Out Of Our Hands

Our dossier is complete.  It has been notarized.  Checked for accuracy.  Cried over.  Redone.  Double checked.  Apostilled.  Triple checked. Prayed over.  Boxed up.  Weighed.  Addressed.  And shipped to Eastern Europe.  Goodbye dossier!  It is out of our hands!    

Most of you reading this blog know exactly what I'm talking about, because you've been there!  For those of you not so painfully familiar with the international adoption journey, the dossier is a great big old stack of documents detailing every single aspect of our lives:  financial, medical, professional, personal, etc.  There are multiple background checks.  There are in-depth summaries of our entire lives.  There are letters of petition, letters of obligation, letters for name declarations, letters for interpol clearance, letter of home ownership, letter of employment, letters about everything!  There are multiple copies of multiple personal documents for both Derek and I.  Why do they need four copies of each of our passports?  Each notarized and apostilled, at $15 per document?  Who knows.  We do it because it's on the list.  And then there are copies of the licenses for all the professionals who contributed documents to the dossier.  Our doctor's medical license.  Our social worker's license.  The agency's license.  I'm telling you, this dossier is a triumph!  A beautiful mountain of completed paperwork!  It represents hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of document requests, apostilling, translation, and shipping fees.  It represents months worth of phone calls, appointments, begging, pleading, letter writing, typing, printing, sitting in the notary's office at the bank, and waiting.  Lots of waiting.

And it is finally out of our hands.

Whew!  I feel lighter.

So now we wait some more.  It took so much longer than we had hoped it would.  There were so many delays.  A month here.  A week there.  A few days here.  It all added up.  But I know that we personally did not waste a single day.  From the day we committed to adopting Gideon, not a single day has been squandered on our part.  If there was something to be done, we have done it.  If there was somebody to call and pester and nag politely remind and make inquiries, I have called.  These delays have all been due to waiting on other people.  It has been SO FRUSTRATING, but we have trusted God every step of the way, prayed through every delay, and never wasted an opportunity to move things forward.  If it meant dropping everything to drive for hours to pick up a document the day it was completed, we have done it.  If it meant Derek taking a day off work that we can scarcely afford, we have done it.  We have done what we can.  

And now we are really trying to trust the Lord.  Because honestly, we may be too late.  The fact that this dossier was not sent two or three weeks ago could mean months more waiting for our children.  There are deadlines looming in the country we are adopting from, and it looks as though we may have just missed those deadlines.  But we are trusting God.  His plan is to give these boys a future and a hope.  He has a good plan for them!  He has not forgotten them.  And so we are trusting.  

Nobody seems to know for sure whether these deadlines are really going to happen or not.  Nobody seems to know how long the shutdown may last, if it is actually implemented.  Nobody seems to know when we may be invited to travel.  Nobody seems to know if our boys are okay.  So much is uncertain right now.  But God knows.  

Please pray for our process, and for the processes of so many other families currently in a similar situation as ours.  So many families waiting.  So many children waiting.  Please pray for miracles and good news from our children's country!     

And let me leave with you some sweet pictures from the pumpkin patch:

Walking In

This morning we woke up at 4 am, buckled half-sleeping kiddos into carseats, and set out for Seattle!  By 7 am, we were standing, bright-eyed and paperwork-in-hand, in front of the USCIS office, ready to beg and plead, if necessary, to get our fingerprints taken.  You see, our appointment is not until October 24th.  We just got the appointment letter in the mail yesterday.  So we decided to walk in early and hope and pray that they would agree to take our fingerprints early.  We learned a few things today, by the way:


1.  There is a $7 parking fee to get into the building.  We are from a small town.  Pay to park?  What's that?  Isaac was completely puzzled at how it could COST MONEY to park a car!  He went on and on about it all day.  "What about that car?  Do they have to pay to park there?  How about that one?!?"  Oy.  


2.  We got to walk through a metal detector.  If you think the "Pay to Park" topic captivated my Isaac, you should have heard him go on and on about weapons in the building!  "But what if someone hid a knife inside their boots?  And then said it was just the rivets on his boots making the wand beep?  But what if someone threw a knife over the metal detector?  But what if someone has metal fillings in his teeth?  But what if . . . "  Yeah. And then the whole "But why would someone bring a knife into this building?  What would they do with it?  Cub Scouts have pocket knives.  Dad, why did you have to leave your pocket knife in the car?"  etc.  etc.  etc . . . . Isaac is so innocent.  He could not think of a reason why a knife would not be allowed.  


