passport report

Well, here is the new news from Liberia about passports. The office was closed yesterday, and today they [Acres of Hope staff] have been told that they will have 5 passports by the end of next week. Then they [the passport office folks] have pushed for the Sept/Oct group to have the rest by mid-Feb... They are pushing to get all passports that were submitted in 06 to be completed by the end of Feb... I realize we have had a lot of info come out and it has been discouraging, but all I can do is ask and hope it comes to be. I will let each family know when I hear about their child's passport as I haven't been told who and when. Let's just pray that Feb is the miracle month! While the possibility still exists to receive passports this month, we've been misinformed before. Earlier in the week, our agency's staff heard that they'd have these 5 passports this week, not next week. We know that many of you are already praying for all of us, but please consider making this a special matter of prayer over the next month. The only date we really can't be gone is March 17th because of Worldlink's 5th Anniversary Celebration, and we're starting to fear that this will be when we're finally ready to travel. By our calculations based on the infrequent flights in and out of Liberia, we need to leave here by March 4th in order to do everything we need to do and be back for the 17th. Our concern is that we'll get the passports a day or so too late and then have to wait until the 21st to meet our kids. Obviously, worrying isn't going to fix anything, and we're not in control of the situation. We may get passports in plenty of time or long after. However, telling ourselves these things won't calm our hearts. The other night as we were lying on Patience's bed, Peter asked, "Is it crazy to miss kids you've never met?" It might sound crazy, but it makes all the sense in the world to us right now. Our hearts just desperately want to hold our kids and tell them everything is going to be alright. Please keep praying that (1) our passports will be released sooner rather than later and (2) God would comfort our hearts as well as our kids while we wait (especially Patience who is so anxious to come home).