Things are coming together!

I have a couple more documents to get from my SW, which will be ready tomorrow, and my dossier is 100% complete! WOOHOO!! Our garage sale is this Saturday. My dad agreed to let me have it at his house, which is in a prime garage sale location. Whatever doesn't sell Saturday will go to the church sale next month. I am still waiting to hear from INS, but I should be hearing something about our status in the next day or so, hopefully. Other than that, we are just waiting. We have nothing left we can do, except raise money so we can get there!

Keep the prayers coming, I can definitely see God's hand in everything that has been happening this last week, so I know you are all being heard. Thank you for that!!!

No details, just pray!

Without me going into any details, I ask that you all pray with me today. We REALLY need it!

Thank you!

Oh well

Today, overall, went great! Our fingerprint appointment was scheduled for 11am. We got there at 9:30...we were so scared of being late, lol. They went ahead and took us early and were absolutely great, we were done in like 20 minutes! We had to fill out a form when we got there, and they actually had to call in there supervisor to make sure mine was acceptable. Now this is probably the simplest form I've filled out in this entire process, but yes, I messed up. You see, legally, I have a hyphenated last name. It is hyphenated on my ss card, drivers license, etc. Somehow, on my appointment letter, they only used my second last name and dropped the first. Well, when I filled out the form, I put my full name. OOPS! It was cleared and they accepted it as is, but it was kinda funny thinking I would have to redo a from because I messed up my name, lol.

The oh well part comes in here...we didn't get to the notary's office today. We should have as early as we got to the appt., but Bill really needed to get to work, so we will go next time he is off, which I think is Monday.

Tuesday, Bill is off again, and we have a fun day planned. We are going to meet up with 2 other families. One is a fellow RR family, and the other is a bloggy buddy. Both of these families have Ds children. I am very excited for Bill to be around these families and experience the greatness of all of there kids. I am also looking forward to spending time with these families, and I know my girls will be thoroughly entertained by all the kids they will be around.

What's on the list for this week?

Not much to be honest, but the few things we are doing are very big and important steps. Tomorrow, we start our day at the bank getting a bazillion forms notarized (this is more work for the notary than for myself, but he better do it right!!!!!LOL). After that, we head to Nashville for our federal fingerprints. This is another HUGE step. You see, after our fingerprints are done, we start the official wait. Wait for what? For INS approval! Once we have that, we can submit to Patrick's country! The last person to submit to TN INS got news of approval in about 3 weeks. If this holds true for us, we will be sending our dossier to Eastern Europe in about 4 weeks from now. OK, so after our fingerprint appointment, I will fax all of our documents to our state side person to make sure the notaries are correct.

While in town, I also plan on picking up some additional garage sale items people are donating. The official date of the sale is the 4th of April. We were going to have it at the church, but plans have changed...again. The church couldn't have it until May, and that puts timing really tight for us, so we are going ahead with our original plans of having it here. Whatever doesn't sell here will then be put in the church sale in May, but this will give me a better idea of where we stand with our finances. We are still a bit off from all the funding we need to complete the adoption, so if you all will pray with me that all the money comes through in time. We are really needing some more donations at this time, as we are probably about 6 weeks away from travel.

Thank you everyone, again, for all your support you have given to us through the entire process, we are getting so close to the end....I can't wait!!!

PS Laura, can I come down there Monday or Tuesday to pick up the stuff for the garage sale? Leave me a comment with you e-mail and I will NOT publish it, so we can hook up! Thank you!!

World Down Syndrome Day

This post is for Meredith!

Meredith is one of the wonderful volunteers for Reece's Rainbow, and helps the adopting families calm down long enough to actually get through all the paper work. She has a house full of children herself, but always manages to find time to help the many families of RR. During our online chat a couple weeks ago, she mentioned that she didn't know what I looked like, because the picture on my header isn't in focus (this is intentional by the way!), and I commented that I am always behind the camera, not in front of it. Well, I didn't want to be bad sport, so I let Bill take a picture of me last night, after a banquet I went to (that's why I'm not in jeans and a t-shirt, lol). So, Meredith, this is for you....

Breathing a sigh of relief...

It was starting to look like we were going to have to reschedule our fingerprint appointment. I really didn't want to do this, because I have heard they push you way back when you do. The problem was that Bill was/is scheduled to work that day. Normally not a big deal, just switch some shifts around with another manager, and no biggy. This particular day on the schedule wasn't so easy to switch. One manager is on vacation that day, another is having surgery that day, leaving 3 managers in the store. Bill had/has a specific task that HAS to be done that day and turned in that day, so he was a little bit trapped into the hours he had to be there. Our appointment is scheduled for 11am. Right in the middle of lunch rush for him at work. NO GOOD!! Anyway, one of the managers that WILL be there that day offered to work extra hours so Bill could get his fingerprints done AND do his assigned task for the day! Thank you Matt!!!!