3.  They don't actually open the fingerprinting window until 8 a.m.  In case you are planning on walking in to the Seattle office, you might as well get an extra hour of sleep.  Being there at 7 did us no good.  


4.  Nobody smiles at the USCIS office.  It is a VERY SERIOUS place!  


5.  We were the minority in the building, being so very white and English-speaking.


6.  Other people's kids are a lot better at being quiet and sitting still for two hours than mine!  


7.  They may tell you that chances are slim of your fingerprints being processed if you walk in early.  They may point to the sign that says, "If you are here on a day other than your scheduled appointment day, please reschedule your appointment."  They may frown and shake their heads.  They may listen to your impassioned plea with a blank look of official purpose on their faces and then politely direct you to the waiting area.  They may make you wait and wait, wondering, with your stomach tied up in knots . . .


8.  They take pity on people who walk in and beg to be fingerprinted!  After about an hour, they managed to squeeze us in, and then we were in and out in about ten minutes!  


Success!  


We love those serious, official people at our USCIS office!  


When we got back outside, Josiah ran outside, arms spread wide, and yelled, "Outside!"  He was so delighted to get out of that clean, quiet, serious building!  Yeah, he's a country boy.  Not so big on being cooped up indoors!  He seemed surprised that it was still light outside.  He asked, "Is it almost bedtime?"  It was not quite 10 a.m.  


Then, to make the day not quite so boring for our sweet kids, we decided to ride a ferry boat over to Bremerton and back!  This was their first time on a ferry boat, and they were so excited!  They explored every inch of that boat!  

Cool, breezy sea air, seagulls swooping, beautiful scenery, the gentle lap of waves, giggling skipping kids stomping in puddles on the ferry deck, and one giant step closer to getting two sweet brothers home . . .

What's not to love?

Thank you, Congressman Norm Dicks!

I have never before contacted a Congressman.  I've never had any need to until now.  Well, I contacted our Congressman, Norm Dicks, just days ago and asked him if he could help us to convince the USCIS to expedite the processing of our paperwork.  I heard back from him a couple of days ago and he said it would be helpful to get more information.  So I told him everything that he asked for.  Well, this morning I received the BEST phone call!  A VERY NICE officer at the USCIS called to tell me that our fingerprint appointment letter is IN THE MAIL!  She said that our very wonderful Congressman's contact caused them to move our file to the top of the stack!  I am just SO HAPPY right now!  Finally it feels like something is going right!  

PLEASE PRAY that when we walk in next week, they will agree to process our fingerprints that day!  Our appointment is October 24th, and we really are hoping to get this done much sooner than that.  For those of you not familiar with the adoption world, it is very common to walk in early, and most families have success getting fingerprinted the day they walk in.  Most, but NOT ALL.  Sometimes families are turned away and told to come back on their appointment date.  So we would really appreciate extra prayers about this. 


We have been feeling some major stress about making the deadline, and suddenly today I feel like the sun has popped out from behind the clouds!  I was really not expecting the Congressman to actually help, and I am so grateful to him for taking the time to make this happen for our boys!  


So here's my to-do list for today:
Praise the Lord!
Do a happy dance!
Homeschool with my kids
Start a pot of soup
Bake some bread
Make some yogurt
Print out more dossier documents
Meet Derek at the bank to have the documents notarized
Fax the documents to our state-side helper for approval
Get everything ready for Isaac's birthday party (October 2nd my boy turns nine!)
Set up for tomorrow's garage sale


I think that ought to keep me busy until about midnight!  (We have a huge heap of stuff to organize on a few very small tables for the garage sale . . . not sure where I'm going to put all that stuff!)  But nothing can ruin my good mood today!  We are going to get our boys VERY SOON!  Woo hoo!

Our Farm in Fall

I'm putting together board book photobooks to take with us to Eastern Europe.  We'll read the books to our new kiddos to show them what their new life will be like!  We may share the photobooks with the judge, the institution director, or anybody else who wants to see them, as well.  I'm trying to pick which pictures to use in the photobooks!