Answered Prayer? Oh yeah!
It's hard to know where to begin. So, let me back up a few days to last Tuesday. Knowing that our lawyer, Bogdan, was going to be speaking with the judge presiding over our case, I gave him a call to find out what he had learned. The conversation was extremely dry and factual, although he did convey that the judge continues to have a positive attitude about the outcome. I was trying to get some more subjective, emotional - if you will, information from him about his personal feelings of how things are going as I was met with this response, "I've told you what I needed to tell you." This, as you can imagine, was the end of our conversation.
This conversation left Vicki and I extremely discouraged, feeling more than ever like our advocate was hardly on our side let alone taking a personal, vested interest in our case. We shared all of this with friends at AGM and took time to pray with them about the case, generally, and specifically that God would change Bogdan's heart. Without waiting on God to answer that prayer I contacted two other lawyers in town and set up meetings with them to discuss how they would take over the case and "bring it home" for us.
[Enter Friday]
Driving home from AGM on Friday I realized we had never heard back from Bogdan regarding another phone call that was supposed to have taken place between him and the judge. And while more often than not we are unable to reach him over the telephone, I decided to give it a shot and call. Surprisingly, he (not his secretary) answered. Expecting the normal dry run around I stammered out a few questions about the call and was greeted with warmth and an apologetic tone due to the judge taking a seemingly early Easter holiday, making it impossible for Bogdan to reach him. "What's that I'm hearing?" I thought. "Warmth? Apologetic? Is this guy ok?"
As I continued listening ever more intently to my advocate as he explained his plan for the following week...that he was going to do some more research into Polish adoption law and have a good conversation the next week...he began telling me about how he was going to have some of our friends over to his house the following Monday (yesterday). "What?" I thought. And before I knew it he invited us and the kids over as well.
As to not turn this post into my next (definitely not my first) novel, I'll jump to yesterday. It was surreal. This guy that I was prepared to fire...this guy that has never shown warmth, compassion, humanity toward us with respect to our case...was running around squirting everyone he could get to with a Rambo-sized water gun (it's a Polish post-Easter holiday thang...you wouldn't understand). He, along with his dear wife and four kids, hosted 14 of us at his home. He fed us. He paid for all of our entrance into a small botanical gardens kind of thing. He organized a little scavenger hunt'ish outing for all of us. He told Vicki and me that we would need to find a time to come back over again!!
Who is this man? The only way I have to answer this question is to say that something has changed. I will go further to thank God publicly for this change. Some might say, "oh it's just that your perspective has changed" or other such things to rationalize this out. But that's just not enough. You don't know what peace this gives us to know that our advocate has now taken a personal interest in our family. There's no going back from that. God provided an incredible open door for us...and we are so thankful to Him and to those of you who have prayed with us for something to change.
This week holds another important conversation between Bogdan and the judge in store. That will likely take place tomorrow (Wed) or Thursday. They are both looking for legal precedent to finalize our adoption without the opinion of any of the 3 international adoption agencies in Warsaw. Would you pray with us that they will find the precedent...or the loophole that will finally bring closure to this marathon?
This conversation left Vicki and I extremely discouraged, feeling more than ever like our advocate was hardly on our side let alone taking a personal, vested interest in our case. We shared all of this with friends at AGM and took time to pray with them about the case, generally, and specifically that God would change Bogdan's heart. Without waiting on God to answer that prayer I contacted two other lawyers in town and set up meetings with them to discuss how they would take over the case and "bring it home" for us.
[Enter Friday]
Driving home from AGM on Friday I realized we had never heard back from Bogdan regarding another phone call that was supposed to have taken place between him and the judge. And while more often than not we are unable to reach him over the telephone, I decided to give it a shot and call. Surprisingly, he (not his secretary) answered. Expecting the normal dry run around I stammered out a few questions about the call and was greeted with warmth and an apologetic tone due to the judge taking a seemingly early Easter holiday, making it impossible for Bogdan to reach him. "What's that I'm hearing?" I thought. "Warmth? Apologetic? Is this guy ok?"
As I continued listening ever more intently to my advocate as he explained his plan for the following week...that he was going to do some more research into Polish adoption law and have a good conversation the next week...he began telling me about how he was going to have some of our friends over to his house the following Monday (yesterday). "What?" I thought. And before I knew it he invited us and the kids over as well.
As to not turn this post into my next (definitely not my first) novel, I'll jump to yesterday. It was surreal. This guy that I was prepared to fire...this guy that has never shown warmth, compassion, humanity toward us with respect to our case...was running around squirting everyone he could get to with a Rambo-sized water gun (it's a Polish post-Easter holiday thang...you wouldn't understand). He, along with his dear wife and four kids, hosted 14 of us at his home. He fed us. He paid for all of our entrance into a small botanical gardens kind of thing. He organized a little scavenger hunt'ish outing for all of us. He told Vicki and me that we would need to find a time to come back over again!!
Who is this man? The only way I have to answer this question is to say that something has changed. I will go further to thank God publicly for this change. Some might say, "oh it's just that your perspective has changed" or other such things to rationalize this out. But that's just not enough. You don't know what peace this gives us to know that our advocate has now taken a personal interest in our family. There's no going back from that. God provided an incredible open door for us...and we are so thankful to Him and to those of you who have prayed with us for something to change.
This week holds another important conversation between Bogdan and the judge in store. That will likely take place tomorrow (Wed) or Thursday. They are both looking for legal precedent to finalize our adoption without the opinion of any of the 3 international adoption agencies in Warsaw. Would you pray with us that they will find the precedent...or the loophole that will finally bring closure to this marathon?
posted by Michael Shattuck at
12:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home