Moving on to our Dossier

It's been awhile since I last updated (I am not the worlds greatest blogger!!).  But we actually have some news to share so I thought now was a good time to share it.  Well, we are FINALLY officially finished with our home study!  We got the final draft in the mail on Wednesday.  The last month of it was a lot of loose ends coming together and reviewing it to make sure everything was OK.  That part took longer than we had hoped for.  However, as soon as we got it in the mail I was able to compile all of the needed documents to file our I-600A, which is a form needed for immigration approval.  Which will allow us to bring our daughter into the country when the time comes.  This takes about 90 days to process and while it is processing we have the fun task of compiling our dossier. 

The dossier is a very large compilation of documents, which includes our home study and other forms that the Ethiopian government will use, once we have been referred a child, to verify that we are an OK family to be adopting a child from Ethiopia.  Many things need to be notarized and the completion of a lot of the items is very particular!  My goal is to have everything gathered and ready to go in less than the 90 days so that we can be ready to submit everything to Ethiopia as soon as we get our immigration approval back. 

Please be praying for us during this time!  We have lots of prayer requests. 

• That our I-600A gets to USCIS quickly and without a hitch.  
• That our documents will be processed very quickly (before the 90 day time window)
• That Ryan and I will be able to quickly and easily compile all of the needed documents for our dossier before we receive our immigration approval back.  
• Please pray for our daughter!  Even though we don't know who she is yet, we need to remember to keep her in our prayers that God will be preparing her heart to join our family!  Please also pray for her protection and safety in Ethiopia.  
• Please pray for the financial aspect of the adoption!  We have had some larger payments due with the completion of our home study and another large one at the completion of our dossier that is always a bit nerve racking. 
• That more waiting children will become "paperwork ready" making them legal to adopt so that they can come home to be with their forever families!  We had a great couple of months in June and July for referrals, but it has slowed down significantly since the Ethiopian courts closed in August.   So prayer that things pick up again soon would be great!  

Thanks so much for everyone thinking about us!  We know it's a long road, but my impatient side is not a fan of the wait!  (I guess prayer for that would be good too) But I know that God's timing is perfect and I just need to remember that in the midst of my working and waiting!