grace IS sufficient

The good news or the bad news, first?

There are these amazing people that surround us and support us - listening, praying, encouraging, laughing and just loving us. I thank the Lord for my friends and my family.
I am grateful that the Lord has brought us into this process because it has certainly shown us how weak we are. I have found that I lack severely in grace-giving and patience. My expectations on people are too high. When one area of my life is an overflow of emotions, it tends to ooze and splash and spill onto everything else. Lots of ugly revealed! But we're still loved by the Lord and even our friends and family still love us. That's the good news.

However, I don't the agency is really loving me too much right now! After about a month and a half of unreturned e-mails (about 5 total) and several voicemails, we have both run through several different layers of disappointment, frustration and anger. At this point, Lucille has been the only one to call or respond, even though she is NOT our adoption specialist. That's the bad news - no Lucille.

And I'm sure about this one - maybe you can help me out, good news or bad news?
We submitted our formal application via e-mail on June 21 - Father's Day. And then sent in the accompanying paperwork the following day with a $500 check per Vicky's instructions.
We followed up to see if the paperwork arrived safely and at one point, it seemed as though it was but when our check wasn't clearing, I got concerned.
Then ensues some more one-way communication on my part - like I'm yelling in a cave or something. Then the admin sends me, via e-mail, the blank paperwork that we had already filled out and sent in exactly one month ago. My response to this - is there an issue with our paperwork? we already turned this in. And we have yet another unanswered e-mail that came from that.
Well, onto greener pastures, I got an e-mail this week asking me for clarification on some information that could only be found on the 'lost' paperwork. Anywho, in the brief, somehow it magically appeared in Vicky's inbox this past Wednesday. Please keep in mind that the admin had spent 2 days last week looking for this paperwork and could not find any of it. And the conclusion that we came to was that it must've gotten lost in the mail. Good news or bad news? You can chose.

Whether it's a series of miscommunications, non-communication, people not doing their job, people not fessing up when they make a mistake or my too high standards, our experience with Bethany has been less than satisfactory. But this is part of our story and the Lord works this all out for His glory and in His time.

Please pray that the Lord would grow our family and bless us with children.