WE'RE ON THE LIST!!!!!

As of today at about 12:06 p.m. we were officially put on the waiting list at Intenational Adoption Network. I watched them physically write our name on the whiteboard in the back of their office.
Whew-We are done with all of this time-consuming paperwork for awhile!!!!! We are #3 on the list for a toddler girl and then whatever sibling or un-related chld that they might refer to us between the ages of 1-5. We are continuing to pray that God's hand would be in the referral for the ages and gender that he would think is best for our family.

Today was a busy day of picking up our homestudy from the Secretary of State. It was certified and all of our other documents were certified for our dossier last week. Then Wade and I raced to the Immigration Office to hand in our paperwork to file our I600A form that allows us to adopt out of the country. Our appointment was at 10:30 and we walked in at 10:29 after a few wrong turns on the way by me, of course Wade was standing outside waiting for me. We then drove to another office to be fingerprinted and then I drove our homestudy to the International Agency to get us on the waiting list. It is so nice that we are using a local agency that allows me to drive the documents rather than wait on mail or delivery service, sorry mom!!

So now we wait to get approval back from Immigration. This can take anywhere from 5-10 weeks. In the meantime we also wait for a child referral. While we are waiting Wade and I each have to complete 24 required hours of education, the fun never stops. Tomorrow night we attend our first class.

It was an exciting day for us, but not as exciting as it could have been because of the weak market, almost bittersweet. This week has been very, very stressful for Wade. We are excited to be at this point in the adoption, but with today's market activity we can't help but wonder if addding two is such a good idea. The devil is working or God is testing us, we'll find our soon enough. Please continue to pray for our country during these difficult days with the market and leading up to the election.

Thanks for all of your support and prayers!!
Shonda

Moving Along

I wanted to give a quick update, maybe just to make myself feel better by seeing that the process is unfolding for us. Our homestudy is finally done-almost!! One more addition of when and where we were married by the social worker and it will be complete. It is amazing how a small detail like this takes time to get added as the homestudy gets tossed back and forth between the local and international agencies for pre-approval.

Today our short-version of the home study was turned into the state of Colorado for approval. We will wait only 4-5 business days to get it back. Tomorrow I am going to the Secretary of State to get our dossier documents certified. We should get these back on Thursday. When the homestudy is completely official I can get it certified as well.

Next Wed. we have an appt. to get fingerprinted to submit our I600A form for Immigration. It will take 5-10 weeks to get this Immigration Form returned to us. I have learned that this is called the "Golden Ticket"so we will be anxious to get it back. The "Golden Ticket" officially states that we are cleared for International Adoption.

I realize this might be boring details to you, but to us it is a matter of checking one thing after another off the list. It also leads us a few steps closer to bringing our sweet children home. I am so excited I can't stand it!

Please pray that these next steps will go smoothly. Pray that our immigration comes back closer to 5 weeks rather than 10. Next week we can be put on the wait list with our agency if our dossier is approved!! Yeah!! Thanks for your prayers.
Shonda