WE HAVE THE GOLDEN TICKET..... now what??? and THEY ARE FINISHED WITH OUR BACK GROUNDCHECKS.

First and foremost I want to tell you all I called the FBI today and found out our FBI back groundchecks are finished!!!! They should be mailed out to us no later than the 12th of July. I called back to see if there was anyway we could rush the delivery since that is all we are waiting for to complete our dossier but they can't so we wait :) 

There is no telling what our mail man thinks about us we are always getting mail from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI haha

I was so excited about getting our USCIS approval I didn't really take time to explain what happens next so here goes...

The date of our USCIS approval has to be on the documents that our adoption agency has to create. That is why we couldn't really go any further in the process until we got this approval. So now that we have it I will take our dossier (without our FBI back groundchecks) to get appostilled then I will mail that off to our agency so that she can start working on the documents she has to create. It will take her a few weeks to finish everything she has to do and she also goes on vacation at the end of this month so that is why we are trying to hurry up and get our paperwork to our agency. We still need to raise 2000 dollars for our dossier prep fees. We will be having a garage sale on Saturday and we hope to raise a lot of money there but if you would like to donate please use the chipin on the side of our blog. All the money raised using the chipin will go directly to Baby A's adoption fund. Thank you so much to everyone who has already given!

Once we send her our FBI background checks and she finishes up with the documents she has to create then she will mail our dossier off to Eastern Europe.

Once it gets to the agency's office in Eastern Europe then they will translate it into English submit it then we wait for our travel date.

We will travel for the first time hopefully in September and commit to Baby A's adoption in Eastern Europe. We will get to meet him and spend some time with him that trip and I can't wait!

Then we come home for anywhere from 4 to 16 weeks and  wait for a court date. Once we get a court date we will fly back to Eastern Europe and officially adopt Baby A. There is a 10 day waiting period after the court hearing and we wont get to take Baby A until after those 10 days are over. After we get him then we get his birth certificate, visa and medical evaluations after that we will be headed home.

I know I have said most of that before but it took me forever before I realized exactly how this process was going to go so I like to keep putting it on here just in cause you all forget what's next.

This next picture is not for the faint at heart...

Kenya had asked me to show her the adoption papers and I said "okay give me just a minute." Well I totally forgot she had asked me that so later on that day I came to get something out of the adoption papers and I screamed and the sight of a BIG HUGE spider. Jason and Kenya DIED laughing because they had placed Kenya's spider ring in the paperwork to scare me. They were laughing so hard I couldn't help but laugh. I have tried several times to get them back but it still hasn't worked... Soon I will get them :)

On a side note I didn't realize our other chipin was expiring so it did and now I can't change the date on it. We raised 500 dollars using that chipin!!! I added that amount to the total raised on the side of the blog. Thank you so much to everyone who has given!!!

I hope you all have a great week! 

WE HAVE THE GOLDEN TICKET!!!

WE JUST GOT OUR USCIS APPROVAL IN THE MAIL!!!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHH I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! 

WE HAVE A USCIS OFFICER!!!!!

This is going to be short because I am too excited to stand here and type I must keep running around my house and yelling every 5 seconds because I am so excited! We have a USCIS officer!!!! This is HUGE she said we should have approval in 7 to 10 business days!!!!! Ahhhhh this means we should have our USCIS approval by July 8th (please be praying we also get our FBI background check soon) after we get it we will take our dossier to get aposilled then mail it off to our agency our agency has to do something that takes about a month then they mail it to Eastern Europe and it will take about a month to get translated then we should get our invitation to travel not long after that. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! We could be traveling for the first time in September I can't believe it! I can't wait to hold Baby A in my arms for the first time!!!! 

Please keep spreading the word about Baby A's adoption we still need at least $2000 in our chip in to be able to pay for the dossier prep. fees. This money has to be in our chip in and not our Reece's Rainbow account so that we can send our agency a check as soon as we mail off our dossier (hopefully by July 13th!!!!!). 

Thank you all for your prayers and financial support. We are so blessed! 

Please keep praying for the process to move along quickly and for God's will to be done! To God be the glory alone!

wait, wait, wait

I am beyond excited to tell you guys that our dossier is ready to be notarized. I felt like this day would never come and I can tell you it is such a relief to know all we now have to do it wait, wait, wait. Well I say it's a relief it's a relief not felling like there is always something to do. Since February I have been going non stop working as hard and as fast as I could to get everything ready and now we wait. I called USCIS today and they are just now working one April's applications, we sent ours in the middle of May so now we wait. I also called the FBI and our application was entered into their system on May 25 and she said it would take 6 weeks to get our background checks back from that date booo. I am really hoping and praying things mover a little faster but I can rest knowing God is sovereign over all things including the timing of all the paperwork After we get our golden ticket (USCIS clearance) and our FBI background checks back we will take our dossier to get appostilled then off it goes to our agency. I fell like we are so close but so far away at the same time.

