Paperwork and Progress!

This is pretty much where every important adoption document has been kept for a little over a year now. Honestly, I could probably use a file slightly larger, but I have thinned it out a little. Really, EVERY SINGLE PIECE of paper in this file is absolutely necessary for an international adoption from a Hague Country! Some files are also stored on Mariah's thumb drive. It is mind boggling to say the least!

This nice little collection of paperwork went out by FedEx on Monday evening to our agency. This is our immigration paperwork/application. All in all there were about 30 pages of documents that had to be signed then copied before FedEx'ing. 


I had a tough time with the I800 (immigration) form. One of the areas to fill in was the address of Mariah's orphanage. Sounds simple, right? WRONG!!!! The orphanage moved about three years ago. I had two addresses and no clue which was correct. Our agency was closed for Good Friday and I had no way to know for sure. I emailed our agency, my Yahoo! orphanage group, the company we used for Mariah's care package, another mom adopting from our orphanage, and my adoption mentor. My agency got back to me Friday night and said to leave the address blank. So, that is exactly what I did. I just hope it was fine. I think it is but time will tell.


We also mailed out our Visa applications with passports to a trusted courier in Chicago. The applications were 4 pages long and fairly simple. We are just praying that our brains were working properly at 2am trying to finish those up so we could get them out ASAP!

Here are a few pictures of some of the work we did on grant applications. Some applications required a large amount of work. We had to provide reference letters, statement of professions, W-2's, income tax returns, and usually personal statements of our adoption testimony and our faith. It was fun to connect with Jeremy in this way. After 16 years of marriage, I did learn a lot about him! His parents played a huge role in his salvation. I love hearing him retell that story! What a legacy was left for our children.

Here is just a little more of the work that went into financing this adoption. We only dreamed that we could do this debt-free. God worked in a very mighty way. We put hours into this part of the journey. A journey it has been!  I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the actual paperwork that was necessary. Take my word for it that we probably used an entire forest! 

This is the last of the mailings! We don't have final numbers yet, but we have seen first-hand how God provides. It required a very difficult leap of faith, but we did it!

As part of our celebration for our official approval from China, Jeremy's brother, Jeff, came down and helped celebrate. He wanted to treat everyone to dinner at Cheddar's. So, on Saturday we loaded everyone up in the van and had a yummy dinner! We had a great waitress and she took our picture. She was so excited when she found out what we were celebrating.






So......as it stands for now, I'm completely confused as to the next steps. Don't get me wrong, it is clearly spelled out on several websites. But when you start talking about receiving the pdf of our I800 approval from the NVC (National Visa Center--honestly, I'm surprised I know what that is) then our Article 5 drop-off and pick-up, we then wait for our TA (Travel Approval) but cannot schedule any flights until we receive our CA (Consulate Appointment), I'm a little confused. I think we plan on riding on the shirttails of those who are a step ahead of us. I'm glad I have met some of them online and they can help us!


Please keep us in prayer as we complete this journey. We are so close to the end. I cannot wait to wrap my arms around that sweet baby girl and smell her sweet "babyness" and give her kisses. I can almost smell the Johnson and Johnson baby wash and lotion I used on our other kids. Just to have those chubby little fingers on my neck is almost too much to process. But we are getting closer. Just to snuggle that sweet child in my arms makes me almost physically hurt to have her home. 


Galations 6:9     And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.