We are so incredibly excited to announce that our dossier is completed and has been officially mailed off! We received our I-171H on Monday this week. It was so fast and surprising (less than 6 weeks from when we first mailed off our I-600A and less than two weeks from when we had our finger printing appointments) that we hadn't even quite finished all of our paperwork yet. So this week we got a bunch of things notarized (special thanks to our friend Cheryl!) and finished up the few things we had left to do. We got our last document in the mail yesterday and scanned our entire dossier for our records. Then we took a family trip to Fed-Ex to mail it off last night before our Halloween bash. It feels so good to be done with it. It has felt like the last few months we were back in school and we always felt like there was something that we needed to do for it. For now, there is nothing left for us to do but wait.
First our dossier will travel to Lifeline (our adoption agency) to get reviewed and checked over. If everything looks good it will be mailed to West Sands headquarters in Utah (they are our in-country agency), then it needs to go to the state of Utah, back to West Sands, then to Washington DC, then back to West Sands, and then finally it will make it's way to Ethiopia! I have been told it takes about 1 month from when you mail it out until it reaches Ethiopia! As usual we are praying that the time frame will be on the shorter end and everything will happen without a hitch!
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| Howell Family at Fed-Ex sending out our completed dossier |
Sadly it sounds like the wait time right now will be about 18 months to 2 years. Again, we are praying that it is shorter than that! But we also know that this waiting period can be used for such good. We can keep reading about adoption and learning more about what to expect and how to parent an adopted child. We can keep strengthening our marriage and our parenting abilities. We can also shower our boys with tons of love and attention. We can also continue to fund raise and save money for our referral fee and our trips to Ethiopia! As hard as it is to have to wait, I know that so many good things can come from waiting. And that God often calls us to wait patiently for Him.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:24
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord". Psalm 27:14
"For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed" Romans 8:19
"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently" Romans 8:25
These are a few verses I found on waiting. I am not the most patient person in the world and waiting is not easy for me. I know that in a few months I will need to remind myself of these verses and of the positive feeling I have about waiting right now...I don't foresee it lasting! If you have any other verses or quotes about waiting, feel free to share it! I will probably need it.
