Our Dossier Travels Overseas

Well, we have been on the waiting list now for 4 weeks (not like we are counting or anything, ha!). Thankfully it is going much faster than I expected however we are still trying to find things to entertain us in the meantime. Karl had to intervene and tell me to step away from the "cliff" because I was convinced we needed to buy the Kelty child carrier which was on sale. His brilliant comment was, "Um don't you think we should maybe wait to see how old the children are before we make such a purchase, it will look pretty silly if you are carrying around a six year old in a backpack carrier." Touche Karlos. So needless to say we are without a carrier. I am wanting to "nest" and it is really hard just waiting. I think the next thing I will start to do is make a picture book of our family to send to the children once we accept the referral.

Anyway, we had good and bad news this week with the adoption. Good news is our dossier passed its examination in Washington, D.C. and now it is on its way to Ethiopia. It should arrive there sometime this week. The sad news is our adoption coordinator for IAN has decided to put more time into her new teaching job so she has put our case to a new coordinator. This new coordinator has had extensive experience in adoptions and we are not in the least worried about her capabilities but it is hard for us to have built a relationship with LeeAnn and now have to transfer the relationship to Aneeta. I am sure it will all proceed smoothly. We will miss LeeAnn, but look forward to our new journey with Aneeta.

Again thank you all for your support throughout our adoption process (and life in general)! Till next time. . .

WAITING LIST!!!

This is a moment that we have been waiting for! We have been setting small goals because it is hard to look so far forward and not get anxious about bringing our kids home and getting our paperwork in so we can be on the waiting list has been our first big goal. We now have our spot on the list so things can proceed. We felt like we were spinning our wheels with the paperwork until this point. So now we wait for a referrel. . .

Biometrics. . . check!

So today was a good day! We left for Fargo yesterday and got to spend time with my cousin Tanie and her husband Brad. It was so much fun! Had a wonderful dinner at Doolittle's and then relaxed around a bonfire until almost midnight. Then we were up early to be at the federal building in Fargo to have our biometrics done. So to clarify things, remember last post when I was whining about waiting for our appointment? Well I had been calling (practically stalking) our case manager for the United States Immigration Services (USCIS) because I was worried they hadn't received our homestudy I sent ages (like middle of JUNE) ago. Well she finally called me back to say she had just scheduled our biometrics appointment and we had to be in Fargo on August 15th at 8:00 am for me and 9:00 am for Karl. I was so excited to get that phone call! That was more emotional for me than turning in our dossier (which by the way got the seal of approval from our agency!)!  So we went to Fargo and we were waiting outside the office this morning even before they were open. I went first and they just let Karl go right away since another lady showed up. Since they were able to process us together the entire process took 12 minutes. OK, I am going to sound kinda grumpy here, but I am not because I am so happy were are done with biometrics, but really we had to drive to Fargo to be fingerprinted (again!) for something that took 12 minutes. Plus we have been waiting since mid June to get an appointment for something that literally took 12 minutes. Phew, I am done and over it (sorry about the complaining!). Also the women who work at the USCIS in Fargo were so pleasant that it was a blissful 12 minutes. So the next step is we wait for the approval letter from USCIS (it comes from our caseworker in Texas) and as soon as we get it, we copy it (people going through the adoption process should laugh at that), and then we mail it because as soon as it reaches IAN in Colorado we are on the waiting list!!!!!!! That is a big deal!!!! Until then . . .

Progress

Well progress has been made in the adoption journey finally. My friend Kelli became a notary in mid-July and thanks to her hard work we whipped through all the stuff to be notarized in two days! I was also able to get the other necessary items certified and sent the dossier today! BUT unfortunately I still haven't been received the appointment for biometrics (we need to have fingerprints taken AGAIN but in Fargo this time). It has been over a month since we sent our completed form to USCIS and now we are just waiting. Our agency recommended we send our dossier although currently incomplete to get everything checked over so when we eventually get our letter from USCIS we can be put on the waiting list right away. So I have been calling USCIS and leaving messages just to check and be sure all of the documentation they need is in place so that we can get our appointment. Kinda frustrated by this step right now but we will get through it and there is a reason why this is happening. Our babies are just not ready for us quite yet :)

Thanks again to everyone for their help with the flood. The berm is STILL holding (UNBELIEVABLE!!) thanks to such a wonderful group of people helping. 

And the water rises. . .

