The Power of Prayer

On Monday I petitioned everyone to pray that we would hear quickly about our I800 approval. We had been told she had just received our file, and would possibly review it by Thursday. Well God is bigger than men's timelines because we got an email Wednesday saying that our officer had approved the I800, and the letter was on its way to us!! Now we are one step closer. Here are the next couple steps in more detail. I am learning more about each step as we get there.

1. Our I800 approval is sent to the National Visa Center for processing.
2. I can call NVC on Wednesday to get our case number. Then I use the case number to file the DS-260, which is approved immediately.
3. A letter called an Article 5 gets sent to the ICBF in Colombia, and they will schedule our encuentro  date! (The official date that we will meet Brielle).
4. We will book round trip plane tickets because you must have a return ticket to get a visa.
5. Go to Atlanta and apply for our visas.
6. PACK, PACK, PACK!
7. Go to Colombia!

So our timeline is definitely getting shorter, and our agency has said this part moves pretty quickly. At this point weeks are feelings long to us because we are just ready to get our girl! Please be praying that all of these steps are completed quickly. This part that could take longer is the Article 5 getting sent to Colombia, and the meeting date set, so you can pray specifically about step 3. Your prayers are working, so thank you, thank you!

In the mean time it has been so fun for me to get ready for our little girl!

More waiting...

Ahhh...I think this waiting is the worst yet! We are so close, but there is nothing I can do to speed up to process.

So we have filed our I800, the last big paperwork, and I found out today that we have been assigned an officer. They estimate that the officer will begin to review our file on Thursday.

Please pray that everything goes smoothly with the review, and that no additional paperwork is requested. That would just slow down our travel plans. The power of prayer has made our adoption journey so successful, so help us see it to the end!!

Thank you for all your support!

We did get to send her a care package! God definitely sent some reassurance while shopping for items to send her. I was starting to stress over sending the 'right' blanket. The idea is that she will attach to the blanket, and have it as a momento from the orphanage. So I wanted it to be perfect. :) Then at Target I just felt overwhelmed trying to choose just the right one. We happened to be in line behind a sweet lady from Momentum, so we updated her on how things we going. Then while she was checking out she reached over and paid for the blanket for Brielle! What a blessing, and a confirmation from God!

A little bit of progress...

It's been awhile since we had anything to update, but we are finally making some forward progress! Last week we received some medical updates, pictures, and a new video. That is always the best part for us, getting to see our girl making progress. Today we received our official dossier approval! That means we have been approved by the Colombian government, and can be 'officially' referred to Brielle. They estimate that will happen in about a month, so hopefully by the end of May. That would be an awesome birthday gift for me!

After we receive our referral we have two more things we have to do before travel. One of them will be to get visas for us to travel. The other is get US customs and immigration approval for Brielle to come into the United States. They estimate that can take anywhere between 2-6 months. We are praying that it will come in two months (from the end of May) or sooner! We will go as soon as we can!

Please be praying for all the paperwork to continue to get approved quickly, and for continued improvement for Brielle's health. She is doing great, but we are ready to get her home!

Thanks for all your support and prayers!

Timeline Update

We have officially reached the end of the paperwork since I mailed in our dossier yesterday! I thought that I should give an update on our timeline.

We are predicting that it should take about three months for our paperwork to go through translation and approval in Colombia, and then they will send us the official referral for our little girl. I can't wait for that day! Our specific prayer request here is that they will accept our dossier without the numerical scores for our MMPI2 test. (A psychological exam we had to complete). We have heard that they can misread your number, so we chose to leave ours out. However, they can send a request for them, which will delay the approval and why we need your prayers.

Then the agency said that it can take 5 months to get our visas and a court date in Colombia. I don't know if I can wait that long, so that is where we need your prayers again. Scott's work is flexible so we can be prepared to travel quickly. We want to get our girl home (mostly because we can't wait to have her here), but also to start therapy for some of her special needs. The longer she is in the orphanage the more she could be delayed. Let's pray that we will get a court date soon after our referral!

Finally, don't forget about our final fundraiser! A Valentine's Dinner...For the Love of a Girl. You can check out all of the details on our website www.ouradoptionadventure.org or on Facebook.