Officer "H"

Since my nerve-wracking fingerprinting experience last week, I've been ever so diligent in taking care of my hands. I'd convinced myself that I would be hearing from USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) in the form of a letter telling me that I would have to return to have my prints taken again. In preparation for that, I have gone so far as to apply A LOT of my Mary Kay firming eye cream to my fingertips to try to fill in the deep lines. Hey, when you start feeling desperate, weird things begin to sound strangely normal. What's funny is it actually seems to be working! But, I think maybe I should save the cream for my eyes since I'm writing this at 2AM. You see, I called USCIS on Wednesday to fish for information, hoping to hear whether my prints were accepted so that we could proceed with scheduling the seemingly inevitable next round of fingerprints. The lady who took my phone call had a kind voice and was eager to help. She searched for our file and quickly came back with the name of the officer (the officer!!) who had been assigned to our case! I'll call him Officer "H". Apparently, Officer "H" is the most wonderful person in the whole wide world because he reviewed and APPROVED our application THE DAY AFTER OUR FINGERPRINTING!! Plus, it was a Saturday! WHAT?! Yes siree! Then, yesterday, I went to the mailbox and found the blessed approval letter that wasn't supposed to arrive for another seven to ten days. We had geared ourselves up to not hearing a single thing from anyone for at least a month and here we are with papers in hand 6 days later! Thank you, Jesus...and Officer "H" at USCIS!!! :)


About to hit one out of the park...just like our new friend, Officer "H"

Our dossier, now apostilled (and complete with our USCIS approval!), will be sent with another adopting couple on Sunday to the facilitators in our girl's country! Their government will be closed for a couple of weeks for a national holiday, which gives our facilitators time to translate everything and check it with a fine-toothed comb before they submit it on Oct 15th. This puts us on track to travel for the first time in early December! We desperately want to tell our girl of our plans to bring her home permanently before she finds out that she won't be sent to America with her peers to be hosted over the Christmas holiday. Will you pray with us concerning the timing?

Working my Fingers to the Bone & News of Our Girl

Since our last post, we have gone in to the ASC office twice. The first time, we were turned away by a young clerk who seemed to enjoy his position of power, while those who would have been able to quickly take our prints sat unoccupied discussing their upcoming lunch breaks over their cubicle walls. Tax dollars at work. Fantastic. The second time, (our actual appointment), everything went smoothly except for the actual fingerprinting. Apparently, I have worked too much with my hands and that has affected my prints. I have deep, vertical grooves that caused as many as ten rolling attempts on a few fingers. The sweet, elderly lady who helped me said that she thought it should be fine, but I have a gut feeling that they may be rejected farther up the line. Please pray that they will pass. I don't care if they actually pass on their own rough-looking merit or if it requires that someone up the chain has an off day and just sends it through. I'd be okay with that!

We were unable to have our documents apostilled last week, but have now received everything we need in order to do that tomorrow. It'll be nice to mark that off our to-do list.

The fundraising has started and is absolutely exhausting - by my own doing. We felt confirmation from the Lord early on in the process that He would provide the funds to bring our daughter home. As we have prepared for some of the fundraisers, wanting to be good stewards of our time and resources, I have found myself taking the role of God upon myself, as if I could ever accomplish what He can simply speak into existence! He has gently reminded me that He has called me to take on His burden, which is light and easy, and that I should simply cast my cares upon Him because He cares for me. What a wonderful, gracious God we serve!!!


Last year at Summer camp during visit from missionaries


Michael got to meet some folks this last week who are involved in orphan care ministry in our girl's country. He showed them a picture of our daughter and they recognized her and had good things to say! We've also made contact with a young lady who went on a short-term missions trip last summer and posted pictures of the camp they hosted for the orphans. Our girl was featured in a number of the pictures! This missionary told us that our girl stood out very strongly because she hadn't been hardened like most of the other orphans and that she was sweet and a good helper to the younger children with special needs. She also said that our girl stayed close to the missionaries during worship and would even sing and raise her hands. What a blessing to know that the Lord has been watching over and sheltering our girl all these years! He has seen her hurts and struggles. He was there when she was unloved by those who should have loved her the most. He has protected her heart from becoming cold and unfeeling. He has extended grace to her to be able to care for those less fortunate than she. "He was sent to console those who mourn, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." What a beautiful Savior and Redeemer!!!



This Summer - so patient with the baby



We are so blessed...

...by all the wonderful people the Lord has put in our lives. Thank you all for your support, encouragement and help as we continue on this, at times, daunting adventure! Please continue to pray for us and for our girl. We have been strengthened because of your prayers! Many of you have been asking for an update, so here goes.

We received our approved homestudy packet a few weeks ago and submitted our USCIS papers (applications for our travel visas and asking permission to bring a child home with us). We have now been scheduled to get our FBI fingerprints done...and advised to ignore the appointment time given and just go in so that we might expedite the whole process. Please pray for us. We like to know what the rules are and to follow them closely. That brings us a sense of security. I feel like we're planning to rob a bank! Ok, it's not really that bad, but we are uncomfortable with confrontation. We'll probably have to get over that by the time we go overseas to fight to get our daughter! (Her country does not allow preselected adoption due to the high rate of human trafficking in that area. However, many children are successfully adopted after being hosted in the States thanks to the "gifts" given to government officials and caregivers.)

Once we get our approval from the US government, hopefully within a month, then we'll have all our papers apostilled (kind of like an internationally-accepted notary). Then, our packet (dossier) will be sent to our girl's country to be translated and submitted to their government for approval. If it gets accepted the first time, we could make the first of three trips in early December. We won't hold our breath. We'll just keep praying!

Lord, watch over our sweet girl.