REFERRAL DAY!!

This past Wednesday we received a call from our family coordinator telling us that they have a potential match for us. I was totally surprised, since most calls go out once a month, so I thought. She told us they had been monitoring the system, and this little girl popped up. Her special need was a maybe on our list, and our agency asked if we would be willing to consider her. We choose to look at her file and locked her in the next morning. Immediately we started researching her need and talking with our pediatrician and other medical professionals. We also sought God's leading as well.

We were able to receive a newer update on her, and after that we knew she was ours. On Friday morning we excepted our referral for little girl. We now wait for our Referral Acceptance from China. It could take up to 6 months to receive this, but pray that it will not take that long. We are anxious to meet our "Allison"

I know some of this is vague, but we will fill you in when we can. We know have a face, and her Chinese name we can pray for.

Thinking of "Allison" at the beach

The girls have gotten into tye-dying since Emily's birthday.  We decided to get some cheap shirts from the beach store to dye and to take our pictures in this year.  We did a shirt for "Allison" as well.  I took their picture with the shirt so I can send it to her when we are able to.  We want her to know we were thinking of her before we knew who she was.

LID

Today we received notification that we have a LID of June 9th!! We are so happy to finally get to this time. Now our dossier is being translated. Our next step is waiting for our referral. We do not know were we are on the list, but we do know that we will definitely be in the mix to get one. Before now it was just a small chance of getting one, but having a log-in-date our chances have improved greater. Noel wondered what will be harder, waiting for a referral or getting the referral and waiting to go get her.

We are currently at the SBC convention this week. This is where it all started. I was able to meet Lynette Ezell whose husband was a catalyst to finally commit to adopt, and Noel was able to meet Russell Moore the author of Adopted for Life. We have recommended that book to many people. Both of these families have adopted children, and what an encouragement they are to us.

Time to Dance!!!

I never thought this day would come. Our dossier is finished and on it's way to home office in Virginia before heading to China or DTC(date to China). It should leave for China by Friday. A lot of work and stress has gone into preparing all that paperwork, but It will be worth it. Getting it ready in the last couple of weeks has felt like labor. I was happy to send this Fedex package without a return envelope in it.

Now we wait for our log-in-date or LID as it is called. My prayer is that it somehow makes it to the top of the pile and is done quickly. Once that is done, we will then be moved from a paper-chasing family to a dossier family and able to get a referral. We are anxiously waiting for that day.

Keep praying for "Allison" and that we will know her soon.

I-800 Approval

Today we received our approval from Homeland Security. We are very happy to have this so we can move on to finish our dossier. I will be getting our authentications for the county and state level this next week before sending them off to the consulate in New York City. We are happy to be one step closer to getting our referral.

Praying and longing to know who "Allison" is.

Next Phase of Waiting

I know I am not updating much lately, but we are in the waiting process again.  I am trying to update the timeline when things happen that do not warrant a full update. So check there occasionally.  We finally received our approved home study paperwork so we could send in our I-800A to Homeland Security.  We did get notification they received it, and now we are waiting for our appointment to get fingerprinted again and pictures taken (or biometrics as they call it).  They told us this could take up to 3 months to get this back, and once this is approved we will be able to proceed to finish our dossier.  Our paperwork is ready to move onto the authentication process.  I am waiting for I-800A to come in before I get all the paperwork verified by its various levels. 

I am so ready for our paperwork ready to be sent to China and logged in.  A new set of referrals will come in tonight, and there is a small chance we could get a call.  It will most likely be a few months before we get a call though.  With our different delays, it is looking like it will be the fall or closer to end of year before we would get to hopefully travel.   For some reason if fell God is giving me the month of October to travel.  I know He knows the date when we go, and I am just trying not to be too anxious and wait. 

While we are waiting we are starting to work on filling our grant paperwork and trying to decide if we are going to do a fundraiser.  There is a small one that is ongoing  here on our blog call the Chosen Child adoption bands.  Part of the proceeds of those sales go toward some of our expenses.  If you happen to be coming to the Taste of Home event this Tuesday in Granville, I will have a small display up there with more information and where you can see the bands.  We also decided that any photo session proceeds I do this year will go toward our adoption funds as well.

Keep Praying

Longing for "Allison"

Home Study-Approved

We are happy to report our home study has been approved by our home office. We are just now waiting for our Hague letter to send with our US CIS form, and for our social worker to finalize our home study paperwork. We are almost finished our our authentication of the MS and SC documents. Getting ready now to get Ohio dossier docs ready to be authenticated.

I finished the Russell Moore book Adopted for Life. A great read if you have adopted or thinking about it. If you are not, you will afterwards.

Keep Praying, each step we complete gets us closer to "Allison"

Donna