Well it's a good thing we all know how to swim. As many of you know the Missouri River is raging a war against us, and unfortunately it is winning. Our house is safely out of harms way, but my parent's house is going to need some prayers. Thanks to the most wonderful friends and family their house still has a fighting chance. A week before last Thursday it was reported how bad things were going to get and my Dad had been trying so hard to save Misty Waters for the season and then realized that his own house was in jeopardy. That night we started building a berm and sand bagging. Previous to that time we had been helping a friend's parents to sand bag their house. I was also able to help a co-worker move his things out of his house. I am so glad I did those favors because we had to call in all those favors plus when working on my parents house. We had to rebuild their berm on Thursday just in time because this morning Karl and my Dad went out to my parent's house and water is in their yard and 8 inches up their berm in the backyard. It really is a sad sight. The good to come out of it is all the acts of kindness from friends and family. Shout outs to: Todd Ternes (love him like a brother), Lori, Randy, Jace, Seth, Randi Jo, Mitch, and Tanner Lura (who all drove two hours one way to help us), Brock Frederickson (who is married to my cousin Kassie), Mark VanRay (both him and Brock are barely related to us and they drove hours to help), Karen and Lenny (again drove miles!), Kelli, Chris, and Ella Gabel, Carol and Greg O'Shea, Sharon and Dwayne Ternes, Katie and Casey Rogstad (Casey had barely landed back from being gone for a week and didn't even go home before coming to help!), Jeff and Bri MacQueen, and many many more, some even strangers. Also those who didn't help us directly but my cousins who organized a wrestling group to come up to Bismarck for the day to fill sand bags, I am so proud of you and so thankful. Words are just never enough but I hope you all know we could not have done this physically or emotionally without your help and support. I just hope you all know that we would return the favor in an instant and will always be here for you.

On to happier subjects our homestudy is done, I know I said it was done last time, but last time our portion was complete and now the WHOLE thing is complete. It was very interesting to read what another person who barely knows you perceives your family. Thank you to our references who said such kind things about Karl and myself. We will pay you later :)

If you have time, please say a quick prayer for all of those affected by flooding in the state this year.

What a post so soon?!

I know everyone will be shocked that I posted again so soon but another hurdle was tackled. We just sent in ALL of our homestudy material, yes ALL of it! As long as we didn't forget anything or screw anything up that means we are DONE with the homestudy! Yippee! Not that we didn't enjoy spending time with our fabulous social worker, Lindsey, but it just means we are even closer to getting on that waiting list! We are also done with the I-600A form and will be mailing that tomorrow! Those of you not down with the adoption lingo it is just a form that needs to be sent to the Department of Homeland Security. The more official name is the application for advance processing of orphan petition.

In addition to the hopeful things in my life, my uncle Pud is doing really well! I am so proud of him because his life has had to change dramatically in the course of one week and he is taking the bull by the horns and working to make his life healthier! I know there is going to be many ups and downs but he and we can do it! I even saw him reading the nutrition labels off a box of oatmeal (that for the record had a huge red heart on the front of it that read "Heart Healthy") and he told me "I can't eat that stuff, did you know it has 11% sodium!" False advertising if I ever saw it!

Yesterday we also had Pastor Renee to our home to visit about the adoption. I really can't say enough about what a amazing woman she is and how she has helped guide us back to our faith. She wrote me an email the other day that read, "I am so happy to be able to support you both through this journey, and I am excited for Heart River (our church) as well!" What a wonderful faith community to belong to!

Well I just read the post again and I seem way more giddy than I ever realized, perhaps it is because I just got done working out and my blood flow to my brain hasn't returned, but that is okay, it is a good feeling to just relax and be happy in this moment.

A Difficult Week but Happy Mother's Day to all!

Many of you have heard but my Uncle Pud had a heart attack last Thursday and ended up with a quadruple bypass on Tuesday. This has led to a lot of long days this week. We are both pretty tired out and trying to rest up. Thankfully Pud gets to leave the hospital today! It will be a long road to recovery but he is well on his way.

We celebrated my 28th birthday last week as well! My family made it very special with dinner made at my house with my favorite meal, FAJITAS! Yum!

We were invited to our homestudy agency, God's Children, to participate in an adoption get together yesterday. Honestly, we were both a little nervous to go but it ended up being alot of fun getting to know other families who are adopting as well as see all those adorable children that have been brought to their forever homes. We didn't realize how much adoption has made on impact on the Bismarck/Mandan and surrounding communities! We have quite the support network. Very exciting news!

As far as where we are in our paper chase, Karl has to finish his education and we have to meet with Pastor Renee to have an adoption meeting with her. Then all our homestudy things can be sent in and hopefully we will be done with all things homestudy for now. Once the homestudy is completed all of our dossier paperwork is completed but just has to be notarized so that will be quick. I am hoping in a month we will be on the waiting list!!!!! So excited!

Happy Mother's Day to all!