We are planning a super huge garage sale to raise money for the dossier prep fees and I'm sure we will do a few other fundraisers too. We will get the money from Reece's Rainbow after we travel for the first time and officially commit to his adoption in Eastern Europe. We will have to pay our agency $3,500 once we send them our dossier so the money raised for this needs to go in our chip in not our Reece's Rainbow account (in case anyone wanted to donate). Even though raising $3,500 in just a few short weeks seems impossible I am just trusting God and trying not to stress.

I will let y'all know as soon as we have more updates.

USCIS appointment & FBI

Jason and I had our biometrics or what is commonly called fingerprints taken today at the USCIS office and everything went GREAT. We were in and out of there in about ten minutes. We walked in handed them our appointment letters they gave us an application to fill out then we waited all of 5 minutes to go back and have our fingerprints taken. It was super cool how they did it no black ink for these guys they put our fingers on this little piece of glass that is somehow connected to a scanner and the computer and one by one our fingerprints were scanned in the computer. Then they handed us a comment card to rate their services and we were out the door. It was kinda funny they didn't really give us much of a choice on filling it out, they just handed it to us and said go sit over there and fill this out then you are free to leave. That was it after that we left and were both kinda in shock at how easy it was.

I called the USCIS office today to see if we had been appointed and officer and I was so bummed out to hear we have not been assigned an officer yet. Will you please join me in praying they will assign us an officer soon. I know the person I want to be our officer but we can't request who we want so if you could also be praying if it is the Lord's will that we will get the officer I am thinking of :)

The other thing is our FBI background checks are not even in the FBI's system yet so if you could also be praying that this would go quickly I would appreciate it!

We are almost done with everything for our dossier which I am so excited about so once that's done we will just be waiting on USCIS and the FBI. Kinda cool to say you are waiting on the FBI ha

Those are the only updates I have and I will keep you posted once more come up.

Have a great day!

Back on track.

We are still not finished getting everything ready for the dossier but we are getting much closer. We only have a few things left to do. Then we wait and wait and wait for USCIS approval.

 Trying to get the last few papers filled out for the dossier.

I started out with one folder for our paperwork but quickly realized I needed something MUCH bigger. There are well over 200 papers in this file holder all for the adoption :)

My sweet hubby filling out paperwork. I made him use my girly pen :)

Even though our day did not go as planned last week it has not made me want to stop but move faster. It is so strange to me that I can miss someone that I have never met but I miss Baby A so much and I often dream of going to visit him. Even though the adoption process is hard at times it is so worth it. The best way I can describe it is like this... If someone took your child across the world and told you you had to do X,Y and Z to get your child back you would do everything they said and more to get to bring your child back home. It wouldn't seem like a burden to fill out paperwork but a joy knowing you would soon get to see your child. It is my joy to do above and beyond what is required to get to bring Baby A home.

I hope you will all continue to lift us up in prayer, we still have a long way to go but he is so so worth it.

Today did not go as planned.

This picture of Kenya pretty much sums up how I felt today.


I was sooooo excited when I opened the mail today and found out we have received our appointment date and time for our USCIS fingerprints. We will be going in a week and a half and I can't wait. I feel like we are getting so much closer but I know we are still so far away.

Our physicals were scheduled for next month but since we are getting our fingerprints done so soon I wanted to bump them up. I spent what seemed like hours on the phone today trying to get our appotiments moved up with no luck. Finally I called a doctors office and they were able to get us in TODAY! I was so excited!

Once Jason got home from work we loaded up the kids and took them to my Mom's she said they could stay the night which is always a nice treat for all of us :) Kenya was so excited to be staying the night at Momo's.

Before we did anything we had to pick up our car at the shop so we did that then headed to our local police station to get our police clearances for our dossier. I have been to the police station before (to get clearances for our home study) and I was convinced  I knew where it was at but after driving around in circles for about 15 minutes we decided we had better head to our doctors appointments. We got there right on time and started filling out all the paperwork which of course took awhile. I grabbed one of their cards after I turned in our paperwork and stuck it in my wallet, it was at that time I realized my credit card was gone. I called the auto shop that we had taken the car to and of course I had left it there. We canceled the card and ordered a new one because I wouldn't be able to go pick it up today. Jason asked me what the name of the office was and I had no clue so I pulled out the card and realized  our doctor was a D.O. not a MD. We had to see a MD for our dossier physicals. I was so embarrassed but I went up and told them what happened and they were so sweet but still my dream of getting it done today was crushed.

We left there and headed home to drop off our other car (we were in two cars since we picked up one from the shop). Then we loaded back up and headed back to the police station it was so easy to find and we had just passed it the first time. They asked who they needed to make it out to and I had no clue. I called our adoption agency but they were already closed so I just guessed and I will find out tomorrow if I was right or not after I talk to our agency. The lady who did them for us was SUPER nice in fact she had been reading Patrice's blog for over two years and she knew who we were. We talked for a little while then headed home.

Jason and I got home and we couldn't believe how many things went wrong today. We were just thankful nothing went wrong with dropping the kids off at my Mom's. Once the movie was over my Mom called to say Kenya wasn't feeling well and she wanted to come home so I went and got the kids. I am telling you NOTHING went right today but I am comforted knowing that the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps! Proverbs 16:9 My day might not have gone as I planned it but none of this surprised the Lord so I can rest in His sovereignty!