I600A Approved

We found out yesterday that our I600A was approved on Monday by USCIS.  Woohoo!!  The I600A approves Nate and I to adopt, but we are now waiting on the I600.  That will approve James to be able to immigrate to the US and be adopted here.  We are sooooo close!!!!!!

The I600 could be approved today or in two weeks or in two months.  I have no idea!!!!  But we are thankful that things are moving forward!

Just Waiting

We are in that waiting stage again.  There is absolutely nothing for me to do, but sit back and wait for others to do stuff!

We received notification that USCIS received our I600A (which is our application to be approved to bring an orphan to the US.) It is not approved yet, but they have received it and have begun processing it.  Now that we have that notification, I was able to contact Klobuchar's office so they can begin to attempt to expedite the procedure.

I also received word from Klobuchar's office that we can submit our I600 now as well.  The I600 is the application for James to be allowed to be adopted into the United States.  Originally, I was thinking that we needed to have our I600A approved before we submitted our I600, but a representative from Klobuchar's office checked into that for us and was told that we can submit the I600 now before our I600A is apporved.

So I sent off our I600 along with all the supporting documentation to the USCIS office today and hoped that I had filled it out and understood it all correctly!!

I haven't heard much on the Liberian side of things since they received our home study, so I also sent off an email to them as well to get an update on the process.

Now all we can do is sit and pray and wait and pray!!!!  Hopefully Nate will be packing soon for another trip!!

Home Study Complete and Sent!!

Our home study is complete!  It is being sent to USCIS (immigration) today and I emailed a copy of it to Liberia.

I also contacted Senator Klobuchar's office to help us expedite the approval of our I-600A.  The I-600A can typically take about 3 months to be approved, but we are hoping for much quicker!!

For those who don't know, the I-600A is the document that will give Nate and I approval to bring an orphan into the country.  It does not specifically approve James to come in to the country.  That approval will be the next step after our adoption is complete in Liberia.

Please pray for a quick process through the courts in Liberia and a quick approval from USCIS!

Thank you!!

Who Is This Chubby Little Boy?

We received this picture today. Check out the cheeks on James!! I hardly  recognized him! The orphanage was able to get a high calorie feeding for him and it is obviously working well!

We were excited to receive this update  and thought that would be all we would hear from the orphanage today, but nope!

I received an email around 7:30 this evening from the orphanage director asking me to call her ASAP. There was also a missed call from her on my phone. My heart just dropped and I tried not to freak out as I anticipated the worst. 

It turns out that little James pulled his feeding tube out this afternoon!! He had to be brought to the hospital and had it reinserted. It all went well, though, and he is back in the orphanage tonight. Hopefully he learned his lesson and won't do that again :). 

Background Check Complete! (posted by Nate)

Christina called me a few minutes ago to inform me that our background check is complete! What this means is that the homestudy is also essentially complete. All that is needed now are a few signatures from staff at the homestudy organization. This is a huge answer to prayer, as this background check had the realistic potential of taking a couple months.

Big pat on the back to Christina, for the great work she did getting all this submitted. All I had to do was show up at the sheriff's office and get my fingerprints taken!

Also, I doubt Peter from Senator Julianne Ortman's office is reading this, but thank you (to Peter) for contacting the Department of Health, yesterday, to request that the background check be expedited.

Moving forward: The estimate, now, is that the homestudy will be ready to be sent off to immigration and Acres of Hope some time next week.

God continues to move the process for James along. Thank you God!

Home study ALMOST done!

Our home study is completely typed up and ready to go once our background checks come back.  Our applications for checks were submitted 7 days ago.  These can take up to 8 weeks, but our agency received notification that ours was put into processing today, so we are hoping that is a good sign that it will go quickly!!

I wanted to give a quick update on our fundraising.  As of today we have received $4200 towards Samuel and James.  We are blown away by this blessing.  We could not do this if it were not for your generous hearts.  During our home study, our social worker asked us about our support system and whether or not those around us approve of our decision to adopt.  LOL!!  That was an easy question to answer!!

I received word from the orphanage today that James is doing well and has gained about a pound in the last month!  Praise God for that!!  We are hoping to get a few new pictures of him in the next couple of days.

I'm just so happy that things are moving in the right direction!

Plan B (or C or D or E... I don't know, I've lost track :)

Basically, nothing has gone the way we thought it was going to go since last April when we first heard about Samuel. We have been through many ups and downs and uncertainties. We have definitely learned that we are NOT in control.

 So, new plan. This time we go into it with the full realization that it may not work out the way we hope, but that doesn't mean that we still don't hope!! We must continue to hope and pray that this will work out, all for the glory of God. This is big picture stuff that we are living in right now and we can't get bogged down in the fact that the details are not going our way.  We are going to move ahead with adopting James now. We had hoped to adopt him at some point, but the goal initially was just to get him to the US so he could obtain medical care. We have decided not to pursue further attempts with immigration attorneys to possibly get him home more quickly. There are just so many uncertainties there and we don't want to waste any time, money or energy on something that we feel will likely not be successful.

 So we have had a busy week getting everything in order. I have been working with a wonderful home study agency, who has been very helpful and has been moving very quickly on our behalf. We already had the social worker in our house this week to start with the homestudy. With their help, the homestudy should hopefully go quickly.

The one hold up will be our background check. We just had a background check done in December when we were licensed as foster parents, but we still need to complete a new one. These backgroud checks will sometimes take up to a month to get results back. Our homestudy will not be complete until our background check is in. Please pray for a quick background check and that we will be able to somehow expedite this portion of the process. Once the homestudy is complete, then we apply with USCIS (immigration) for a preapproval for an orphan visa.

 At the same time that we are waiting for immigration approval, our homestudy will go to the Liberian courts to process our adoption. This process could normally take up to three months, but we are very hopeful that our immigration process may be able to be shortened due to James' medical needs.

 Once we have USCIS approval and once the Liberian courts have completed our adoption then Nate will travel to Liberia (again) and we will have a US Embassy appointment (again)in Liberia to obtain an orphan immigrant visa.

 So, that's OUR plan! Now let's all watch and see what actually happens :) Thank you all for your love and support!!!