We are applying to every adoption grant we can find. Please pray this week for favor, as one of our applications is in review and we will be notified of their decision within 12 business days.
We also have submitted three other applications that will be reviewed in the next month. We would be grateful for your continued prayers about that.
And I have about 8 other applications to get completed and mailed out.
We know that Hope is our daughter and have faith that God will work out the details of when and how we bring her home.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Wait Isn't Any Easier This Time...And May Even Be Longer!
On April 27 we received pre-approval from China to adopt our sweet Hope.
We submitted our application to USCIS for approval on May 16 and are still waiting to receive our approval. Sadly, they are running several weeks/months longer right now than when we applied during Joy's adoption. It took 4 1/2 weeks last fall. Next week will be 2 months that we have been waiting for our current approval, and they tell us that it could take as long as 90 days. SERIOUSLY?! WHY?!! It is currently just sitting in a pile of other applications and has been sitting there for nearly two months.
China is now allowing families to reuse their dossier when they are adopting again within 12 months. So we do not have to do so much paperchasing, notarizing, state certifying, and consulate authenticating this time around. We only have to redo three documents: home study (done), petition letter (done), and USCIS approval (still waiting).
As soon as we receive this approval, we will travel to Columbus to have all three documents certified by the Secretary of State. Then we will overnight them to the Chinese Embassy to be authenticated. They should be back in our hands within a week. We put these with photocopies of all our other dossier documents to create our new dossier. We then ship them to our agency who will send them to China.
Once China receives our new dossier, it will go in THEIR pile and wait for its turn to be reviewed. Finally, they will issue our logged-in date (LID).
Then the NEXT wait begins...for China to send us our Letter of Acceptance. We have heard that wait is now taking longer, too, especially for families reusing their dossier. Go figure!
I am telling myself that it is all in God's time. But it is hard waiting when your baby is on the other side of the ocean in an orphanage.
We submitted our application to USCIS for approval on May 16 and are still waiting to receive our approval. Sadly, they are running several weeks/months longer right now than when we applied during Joy's adoption. It took 4 1/2 weeks last fall. Next week will be 2 months that we have been waiting for our current approval, and they tell us that it could take as long as 90 days. SERIOUSLY?! WHY?!! It is currently just sitting in a pile of other applications and has been sitting there for nearly two months.
China is now allowing families to reuse their dossier when they are adopting again within 12 months. So we do not have to do so much paperchasing, notarizing, state certifying, and consulate authenticating this time around. We only have to redo three documents: home study (done), petition letter (done), and USCIS approval (still waiting).
As soon as we receive this approval, we will travel to Columbus to have all three documents certified by the Secretary of State. Then we will overnight them to the Chinese Embassy to be authenticated. They should be back in our hands within a week. We put these with photocopies of all our other dossier documents to create our new dossier. We then ship them to our agency who will send them to China.
Once China receives our new dossier, it will go in THEIR pile and wait for its turn to be reviewed. Finally, they will issue our logged-in date (LID).
Then the NEXT wait begins...for China to send us our Letter of Acceptance. We have heard that wait is now taking longer, too, especially for families reusing their dossier. Go figure!
I am telling myself that it is all in God's time. But it is hard waiting when your baby is on the other side of the ocean in an orphanage.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
And Then Came Hope
Yes, it is true.
We are going back to China "this soon".
While we were still awaiting our final approval to travel for Joy, a 4-year-old little girl was being interwined into our hearts. We weren't expecting it. We tried to say no. The idea seemed outrageous! Two trips to China in less than a year?! Yet we could not let go of this little one. We had no peace until the day we said, "Yes! She is ours!"
God can be relentless that way. We are grateful He did not give up on us and that we finally caught up with Him. Our waiting daughter, Hope, will arrive home late this fall or early winter; and we are T H R I L L E D to be adding a new daughter to our family!
We are going back to China "this soon".
While we were still awaiting our final approval to travel for Joy, a 4-year-old little girl was being interwined into our hearts. We weren't expecting it. We tried to say no. The idea seemed outrageous! Two trips to China in less than a year?! Yet we could not let go of this little one. We had no peace until the day we said, "Yes! She is ours!"
God can be relentless that way. We are grateful He did not give up on us and that we finally caught up with Him. Our waiting daughter, Hope, will arrive home late this fall or early winter; and we are T H R I L L E D to be adding a new daughter to our family!
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