PRAYER NEEDED!

Dear friends and family -

I have an urgent prayer request. As you know, I've been waiting for my 171-H since we were first fingerprinted on April 15. Later that same week I had to be re-fingerprinted bc my prints were not clear. The guy who re-fingerprinted me said that was not unusual and the second prints always go through.

On May 9th I submitted an email to an address given on the SA USCIS site for those doing international adoption. I was requesting information on the status of my 171-H because I thought I would have had it by then. I never received a reply. But a few days later I had a friend who works for USCIS check on things and the clerk at USCIS said my paperwork was cleared by her and headed to the adjudication officer - which is a basic review of the clerk's review and then a 171-H should be mailed to me.

Tonight, however, I received an email reply to my email request (from May 9th). The reply - first of all is - oh - 3 weeks after I sent my request. Second of all - it's signed by NO ONE. And third of all it stated the following:

"Cynthia's fingerprints have been rejected twice. She will be scheduled to come in for a sworn statement. She can start working on Police Clearance Letters from every city she has lived in for 6 months or more (no matter what age)."

WHAT?@!#*&!&

As you can imagine I'm in a total state of shock and a weird panic. I've NEVER been in trouble with the law. I DO NOT want to have to get police clearance letters from the 6 cities I've lived in in my life (as it takes time and money and is TOTALLY UNNECESSARY BECAUSE I'VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG CONCERNING THE LAW other than a basic trafic ticket or two which were paid and taken care of. AND BECAUSE I'M STINKIN' TRYING TO BRING AN ORPHAN HOME - HOW SUSPICIOUS CAN THAT BE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Why hasn't USCIS sent me a letter or given me a phone call? The first time my fingerprints were not clear they told me in 2 days time. Why have I waited 6 weeks for them to tell me my second prints weren't clear? Is this a joke? Why didn't the person who wrote the email sign a name or give me a number to call. WHAT IS GOING ON!??????

I am TOTALLY aggravated, confused, sad, FURIOUS!

Please pray.

Okay - so it's the next morning now and I have a better perspective. God can solve this and He will. I may have to do a little extra work - but so it goes. Our friend, David Guion, sent me an email with three posts from other adoption blogs. In each blog the families were going through horrible circumstances in which it was obvious Satan was attacking. Their situations were FAR MORE difficult and even personally tragic compared to this small paperwork issue. That helped put some things in perspective. I needed a front-end alignment - although I know that was not what David intended. His encouragement and reminders were a God-send.

Our family has no illnesses. We have no financial burdens. Our marriage, our ministry, our home, cars - all doing fine! And up until now this adoption process has been a breeze. Something was bound to happen at some point. We are incredibly blessed - beyond measure. In the good times AND the bad - He is God alone. He is on His throne! And in that I have peace and victory.

I'll let you know how the USCIS story turns out. Still praying it's not true, somehow.