-Funny Pointing Game

News:
Well the news re: the adoption today can be summed up as a pointing game between our facilitator and our agency. The bottom line though is that our facilitator holds all the cards as he has full and total control of our adoption case. I believe our agency leader has a swelled ego and is under the false thought that he is the leader. The only problem is that you can't be much of a leader if no one's following.

Today the agency said they are flying to Guatemala to deal with the situation directly -- they want to talk to Teo and talk to the US Embassy about the situation. Progress??? Hardly. I believe they are looking for an alternative to using our facilitator. What the ramifications of this will be, I cannot say. I do not believe they are looking out for our best interest or the interests of our children. Instead it's a power play on the part of our agency. Can I tell you how tired I am of power plays? *sigh*

There are, I think, now FOUR families who have finished PGN, the children are legally theirs, but our facilitator is refusing to submit their files to the US Embassy for the paperwork that allows the children to come to the US legally. He is doing this to force our agency to pay him. It's heart-breaking.

We also found out that DCF (The Department of Children and Family Services) is trying to shut our agency down. Apparently, our agency was stripped of its rights to continue doing adoptions back in 2006? And instead of following Florida State law and turning over adoption cases to a reputable adoption agency, instead they created an LLC and kept the adoption files and continued to practice doing adoptions despite the clear intent of the court's ruling. It may be that we end up joining with them to help them shut down this law firm.

A couple of prayer requests:
1. One family in Guatemala is dealing with the poor health of their baby as the foster mother was essentially poisoning the child with improper medicine. It was a very scary situation that could have led to their baby's death. Their child is still not recovered. Please keep them in your prayers.
2. Ray is carrying the weight of the world right now as he is compensating for my crumby (but much-improving!!) health. He is also dealing with so many issues re: his step mother's impending passing. It's nearing the end of the grading period, and Ray's conference season begins this weekend (which is always a super-busy and consuming part of the year). It's taking its toll. Please remember him in your prayers.

Hope
I am uplifted by 2 Corinthians 4:8, which says: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair." I do believe God has a plan. If this adoption had been easy, we would never have been so bent on shutting down this agency. Also, this is affording us multiple opportunities for visiting Guatemala. This coming trip we are thinking about traveling around the countryside -- something we would never have thought we would do when we started this process. It's caused us to spend countless hours reading about Guatemala, the politics, the people, the country, and has really opened our hearts to this small country.

Also, if you have not seen "Facing the Giants" or "Flywheel," the best lesson I have learned from either of these is that God is GOOD, and it's not over until it's over. Never give up hope. God's plan may be, or include, any number of scenarios. One possibility is that we never bring our boys home. However, if these two movies showed us anything, it was that God has his own timing and it is a lack of faith and hope to believe that it is the end before God says so. So, with Emily N. as my inspiration, we continue with great hope.