Got a match?

So, where are we in that long line? We've gotten some evidence that we have passed all approval processes and our application is now awaiting entrance into the "Match Room". This is the "room" where people (a committee?) in China match applicant families with orphans. Now, it's highly doubtful that we would get a phone call tomorrow saying we have a match. There are quite a few people in "line" in front of us (as much as "lines" are observed in China!)

If I were to guess, I’d say we’d be matched to our daughter sometime in February or March. But there could be a chance that it happens as early as January. Of course, it could also be later. But, any day now.

Everyone going through this process is assigned a group number. We are in Group 115. We've met others who are also in G115 on the internet. And, actually, Donna had an opportunity to meet many of them in person as well during a business trip! Chances are, all of us in G115 will be in China together to meet up with our daughters for the first time. And from everything we can tell, we are in a wonderful group. We are really looking forward to traveling with them. So, we are very thankful that we could be a part of this group.

At this time we would solicit your prayers that God would be active and involved in the decision-making process that is going on in the Match Room. We've done our part. Our application is submitted. And for now, there is nothing more we can do but wait ... and fight off the anxiety that comes when all you can do is wait. Somewhere in China, there is a group of people who has the authority to rule on the fate of our daughter's life like a king rules over the lives of subjects in his kingdom. Things are out of our hands. But they are in God's hands. "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Proverbs 21:1)

The way I see it, one of these days in a computer screen in an office somewhere in China will be pictures of our daughter along with those of several others. And someone will take photos of Donna, Jonathan and me and hold them next to this baby girl, then that one, then the next one. Then, they will look at another computer screen full of pictures. Then, do the same with another family’s pictures and another family’s pictures and so on. They’ll read reports from the orphanage about these girls and look at our application and those of other families. Maybe they will make some matches, switch them around, take a break, come back and make one last change. But somehow, amazingly, out of that process, some baby girl will become ours.

Please join us in asking that our Heavenly Father would have his loving and gracious hand in the decisions going on in China -- for us and for our friends in G115.

Thanks very much.

Dan