I can't believe how fast the first month of 2007 has gone. Here we are at the end of January already! The good news is that MUCH has been accomplished this month in regard to our adoption journey. By the end of December, the bears that I have been making/selling raised enough money to pay for the Home Study. On January 18th and 24th we had a social worker at our house conducting interviews with each of us individually and then Brian and I as a couple. Sally (the social worker) inspected our home and to make a very long story short...we "passed". I guess that means we aren't a "totally" dysfunctional family! She will write up the formal home study document and send it to our adoption agency by February 2nd. They will then review it and suggest any necessary changes and then it gets certified, notified and apostilled and translated into Chinese. Now that the home study is complete we are able to apply for a grant from "Shaohannah's Hope" which is an organization that provides financial assistance to adopting families. It was founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth after they adopted their first daughter, Shaohannah, from China. http://www.shaohannahshope.org/
We will be sending the C.I.S. (Citizenship and Immigration Services) our I-600A form tomorrow, which is the "Application for Advancing Processing of Orphan Petition." This will be the first contact we have with this government agency and involves more fingerprints, documentation of our health benefits, birth and marriage certificates, copy of tax return, and of course, another nice chunk of change.
The next step is to start our dossier. We have been assigned a "family coordinator" at Ame
rica World Adoptions and she will be our guide through this next step which I hear can be quite challenging. I'll let you know more about that as we proceed.
We have seen God moving mightily in our midst on behalf of His little hidden treasure in China. Some days my faith is more sure than others but I'm trying to live in the knowledge that God is totally aware of our circumstances and though they change like the wind, His love and promises never change! That is my sweet comfort when those days of doubt and confusion hit me like a tsunami.
The boys are doing very well. Caleb and Benjamin went with Daddy to San Francisco this weekend to see the Supercross race. I opted out this year and spen
t some sweet time with Silas. We went to Auntie Tina's for a wonderful dinner with Dad and Mom. Sophia is walking now and she is so adorable toddling along in those cute little Stride Rites! Yummy! Silas had a great time with his cousin and the boys had fun seeing their favorite riders up close and personal! Speaking of dirt bikes, we're praying that Brian's will sell and soon! http://www.craigslist.com/
Onward we go with determination and God's unfailing GRACE and PROMISE in our hearts. Our RED THREAD to our daughter is His love!
We will be sending the C.I.S. (Citizenship and Immigration Services) our I-600A form tomorrow, which is the "Application for Advancing Processing of Orphan Petition." This will be the first contact we have with this government agency and involves more fingerprints, documentation of our health benefits, birth and marriage certificates, copy of tax return, and of course, another nice chunk of change.
The next step is to start our dossier. We have been assigned a "family coordinator" at Ame
rica World Adoptions and she will be our guide through this next step which I hear can be quite challenging. I'll let you know more about that as we proceed.We have seen God moving mightily in our midst on behalf of His little hidden treasure in China. Some days my faith is more sure than others but I'm trying to live in the knowledge that God is totally aware of our circumstances and though they change like the wind, His love and promises never change! That is my sweet comfort when those days of doubt and confusion hit me like a tsunami.
The boys are doing very well. Caleb and Benjamin went with Daddy to San Francisco this weekend to see the Supercross race. I opted out this year and spen
t some sweet time with Silas. We went to Auntie Tina's for a wonderful dinner with Dad and Mom. Sophia is walking now and she is so adorable toddling along in those cute little Stride Rites! Yummy! Silas had a great time with his cousin and the boys had fun seeing their favorite riders up close and personal! Speaking of dirt bikes, we're praying that Brian's will sell and soon! http://www.craigslist.com/Onward we go with determination and God's unfailing GRACE and PROMISE in our hearts. Our RED THREAD to our daughter is His love!
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