Renewed Faith

My faith has been renewed in the realm of some government agencies. Yes, that is right. Janice in Ohio, thank you! In accordance with our paperchasing we are required to obtain child abuse clearances for every state lived in after our 18th birthday. This required me, the queen paperchaser, to call government offices. Do they even have phones where real people call? Hmm...

My vision, or rather reality of a government office looks like this: A brick building, downtown, with little to no parking, but metered, of course. (Always on the day you don't have a quarter) As I enter the building I am greeted by a grossly obese unarmed 'security' guard, drinking pop and reading the paper, who points me in the right direction whether or not I ask for assistance. Arriving at my destination, I open the steel gray door to the room...A room about twice the size of a basic high school classroom. Of course this room hasn't been updated in years. My eyes and nose tell me so. There is a sea of well worn gray desks, piled with paperwork. The window shades are also worn and yellowed, the floor tiles are dated linoleum squares from the 50's but miraculously still shining underneath the giant brown industrial floor mats The wall color? "operating room white" I like to call it. Ice cold, barren and stark. There are bulletin boards all over, requiring me to turn off the cell phone, wait in line, etc. You know, the usual rules. The plants to "spruce up the place" are all nearing death...which is pretty indicative of the atmosphere and morale.

But this time was different. I was a caller, which is far, far worse than being a tangible customer at the tall counter. I called the government and got a person!! It was a day like no other. On the other end in Ohio, was Janice. I explained to Janice our situation and the need to get a clearance letter. I told her we had a little boy in China...waiting on us to get our paperwork together. She questioned how we got a match before our initial paperwork/home study was done. I told her that we waited on the Lord to bring us the child first. She said, "Say no more, we'll take care of you." She explained to me what I needed to do, and said she'd do her best to expedite the clearance. A real live government employee...a happy helpful one. Wow! Another "Everyday Miracle".

Oh, but I have another....Back here in PA, the kind lady in Harrisburg said to write on the envelope "FOR ADOPTION" and to highlight it. She said when she saw that envelope arrive in their box of mail, she'd pluck it out and prioritize it. She wasn't kidding. From the day I mailed the clearance, and from the time I received it back, was 7 days. Not business days...SEVEN days.

It's also worth it to mention our fingerprints. They were done on a Thursday night, we had the results in hand in less than a week.

Sometimes it's hard to decide what the small stuff is and the big stuff so as to categorize...but God is in it all!