...And It's Off!!!!

Praise the Lord!! Seriously! Woohoo! I haven't felt this free in months! It's in the mail!

Today I took our dossier to be apostilled. That's 24 documents to be exact. One original and four copies later...it is finished, for now!

We sent all of our documents to our agency before hand to make sure everything looked correct. So far, there are no mistakes. It should get there on Monday so pray that everything we have devoted our life to for the past 5 months is done correctly!

Next step, wait patiently. Oh boy!

Wanted to add a picture of our dossier all laid out! There were still some papers that were not included in this picture, but it gives you a picture of our pleasure and pain!

This is our "paper pregnancy" phase, so instead of posting pictures of sonograms, you get paper! Isn't she cute?

Seems too Easy!

So last week when I stated that we only needed that last page of our home study signed and notarized for our dossier was not quite accurate! Yep, it just seemed too easy!
But of course, yes, another set back! God is really testing my patience!! Yes, I hear you Lord! Loud and clear! It's not my time....but why not? I have to keep telling myself that He is in complete control! He will not forsaken me!
You might wonder, what are we waiting on now? Yet again, another oops on our sweet social worker's part! She was unaware (?) that she needed to send a notarized Certified Copy of Original form with her agency's license and her license. I was all set to send our dossier (pretty much as sacred as breast milk...sorry men, it's true!) to our agency on Friday after I went to get our paper's apostilled at the Secretary of States office. Apostilling is pretty much a notary to notarize your notary (such an un-trusting world)! Russia requires EVERY page that is notarized to be apostilled. What's amusing about that is each page is about $10 to apostille. We have probably 30 pages to apostille! The good part about this is the maximum amount they charge is $100! Wow! We finally will catch a break with the financing part of our adoption...the ONLY break!
I'm choosing to see the good in this situation. 1. We live in Austin so apostilling our documents will be a far easier task than if we lived anywhere else in Texas. 2. We catch a break with the money aspect of it all (I'm stretching here!). 3. It's allowing me to put complete faith and trust in our Father who, "in all things, (God)works for the good, of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose."Romans 8:28 Ahh! Yes, rest in that Kirsten!!!!!
Now, if my heart will just really soak that in!!
We have asked our social worker to over-night the documents, but aren't holding our breath that it will be here before Wednesday :(.
On another positive note, we did send off our i-600 form to USCIS on Friday. It's so relieving to have just another set of documents out of our hands...along with some more money, of course.
'Till next time!!!

God's Timing

We received our completed home study in the mail today! I knew today would be the day! When I opened the mailbox I saw a large white envelope with our agency's name. It felt like Christmas!! I drove home so excited that if a dog or cat ran in front of the car I probably wouldn't have noticed it.
As soon as walked in the house I threw everything down (no, not Brady, he was at school), and ripped it open, just like a kid at Christmas. I knew there was going to be 4 copies of it. I found the 4 copies which were held together with paper clips. Then I found page 11, with 4 copies, paper clipped together as well. Hm, well, maybe this was an extra sheet? So I read the last page of the homestudy to find out it was page 10 and it ended with an incomplete sentence. Hm, again! I figured out that the page 11 sheet definitely was the last page. But what was it doing all by itself? Too bad paper can't talk! On that last sheet of paper, I noticed there was a place for our social worker to sign her name and at the bottom of the page it had a place for a notary to sign...but where was the signature and notary????? NOT THERE!!!!
So yes, our home study has arrived at our house...incomplete! From what we can figure out, she sent it forgetting to sign and get it notarized!
Well, you can imagine my frustration. After waiting 2 months for this and it isn't complete!!!
I was reminded by one of my best friends ;) that this was God's timing! I wanted her to be mad right along side me! She calmly said that this is God's way of saying that this girl I have picked out for you isn't ready yet. She has been my voice of reason today and I thank her for that! God knows my girl! He knows when the right time to send our dossier over to Russia. At the exact time SHE will be ready to come to our family!
So, yes, while this is yet another small set back, I know He is in control!! Once we get her signature and the form notarized, I can send it to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) with our "application to adopt". Once that is approved we'll get our FBI fingerprints and wait for those results and send all of our hard, long, exhausting paper work to our agency and then on to Russia!!! Sounds so simple! Ha!
On a positive note, one of my good friends received her referral last night! Talk about a Christmas morning experience! It wasn't even my referral and I cried and smiled and felt butterflies all at the same time! It just made this experience so real! An orphan is waiting to have a home and that's just one more child rescued!!! The orphan population is minus one more today (and who knows how many more amongst the world).
I had the extreme privelage to attend a Together for Adoption conference this weekend with Scott. I can't even begin to explain the profound impact it had on my life! We were bombarded (and that's a good thing) with so many facts about the fatherless. Scott met a newly married couple , (with no children), and they left there inquiring about adopting a child....they came there with their church for a fun weekend away! Awesome! We were called to "defend the cause of the fatherless" Psalm 82:3. No, I'm not saying go out and adopt a bunch of kids, but seek out how YOU can make a difference in an orphans life! I found one simple, (and fashionable) way! Clothing! I met the 2 cutest Nashville women, who between the 2 of them, have 13 children-7 adopted! They make cute t-shirts that say, "147 million orphans" on the front and "feed 1" on the back. The money goes to feeding 1 orphan! How simple is that?
Their website is www.147millionorphans.com
Hopefully the next time I blog is to say we've sent our i600 form to USCIS!!!
Blessings to you all, and please pray that I will be OK with God's timing:)