News from Liberia, just not "my news"...yet

but that is OK!!! I am glad to rejoice with the D family who got word that their "case history" is signed and ready to go to the US Embassy for processing so that visas may be issued for their two sweet sons. We got to meet K and A last March when we traveled to Liberia for that awesome week and a half to meet our Junior and Diamoh. K and A are fun-loving, adorable boys and they are one more step closer to COMING HOME to their forever family! AND, I will drum roll for us........................................................if the D Family got their corrected, acceptable case history, Daniel's case history can not be far behind!!! In light of the fact that the long -awaited annual address from President Sirleaf in Liberia earlier this week did not address adoption issues whatsoever, as was expected, ANY good news about an adoption in Liberia is even BIGGER news. We have been hoping that she might lift her year old ban on adoptions or modify her declaration from last year beyond the minor adjustments of several months back, hoping that the Congress would indeed write new adoption laws which the president would approve and sign into law. This could have opened the doors for those many of us waiting to know that we might be able to go forward with our adoptions. For the families whose cases had adoption decrees BEFORE the suspension was imposed, there is a "pipeline process" and those children are being worked through the system, as are some very special needs children (like Daniel). The "healthy, regular" kids who were "only" matched with families before the suspension: they are still unaddressed as the suspension continues unresolved. No provision has been proposed as far as I know, to complete the cases for the children who were matched with families: families who have been loving those children for over a year of uncertainty, children who perhaps have been receiving photos of their families with letters, gifts: little bundles of promise and hope. Perhaps the children and waiting families have met in person. Many families have traveled while holding out hope that the suspension was going to be short lived. We did. How thankful I am that we told Junior and Diamoh that we would could not come for them until the people who sign the adoption papers started saying YES again. We didn't give a time frame, only lots of hugs and love, attention and memories, and two photo albums full of family pictures for them to keep loking at while they wait and hope. They match the photo albums we have here: photos of Junior and Diamoh, before we came, while we were with them, photos of everything we did together with them, photos shared by people who visited after we'd gone home.Their photo book collection has grown too. They too have copies of the photos of our time together. It hurts to think about. My mamma heart is so ready to be actively nurturing these children, loving on them, teaching them to read and write, to know about stars and clouds, how to cook, how to ride horses to play board games family style........to hold them close and read stories, listen to their stories..........I want to be their face-to-face mamma! They do know about Jesus. I loved listening to them sing with the other children at the orphanage in praise and worship, loved singing with them and teaching them a few songs they had not heard before. My mamma heart wants so desperately to teach them more and more about the love of their Heavenly Father and to be honored in leading them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior! Lord will it happen the way I 've dreamed it ?? For sweet Daniel, how I ache to hold him, give him Mamma love kiss his sweet forehead, call him by his name and tell him that I love him! Want to get him to a doctor so we may assess his hydrocephaly and his cerebral palsy, test for prognosis, schedule surgery... I long to see what his stalled-out little body may actually be capable of. OH how I want to work with his little contracted-up hands and feet to loosen the tightness in the muscles which has gone unattended for his whole life. I want him to know the love of family. He has been loved, he is loved, by his nannies.I have seen, and I know they care for him deeply, but its a diffeent kind of love. It is better by far , than being abandonded and left to die OH YES; I am so grateful for the nannies who have cared for our children thus far. My God-called Mamma heart just can't rest, however, knowing that my children, and many , many other children are as needy as they are, aside from submitting all those Mamma-passions to our Abba Father. Even then I still have rumblings in my spirit which need sometimes hourly re-committing and re-submitting as I remind myself that God loves those children even more than I coud ever imagine loving..."Behold what manner of love the Father has given (bestowed) unto us that we should be called the children of God!" (1John 3:1) I love my children, but I can, my husband can, only love them to the point of calling them "Smiths", providing for them with our human resources and introducing them to God. We can offer a pretty good human family life. It is nothing compared to what God provides through the death and resurrection of His only son. My Mamma heart wants to make absolutely sure that I show THAT love to as many as possible. That desire keeps hope alive in my heart as I wait on Liberia...so that "ALL my children shall be taught of the Lord and great will bethe peace of my children."