Lots of news!

First off, we got our fingerprint appointment in the mail today! Why is this such a big deal? Because now that my home study is complete, once we get our fingerprints done, USCIS can get approval done!

I also made a trip to Kinko's today. They now know me up there, which isn't a good thing. They know me as the girl who can't use any of the machines without breaking them....OOPS! Over the past few weeks, I have jammed up 2 of there copiers and worn out the FedEx man. Today, I tried to break the fax. How bad is it you ask? The man at the counter requested that from now on I come straight to them and let them do all my stuff for me and not use the machines anymore. Oh well, I got my dossier stuff faxed to my state side rep today and she had a chance to look it over and told me what changes to make. Thankfully there wasn't much that needed changing, so I fixed everything and now we just need to get it all notarized and re-send it to have it approved for the big send off!!

The other bit of news...my church has agreed to let me have my big yard sale in the parking lot (thanks to a member of my class making the request and following it through the approval process). They are opening up the yard sale for the entire church to participate, no longer just my Sunday school class. This will now include a yard sale, bake sale, car wash and selling of whatever they cook on the grills. I will post the date and directions as soon as they let me know when they are going to have it....I should know this next week!

The donations for the sale have been rolling in. My garage is almost completely full, but we will make room for more stuff if we need to, and we are hoping to need to! Sunday, a family from my SS class donated several large items, including a working washer and dryer! How cool is that?! Thank you guys!!

I am discovering just how blessed I am to be a member of this church. I am still "the new girl", and yet they have gone above and beyond to help me through the adoption process. Thank you Fellowship family!!

Good Day!

Today has been great!! We got our passports today, which means I can add the final info onto our dossier papers! I also got a letter from USCIS telling me they had received everything and I will be getting my fingerprint appointment very soon. They also included a way for me to check the status of my application online, and an approximate time frame for approval. The other thing I got today was my completed home study! I have had time to review it and make some change requests, and have now forwarded it to be reviewed by someone who actually knows what they are looking for, since I am clueless!! So, I should have my fully completed HS by next week, certified, verified and in my hands as well as USCIS's hands!! WOOHOO :)

Change the Conversation

Where we are at.

OK, I am probably repeating myself in my posting, but I am trying to keep everything straight. So, as of right now....our Home Study is complete, we will have the write up some time next week. Once I get the write up, I will fax that to my state side rep to make sure everything I need is in it, and then I will let my social worker know if anything needs changed. If everything is okay, as I'm sure it will be, my social worker will then get it certified and give me an official copy and send a copy to the USCIS office. The USCIS office is where I have already sent an application in and I am awaiting a fingerprint appointment. Once I have that, we will simply wait for a form called the I 171 H. Once that is received, we can submit the next stack of papers to Patrick's country. This stack of papers is called the dossier. I am finished with this stack of papers. I am waiting for our passports to come in (should be this next week), so I can add some info to the pages of my dossier. Once that is done, I will get everything notarized and once again send it to my state side rep to make sure all is done correctly. So, once I receive the I 171 H and my dossier is complete, we send it all to his country and wait for our travel date. Sounds easy enough doesn't it? It's not that it "hard", it's just a lot to keep up with and a lot of stress always thinking you are missing something or doing it wrong. I am constantly double checking myself, because I know if I mess up than that makes it take that much longer for us to get Patrick home, and the longer he has to stay at the orphanage without a family, but we are almost done. We are almost to the point where all we can do is wait. Then, we will be on our way to bring our son home! I pray time goes by quickly so I can get him super fast!!!

Afterall, how could I not want to bring this face home?!?!?!

YAY!!!

Another step is finished! Our final home study appointment was last night. Our social worker came to the house. First, she looked around the house and the yard (what she could see of it, it was already dark!), then she talked to Bill and I for a little while. Then, she talked to each of us separately. She then talked to the 3 older kids, well the boys at least....Kylie wouldn't even look at her, much less speak, lol. After she finished talking to the kids, she talked to Bill and I again, and that was it!! We are approved!!! Oh, I can't wait to bring him home. It looks like our travel will be at the end of May, or beginning of June. YIPPEEEEEEE!!!