May 10th, 2011

So what are you doing now?

Many people have asked what's next, when do we get Sister, why does it take so long....so I thought I'd give a little blurb for ya'll..

We meet for our 3rd and final home study visit on Sunday in Des Moines (I'll be up there for the Women of Faith conference and our social worker lives there!) Our social worker will notarize the items that I need notarized and then I can send in for apostiling (a document from the state for every document stating you "own" it) It costs $5 per apostile and we need over 20....yeah, you do that math, it adds up!

Our social worker will get us the final home study to review and then we should be able to submit our I-800A form with $1000 to immigration with our home study by May 24th, if not before. We then have to wait for approval for immigration to give us a fingerprinting date to go to Des Moines to be fingerprinted. This process typically takes 60-90 days but we are praying that with a little intervention from our congressman and a letter of urgency about Sister needing to get home quickly due to the Down syndrome and possible other medical issues, we are PRAYING we could get approval in about a month....but once again, we know this is in God's hands. There is WAY too much He has done to help us bring our daughter home to not believe His hand has been in every step.

Once we are fingerprinted and get approval of our I-800A we then can send our dossier over to get the full assignment of Sister. This can take 1-3 months, but again, we are praying that with a little intervention, we can have it move quickly. The government where Sister is at meets every Thursday for approval of adoptions so we are going to have some hard core prayers going up that our case can be approved quickly!

Once our dossier and full assignment of Sister happens, we just have to file another immigration form here in the states (I-800). Once Sister is approved here in the states, the US government cables that info to where Sister is at and we get a travel date!

So...with God all things are possible...and that is exactly what we are going on. We are praying that we will get the quick route on all things and that we can travel by Sister's 4th birthday in September. It's all in God's plans for our family....we can just hope that the goal of having Sister home in September came from Him! =)

We are having a pancake fundraiser with a bake sale and silent auction on June 4th. If you like to donate to the silent auction or bake, send me an email! Thank you!