God is Truth

A while ago I posted a blog entry on who God has been to us during our adoption journey to Bangladesh. Today God is revealing Himself as Truth. Jesus said, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life." (John 14:6)
A verse that I have held onto before and during our trip has been Romans 3:4 "Let God be true and every man a liar." In other words, believe God's Word and truth and do not rely on man's word. This is really hard, and I believe you cannot do this without God's strength.
If you're new to reading our blog, you may not know that Nadeem and I never planned to adopt a baby. We wanted children of our own, and I had begun to feel that God had other plans for us instead of being parents. A year ago, God told us to go to Bangladesh to adopt. We had no idea how this would work out. There are no adoption agencies that work here, and you must be a citizen of Bangladesh to adopt here. In addition, God told me to quit my teaching job which I loved. I had some very uncomfortable conversations with my boss and co-workers in which I had to explain that I was quitting my job to go to Bangladesh to adopt, but we had no plan of how this would actually happen. I got several comments of "What will you do when you have no job and this hasn't worked out?" Those kind of remarks tend to kill your faith, you know! However, God was true and man wasn't. I did quit my job, and we did come to Bangladesh. We have Kalina! What was impossible with man was possible with God!
I want to share God's truth versus man's truth concerning the fingerprints and approval. Before we left the US, we were supposed to wait for the approval and clearance. There were many errors made prior to our departure, and the day before we left we still didn't have our fingerprints taken for homeland security. We begged the workers at the USCIS to help us, but they wouldn't. We fully expected God to perform a miracle right then and there, but He didn't.
Nadeem and I didn't know what to do. We both prayed, and God told us to go to Bangladesh as scheduled. Some friends told us this was a mistake and that we needed to delay our trip. The USCIS officials told us not to leave the country without getting the fingerprints approved. Our lawyer's paralegal told us not to leave the US. Once again, we had to decide who to believe-God or man. We were scared. I spent the day that we left crying. We had no idea what lay ahead of us, but we left for Bangladesh as planned.
We arrived and got Kalina! If you want the full story, read the earlier blog postings.
Then we visited the US Embassy in Bangladesh where we were told to send Kalina back to the orphanage and return to the US to get approval, that they could not help us get her visa until we did this. We were horrified! What would we do with our brand new, 2 1/2 month old daughter? We started to try to figure out what to do. At first, Hasan's family suggested that we leave Kalina with them. They could take care of her along with the servants. That would be better than returning her to the orphanage. We wondered if perhaps some of Nadeem's relatives here could help us. Our minds raced around. We wondered if we had made a huge mistake. Had we really heard God correctly? What was happening??
Nadeem and I both prayed separately and asked God what we should do. He gave us the same message which He would repeat over and over throughout the months to come: "Stay. Wait. Stand firm." That was it. No further explanation. Okay. We had a peace about this, but we continued to hear the truth of man.
Our lawyer told us that we were wrong to leave the US without approval. She checked with her sources in Washington, DC who said that we had to fly home to the US to get our fingerprints taken; they couldn't be done here. She said to leave Kalina here and come home. After that, she stopped returning our phone calls and emails. We felt really alone. All we had was God's Word that we should stay, and He would take care of us. I say "all" we had. That should be more than enough! However, you get in a scary spot and hear the voices of man, and it's really hard!!!
We arrived here on September 7. A month later we got permission from the USCIS for us to have our fingerprints taken here at the embassy. When we went to the embassy, we were told that this has never happened before and that they were not equipped to do this. The computer wasn't linked to the US system. They reluctantly took our prints on cardboard but wouldn't send them to the US. They said we might have to go to India to get the prints done. They had to talk to the embassy in India to see how to proceed. Finally they did send the prints.
God said, "Stay. Wait. Stand firm."
From the US we were told that nobody knew how to process cardboard prints. They sent them from Atlanta to Texas and then said they'd have to send them to Washington, DC. God had other plans. After one month, the prints were processed in Texas!
God said, "Stay. Wait. Stand firm."
Then Nadeem's prints failed due to his amputated fingers. The head of homeland security told my mom that Nadeem would have to leave Kalina and me here, fly home, and wait for approval.
God said, "Stay. Wait. Stand firm."
THIS WEEK WE RECEIVED OUR US APPROVAL!!!!!
God said, "Stay. Wait. Stand firm."
Nadeem said, "I told you I wasn't a criminal!"
Nadeem, Sherri, and Kalina praised the name of God!!!!!
Psalm 3:8 "From the Lord comes deliverance."
Isaiah 64:4 "God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him."