Adoption Decisions

Ugh. I'm so frustrated right now. We are facing a really tough decision. Please pray with us and for us, that God would provide a clear answer.

We had a conference call with a team of caseworkers in Kansas in January 17th. The conference was in regards to a sibling group of 5 children; a 12 year old girl, an 11 year old boy, a 10 year old boy, a 9 year old girl and an 8 year old boy. Wow, right?! I know! At the end of the conversation we had agreed to adopt these children, and their worker was to initiate the ICPC (Interstate Contract for Placement of Children), which takes about 6 weeks to complete. Well, time has gone by, and although our worker has asked for several updates, we hadn't heard anything from KS until last week. The email we received then stated that another family had applied for the children that they had to consider. We were at a loss, because we thought these kids were already ours. We've been preparing our home for them. We had no idea where the other family came from, and if they would take precedence over us (they would automatically if they were in the same state as the kids, or if they had a previous relationship to or with the kids). The same day I spoke with our worker about that news, she also received an email from a caseworker here in Oklahoma, who had chosen our family for a sibling set of 3; a 5 year old boy, a 6 year old girl, and a 7 year old girl. So, of course we're thinking the door to KS is being shut, but that God is giving us other kids, which still may be the case. But, this morning, I received a call from the caseworker in KS, who told us that they would hold a BIS (best interest staffing) for the kids on the 18th of March, and they would have a final decision then as to which family would get custody of the 5 children. At that point, they would begin the ICPC process and we could start visitation. (We were supposed to originally be starting visitation this week, with the kids moving in by June 1st, when school was out.) She indicated that we were her first choice, but of course, she cannot officially state that, and we're a little apprehensive to trust what they are telling us, since they were supposed to be done with our ICPC by now, and they haven't been very forthright with information so far. If we choose to go with the OK kids, they are a guaranteed adoption for us, since they are in state, and we are already authorized for them. We would be able to start visitation with them next week. Problem: in OK, once the kids disclosure has been presented, you have a week to indicate whether or not you wish to proceed with them, or you deny them, and they will move to the next family in line. We got their disclosure (a file read, basically) last Tuesday, which means we are supposed to give our caseworker an answer tomorrow about them. Since KS called today with that new information, our caseworker has graciously agreed to extend our deadline until Thursday. So, we have 3 days to decide which sibling group to let go... Please pray!