And so it begins...

I cannot believe that it has been a year and an half since we first began our adoption process back in early 2013.  It feels like just yesterday we crossing all the “T”s and dotting all the “I”s…then checking and double checking and triple checking all of our paperwork before we sent out our “official” request to adopt (aka our Dossier).  But the reality is, several seasons have come and gone since we shipped our Dossier to Ethiopia on October 18, 2013.  For those of you who may not know, our Dossier took us around 6 months to complete.   It required a large amount of time, a little frustration, a lot of signatures, notary stamps, social worker visits, more background checks than I even thought existed and much more than I can list in a “brief” summary.  But above all, it required a lot of faith in the one who called us to adopt and to him we give thanks because we could not have done it without his amazing grace.

That all being said, it is hard to believe that we are already to the point where our paperwork is beginning to approach its “expiration” date.  I sit here tonight writing a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, requesting our first update for our fingerprints (which expire in December).  I cannot believe it is already that time.  I cannot believe how slowly we are moving up the waiting list.  It breaks my heart to see our the little progress we have made in the past year.  But we know who is in control..... After our fingerprints, we will need to update our homestudy and our “pre-approval for citizenship” paperwork.  These updates will given us an additional 15 months for our fingerprints and 18 months for our homestudy and citizenship paperwork.  I hope and pray that by time that rolls around, we will not need an update as we will be completing our adoption and bringing our little girl home. 

As much as it hurts, I know that God is good.  He is faithful.  And most importantly for us right now…his timing is perfect.  We pray for Amira everyday, where ever she may be and we know we are not the only ones who do.  Our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and is protecting her and keeping her safe until the time HE decides to bring her home to be with us.  So until then, we will patiently wait and pray. 

 

Thanks for your prayers and support.