Progress!

So I've been holding my sick, feverish little girl and wiping up vomit all day:

but I think I'll take a few moments away from all that fun to post a quick update on our progress.  

side note:  Gracie saw the first picture a moment ago and objected.   She said, "I not sad.  I happy!"  So she convinced me to take another picture to show you that despite this yucky flu-thing that hit her this morning, despite the fact that nothing she eats stays down longer than ten minutes, and despite the fact that she is a steamy 101.9 degrees currently, she is "happy!"  What a little sunshine!

First, thank you so very much to the Gideon-fan who contributed to our FSP adoption account!  If you would like your name on one (or more) of Gideon's puzzle pieces, please let me know.  We are so grateful for each and every contribution.  


Also, we have two new puzzle pieces to add to our puzzle today!  Thank you, Chris and Nancy, for loving our little boy and being a part of his rescue plan!

And that news leads to this:  today we were finally able to send in our passport applications!  This has been really stressing me out, because we need those passports before we can do some of our paperwork, and we've been worried that our process could get held up if we don't get those passports soon.  We don't need them quite yet, but soon.  And between the homestudy fees, adoption education training fees, fingerprinting fees, our Durango needing a couple hundred dollars worth of work last week, medical bills that just keep coming, and all these people around here that keep wanting to eat (several times a day, if you can believe it!) we just hadn't quite come up with the $245 for passports.  


I tell you all of this to let you know that the donations we have been receiving are so very appreciated, and that we finally have passports on the way!  The very sweet lady at the post office who helped us with that today said that it is generally taking about four weeks right now.  Oh, I hope she is right, because I've heard it can be as long as ten weeks!  Gulp.  That could be a delay that Gideon just can't afford right now, so please pray with us that the passports will be in our mailbox this time next month!  

In the very near future we are going to be sending in our application for USCIS approval.  That is the next big step of our process, once the homestudy is complete.  The problem is, that application has to be accompanied by a check for $830.  And so far we don't exactly know where that money is going to come from.  We are praying that God will provide the funds for that application so that there will not be any unnecessary delays for Gideon.  


And for those of you who read a lot of adoption blogs, you may be familiar with the following video, but if you have not seen this, or have not seen it lately, please take a few minutes and watch.  It explains better than we ever could why we are doing what we are doing: