Where have we been?!

Well... we have been waiting.  We obviously need to continue to learn patience, because that is what has been before us for the past 6 weeks.  We waited until the first week of April for our finalized home study.  We were ecstatic to be ahead of our planned schedule to send in our I-600A application.  Our excitement faded when we realized that our Indiana State Police background checks had switched our birthdays (putting my birthday with his name and his name with my birthday).  This meant they did background checks on nonexistent people.  This in turn led our finalized home study paperwork to be invalid.  No matter where the mistake was made, we were back in the same place - waiting.


Our second finalized home study arrived Friday the 20th only hours before we left for a grand vacation planned by my husband and some great friends.  The trip was to celebrate many of our birthdays, since we would be changing decades this year.  It also served as a time for growth in our marriages.  We did a marriage book study, took time to relax and enjoy God's creation in the Caribbean!

I also had time to read an adoption book called Wait No More by Kelly and John Rosati. Boy, was it challenging!  I literally couldn't put it down.  I read the entire book on our flight down to Miami.  It is an amazing "story of hope amid challenges, beauty from ashes, and faith that sustains.  It's a beautiful picture of what family truly means." (from off of the back of the book).  These two believers followed God's calling to love and rescue children despite the cost.  I was moved to tears many times.  This family's amazing adoption journey helped me more clearly see God's heart for the broken and recognize that God has an extraordinary plan even if it is not easy. 


We did officially send our I-600A application today.  So again, we wait.  Within the next 12 weeks we will receive a fingerprinting appointment and hopefully our 171-H Form, the “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition” form.  We only have this approval, along with a few photo papers, left to complete our Dossier.  The end of this phase in the paperwork is vaguely in site.