Adoption Update

Good Morning Everyone!!!

With Orphan Sunday (November 8^th) quickly approaching I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on where we are with our adoption process.  As you all know, we have been in the process of adopting for over two years now.  It is crazy to think over two years has passed since God first laid the idea of adopting on our hearts.  When we first began this process, I would have never imagined all the amazing things that God would have in store for our family.  We have learned so much and grown so much stronger in our faith.  For me personally, I think the area God has grown me in the most is trust (and maybe patience a little too J).  When we began this process back in April 2013, I envisioned our family of 5 to look a certain way.  However, after two years on the waiting list to adopt from Ethiopia, God revealed to us that he had a different picture in mind all along.

So this past summer, we took a leap of faith and essentially walked away from our Ethiopia adoption to venture on this new path laid before us.  It was not an easy decision but God made it clear this journey has been prewritten and we are merely his instruments called to do his work.  Thus began our new path to adopt from China.

Just like Ethiopia, there is a lot of paperwork involved to adopt from China.  However, rather than feeling overwhelmed with the massive load of documents to complete, notarize, state certify and authenticated, we have felt at peace.  In a way, it was almost easier this time around because we knew what was expected and how important it is to pay attention to the smallest details.  Currently, we are still waiting for our i800a approval from the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS).  There was a slight hold up with our fingerprint approval due to the wording in our home-study but it is in the process of being corrected and we hope to continue to move forward soon. 

For those of you who do not know, our family is adopting from China’s special needs waiting list.  Because we felt led to adopt a child with a medical condition, this has added an entire new chapter in our adoption story.  We have researched in great detail several medical needs we are open to and in order to adopt from this list we have to have a home-study that clearly indicates that we are not only open to these needs but approved for them as well.  That is where our home-study has held us up.  Our social worker approved us for the broad range of health conditions we are open to but the wording did not indicate the specifics in a way that the USCIS recognized.  Therefore, we received what is called an RFE (Request for Evidence) from the USCIS indicating our home-study needed to be updated to reflect that we are approved specifically for the medical needs listed.  That is where we stand today.  Our home-study agency has agreed to change the wording in our home-study to reflect specifically what the USCIS requested.  Once we submit this new update, we will continue to move forward in our process.

Once we receive our i800a approval from the USCIS, we have a few more documents that need to be sent to the secretary of state for approval.  After the state approvals the final documents, we will be sending all of our original documents to a Chinese Consult in Chicago for authentication.  This is the last and final step in our paper-work process!!!  We will then send all of the original documents to our adoption agency and they will hold on to these papers until February 2016.  China is very strict on the fact that parents adopting must be 30 years old (Nic turns 30 in February). 

Then the final wait begins.  Our adoption agency is very optimistic that our wait for our daughter will not be long once our dossier reaches China.  We anticipate that we will finally be matched with our little princess and traveling within the year to bring her home. 

As we approach Christmas season this year, we know this will be the last Christmas as a family of 4 and what an amazing gift God will give us next year!!!  We know God is faithful and this is his will for our family.  It has been a long and at times hard and emotional journey, but we are hopeful that our story of waiting will soon be a story of rejoicing and celebrating.  The child we have been longing, praying and waiting for will finally be home in our arms.  She will finally have her forever family here on this Earth and what a joyful time that will be for us all.

Thank you for your prayers and we will continue to keep you updated as we move through the final stages of our adoption process.  God Bless!!

Merry Christmas my sweet child -> please watch this video as I found it after I posted this blog originally. Just another sign God is giving us hope and strength...