Honestly, it’s been a challenging month of waiting for our home study to be written and finalized. Our patience has certainly been tested these past 27 days since our final home study visit with our social worker. So, as you can imagine, I didn't have much to update you with other than our severe testing of patience ;-)
Helping to pass the time as we waited, we enjoyed visiting my sister's family down in Charleston last week and welcomed our newest nephew into the family - Thaddeus Benjamin - and he's absolutely adorable! Unfortunately, putting a minor damper on our trip was a mean little stomach bug that showed up before we left and was kind enough to infect all of us except Conner. We're on the mend and feeling much better.
The big news
Yesterday marked the day we'd been patiently awaiting for the past 27 days and a big step toward bringing our daughter home and getting her out of her life of confinement in a crib.We received an exciting email from our social worker with our finalized home study and confirmation that our i800a (immigration paperwork) was overnighted to USCIS. (Big deal!!!)
So what’s the next step?
Once our finalized home study and i800a reach USCIS today, the countdown begins for our next major milestone. We should receive confirmation of the receipt date at USCIS within a week or two from today. Here's what happens leading up to the next major milestone:- Finger printing done by USCIS to enter into the system (with Mike being Active Army, we will hopefully be able to walk-in without having to wait for our scheduled appointment).
- Wait for USCIS to process the i800a paperwork (yes, more waiting...) This can take up to 90 days to process, but sometimes less.
- We are assigned an immigration officer to work with during this time as well (and we're praying for a wonderful immigration officer as that can sometimes make a big difference).
- We will then receive approval from USCIS to adopt a girl from China between the ages of 0-3.
- While USCIS processes our paperwork, we're gathering all necessary documents to send to China once the i800a approval comes back. This compilation of paperwork is called our "Dossier".
- Milestone: Receive our approved i800a from USCIS!
- After receiving the approval from USCIS, all documents included in the Dossier must be authenticated (notarized, etc.) in every state we've lived in since we turned 18. So... being that we've moved around just a bit (thank you, Army) instead of taking a road trip to do this ourselves, we will pay for our Adoption Agency to have this completed.
- We wait another 2-3 weeks for the documents to be authenticated, and then...
- Next big milestone: Dossier sent off to China!! (this is referred to as "DTC").
How you can help us
As always, we appreciate your continued prayers so much. Specifically, please pray for a few things:- Pray for our daughter in China. Even though we haven't yet met her, we know God has orchestrated a perfect plan to bring her into our home for life.
- Pray for a timely turnaround for our immigration approval and a wonderful immigration officer.
- Pray for our continued patience and trust over these next few months as we prepare for what's to come.
- Pray for continued financial provision as God provides us with the tangible resources necessary to carry out his call on our hearts.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. - James 1:17 (NIV)Thank you so much for continuing to join us on this journey. Don't hesitate at anytime to reach out to us if you have any questions or more information about the adoption process in general!
Not everyone is called to adopt, but anyone can help a family bring an orphan home to their forever family. If you want to help our family, click here to find out how you can make a tax-deductible donation.
