We're back from Florida and DONE with our Dossier!!!

To our surprise we got our I-171H very quickly after sending off for it. Stephen then sent it off to get State Sealed and that too came back VERY quickly (was there for less than 1 whole business day!). Before you turn in your dossier you have to make 4 more copies of it. Which doesn't sound like a big deal except that the dossier has grown to some 130 pages, all stapled and folded together.

That's the tricky part. You can't take the staples out so your trying to fold things this way and that to get a good photocopy. So I spent about 2 hours at Office Depot (which was having a sale on B&W copies!) and made all of my copies. I then spent the evening trying to put them all together and staple them and fold them so they fit in the envelopes. Well this morning the kids and I took 3 copies and the original to Leah (our social worker), filled out our family preference letter and paid the first 1/2 of the country fee. So now our part is DONE!!!!

Leah will now sent it off to get it reviewed by Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids and then to be Authenticated and then sent it on it's way to Ethiopia!! I can't believe we are done and ready to start waiting for the call=) It kind of feels weird not having any paperwork to be doing. But my mind is swimming with things that need to be done before we get a referral.

We are not exactly 100% sure what the wait times are now that Bethany Christian Services partnered with a new orphanage but it looks like maybe 5-8 months. We all are SO excited to start our wait and can't wait to meet the little pumpkin that the Lord destined to be part of our family!!!
On a side note... if you were wondering why all the wedding pictures...we had a great time in Florida for my sister-in-law Joy's wedding. Everything went really good and we were blessed to be a part of it=)

It's HERE!!!!!!!

Stephen called me tonight and let me know that our I-171H came in the mail!!!!!!!
It only took about 2 weeks or so since our fingerprinting apt which is fairly quick=)
The kids and I are still in Florida but I got everything ready for stephen so all he has to do now is to ship it to the state for sealing. I couldn't be more excited!! Yea!!!!!!

Fingerprinting done!!!

7 hours of driving and a 20 minutes appointment...but our fingerprints are done!!! But to be honest we actually had a good time. It was nice to get to spend the day with my hubby when he would normally be at work.

While we were at the USCIS office we actually met another couple who was adopting too. So we got to talk with them for a while and found out that they are still going to be able to adopt from Haiti.
We also got to go visit our good friends who just had their 1st baby.
After 7 hours of driving we were both pooped so last night we watched a documentary that we had rented called 'China's lost girls'. Well if I was hoping for something to relax me this was NOT it. Broke my heart to see all these sweet babies with no mommy or daddy to love them, raise them, teach them and train them=( So if I was at all slacking on getting our paperwork done I have renewed vigor today!!! Meeting with our notary tomorrow=)

Crazy two weeks

The kids and I officially have 2 weeks before we are leaving for Florida for my sister-in-laws wedding!

We are really excited about going since ALL of our family lives there. Its always fun to go home and visit with everyone, in fact that is the ONLY part about living in TN that I don't like. Stephen's sister is very special to us and we are so excited that she is getting married to her best friend=) Now seeing that I only have 2 weeks till we leave and the fact that I just got my dossier packet makes for 2 very full weeks. We sent off for our Birth Certificates in Florida and waiting for those to come back. Once they do we have to turn around and send them back to Florida to get them state sealed. We also have our Dr. apt, bank apt., Police apt., and fingerprinting in Atlanta, meeting up with our notary (Mrs. Donna=) and getting the clerk of court to notarize our notary=)!!!

My hope is to get everything done in these two weeks that I possibly can so that while we are gone we won't be wasting any time!! Just waiting on our I-171H to come then get state sealing. I have no clue how long it will take to get it back but I want to be ready so that is all we are waiting on. All this on top of getting ready to drive to Florida by myself with 3 kids and staying for a week and a half. So needless to say we are BUSY BUSY BUSY...But this is just another beauty of homeschooling. The kids are learning all about our government, notaries, Ethiopian culture and a myriad of other things all while we are driving from here to there practicing what the Lord calls 'Pure and Undefiled Religion'.

In our van there is always a conversation going on about why we are doing this or that and how it all works together. The van is one of my kids favorite places to ask questions and I love learning with them!! Better run and get dinner going=)
Oh did I mention we also are planting our garden this week...we will just have to pick a different time of life to sleep=)

Camping Trip 2010

"Why don't we do this more often"?..was the question we kept asking ourselves. We had a GREAT time camping. You would think that living out where we do that camping wouldn't be as much fun as if you lived say in the city. But we had so much fun. We met up with some friends of ours that live in OK and camped for 4 days and 3 nights. The weather was beautiful for us the entire time except the morning we were packing up to go home.

The boys thought it was great to sleep outside with mom and dad. They ate all kinds of 'junk' food that mama never buys at home. Stephen still is teasing me about buying Nitrate Free Hot Dogs=) We went hiking both days. The first for 3 miles that one was HARD lots of climbing up and climbing back down. The second day we went for a 5 mile hike which was not so much climbing. We had just a blast over all. Plus we got some adult time in the evenings to sit around the camp fire and discuss important life issues and talk about God's Word. Good friends are such a blessing!!

God knows=)

So my walk to the mailbox today FINALLY produced our letter from USCIS!!!! Our appointment is for April 26th in Atlanta=) It's a small step..but a step none the less=)!!!!!!

Oh the waiting!!!

I have never in my life been so excited to get the mail as I have been lately. We mailed our I-600A with our finalized homestudy and now have to wait till we hear something back from them about a fingerprinting appointment. So everyday I go to the mailbox (which is 1/2 a mile from our house) with great anticipation of getting a letter from USCIS!!! But thus far I leave the mailbox each time bummed. From all the research that I have done on how long it takes to get your final approval from USCIS it has varied from 1 to 3 months. I'm hoping ours is more on the 1 month side=)!! Once we get our fingerprinting appointment we will go to BCS and get our dossier packet and start working on that. At least then I will have something to channel all of this excitement into. But for now we just wait....

Adoption is a lot like a pregnancy...a REALLY long one. I always enjoy going to the Drs. to check on the baby and feel like each appointment gets me one step closer to holding my baby in my arms. Just like with this letter I'm waiting for, feels like one step closer to being united with our daughter!!
God continues to be so faithful to us in this journey !! I think sometimes we miss what the Lord would have for us because of fear and the unknown. He is a mighty God and we are so blessed to be a part of what He is doing in this world through adoption!!

Spring time in Tennessee is my favorite time of the year!! We got our new batch of chicks that are now 5 weeks old. The boys are having a good time in their new fort that stephen built them. We are getting ready to string up the zip line on a new part of the farm. Our onions are in the ground and the rest of our seeds are on their way. This years garden will be much the same as last years but this year I am planning to be in it much more since I won't be 9 months pregnant=) We are still in the market for a calf or two and we are thinking of getting a puppy when we come back from our trip to Florida. Samson needs a friend=)

We are leaving this weekend to go camping with some of our best friends. We are meeting halfway and camping in western Tennessee. Spring time in Tennessee is so beautiful and I can't wait to get out there and enjoy it=)
I just know that our letter is going to come while we are gone!!!