Perfect timing

I'm always one to say "It's all in God's perfect timing." Most of the time I mean it, sometimes I am trying to convince myself that I just need to be patient, trust in the Lord and it will all happen at the appropriate time. Well, I had no idea just how perfect God's timing was in regards to Xander.

For those of you reading this that are a part of the adoption community, it will be a little easier to understand. For those of you who aren't, bear with me and I will do my best not to bore you, but to help you understand a little about the process. If you know our story you know that 3 years ago we were logged in in China to wait for a non-special needs (NSN) girl, as young as possible. Then on 12/2/09 Xander's picture, and a brief description, was sent out in an email to everyone on a certain agencies list, of course we were one of them. We hadn't considered special needs up until this time and we hadn't considered a boy. We certainly didn't entertain the idea of adopting a child virtually the same age as Macey. A recent change in the special needs process allowed us to switch agencies and complete Xander's adoption, his file belonged to a specific agency and it was their responsibility to find his family. So, that's when it all began, the switch and now the wait.

Very recently, like yesterday, the people in China who decide how international adoptions are handled, made some new rules. Agencies no longer have specific lists, all special needs children are in one large data base and all agencies (who have a SN program) have access to those files. This is a great thing for these kids, that means ANYONE who wants to adopt a special needs child has access to EVERY available child, theoretically giving more chances for children to find their families. Also, agencies are the only ones who have access to this list, where before at least the age, gender and special need could be accessed by anyone. Good changes made to the process, all in the interests of the children.

So, I say all of this because I am 100% certain that had these changes taken place in November we would not be adopting Xander. There would have been no way for us to find him. Since we were not looking for a SN child, we never would have asked our agency to look over any files for us. We were not asking for a boy, so if they would have looked for a file it would have been for a girl. We weren't even considering moving forward right now, we were going to wait until Macey was about 2 and then start something, but even then we didn't know what. But because GOD can see the whole picture, He knew there was a small window of opportunity for us. In December agencies were still allowed to "advocate" for children, send emails, post pictures, whatever they needed to do to find families, that is how we saw Xander. Switching agencies was possible because Xander was on a specific agencies list. We still would have been able to switch agencies, but while switching (which technically took us almost 2 months) someone else could have come along and started the process to adopt him.

It is awesome to see God's hand at work during each step, such an encouragement. I am giving you all permission to remind me that this is all in God's timing. Whether I am frustrated because things seem to be taking too long, or I am overwhelmed when my "twins" aren't getting along like I think they should be. Just send me an email or comment, "It's all in God's perfect timing."