In The Offing Meaning

(idiomatic) At a distance, but visible.

Example:   They could see that the ship was waiting in the offing.
  There were several small islands in the offing.
1850, Sylvester Breakmore Beckett, The Portland Reference Book and City Directory, Google Books
  We have known wives to forget that they had husbands…, especially when they supposed that a tax bill or a notification to do military duty might be in the offing!
2014 August 8, Rupert Christiansen, “The truth about falsettos [print version: 12 August 2014, p. R8]”[1], The Daily Telegraph (Review):
  He [countertenor Anthony Roth Constanzo] also enjoys being the catalyst whereby opera fertilises other art forms: recently, he's collaborated with Japanese kabuki actors, and a project with dancers from New York City Ballet is in the offing.
1919, P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves
  The moment I saw the man standing there, registering respectful attention, a weight seemed to roll off my mind. I felt like a lost child who spots his father in the offing. There was something about him that gave me confidence.