Song

One of our friends sent us this song last night.
Good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7TSGptd3Y

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Waiting is hard

So, I was very naive to believe that getting the paperwork done was the hardest part of this journey. No, I didn't enjoy doing all of that, but it didn't pull on my emotions constantly either. It honestly feels like I've been pregnant for almost 2 years. Now, mind you, the best phsyical pregnancy of all time, but the worst emotionally. It's hard to even imagine what he/she will look like, how old, the time frame of when we'll see a picture, etc... I'm just not very good at this. If you read this and would say a prayer for us, we would greatly appreciate it.

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Officially Waiting

Good News! We got the word on Friday of last week that all of our paperwork had been signed and returned safely back to our agency. We are now officially on the waiting list!!!! So exciting.
So, I guess we'll just wait now. yep...still waiting. We'll be here waiting if you need us. Yay!

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Out of Our Hands

Good News! John mailed our dossier (paperwork) this morning. It will travel to St. Louis where it will be carefully looked over by our agency, and then it will be sent to Washington, D.C. In Washington the courier for Ethiopia will hand deliver the documents into the Department of State to be authenticated. The courier will then walk the documents into the Ethiopia Embassy for a second authentication. Once this is done (1-2 weeks), our paperwork will be off to the great country of Ethiopia!

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Home Study is Back With USCIS

Our home study agency informed us last week that all the necessary changes/updates had been made to our home study, and that they mailed our home study to USCIS early last week. I just received on email from USCIS this morning informing me that they had received our homestudy, and that it is in "a pile to be reviewed in the next 2-3 weeks." So, yet another waiting period begins.

USCIS seemed much more willing to expediate the process when they received our home study the first time. I don't know if they're frustrated with our agency or what, but they are not going to review our home study immediately this time around. One of the things I've learned is that it's hard to update this blog on a regular basis when there is so rarely new information to talk about.

So, please pray that the USCIS peeps will review their materials in a timely manner, and that they will be diligent. Also pray that we will be patient and confident that our God who has begun a work in us will faithfully see us through.

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Bumps in the Road

If you ever start the adoption process, one of the first things that you'll be told is to never expect a smooth road. Always be prepared for detours and difficult times. Well, we experienced a pretty large pot-hole last week.

As we informed you in the previous post, we have completed all of our dossier paperwork. However, before our dossier paperwork can be submitted to Ethiopia, our home study must first be processed and approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Our homestudy was completed in November 2008, and home studies must be submitted to USCIS before they are 6 months old. For some reason, our home study agency did not submit our home study to USCIS before this month, so USCIS sent our home study back to our agency to be updated.

This is not a huge deal, and our home study agency is in the process of making the necessary updates, but it has been a very frustrating time. We have always been under the impression that our home study agency sent our home study to USCIS in early February, but they just failed to do so. All this to say, the process goes on, and God will be faithful.

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I Retract Any Negative Statements Toward Missouri

After ripping on Missouri through most of our dating and marital relationship, the Missouri Secretary of State came through with a bang. As previously mentioned, we mailed Lins' birth certificate to Missouri to be state certified. We mailed her birth certificate to Missouri on Saturday, April 18th and received it back in the mail on Wednesday, April 22nd. That's a 3 business-day turn around, folks!

We also mailed the reference letter to Indiana SOS on Saturday, April 18th to be certified, but we still have not received it back yet. So, Missouri wins.

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Wham Bam Dossier Man

Our dossier paperwork is now 100% completed. The dossier is all of the paperwork that will be sent to the Ethiopian government for review and confirmation. These papers include financial information, reference letters, family photos, employment info., passports, medical records, criminal records, etc. All of the papers had to be notarized, and they are now in the process of being "state-sealed." Basically, the state sealing means that the state's Secretary of State's office has to affirm that the notaries that were used on the documents were actually state certified notaries and not just jag-mos with a fancy stamp.

This has been a pretty smooth process so far. One of our reference letters was from Indiana, so we had to mail the letter to Indiana's Secretary of State to get it state certified. They told us this would only take a week, but we've learned to be a little more realistic than that. Also, for some reason, Lindsey was born in Missouri, so we had to send her birth certificate to be state certified in Missouri. Yep, you would never know now, but Lindsey was born in Missouri. Missouri.

The next step will be for the paperwork to be sent to Washington D.C. for review. It will then be translated and sent to Ethiopia. Oh yeah, we also have to pay a nice chunk of cha ching when we send in the Dossier paperwork.

Please be praying that the process continues to be smooth and that we will be diligent and wise in raising and saving money for this adventure.

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fresh...

Well, we started the international adoption process over a year ago. It's been a wonderful learning and growing experience. We have completed the bulk of our paperwork and are excited to begin the waiting phase of adopting from Ethiopia. We will most likely receive a referral letter for a baby within 6-10 months. After that we get to travel to the beautiful country of Ethiopia. We are so excited to further our family through adoption and look forward in giving Manning a little sibling to enjoy and grow up with. We plan on keeping you all informed as we countdown to the time we get to hold our little one. In the mean time, we ask for prayer. 1st, for health of our baby in Ethiopia and for the parents that are having to make the most difficult yet bravest decision of their lives. 2nd, for our patience and trust in Jesus as we wait.

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