Time to get back to work!

So, here we find ourselves, it's mid January and we are thinking everything is right on track and we can start to focus on new fundraisers. Well, that in and of itself is enough to make you go bonkers...and we had a lot to do. We started doing multiple events and sales of different items and a little at a time we started to make some money for our adoption. Things were beginning to look up. We did a couple nights at Buffalo Wild Wings and they were the easiest restaurants we have ever worked with! They allowed us to hand out flyers at the door and even let us go around and talk with other patrons and give them flyers! If you have one close to you- use them for a fundraiser night!

Then, we get a letter from USCIS with an RFE (request for evidence) and realize that , in an effort to save us some time, our immigration lawyer had filed the I600 and not the I600A! Now for those of you who have been through this, you know that is not good. It essentially out us in a Catch-22 with paperwork. We needed the approval to go complete the adoption, but we cant complete the adoption without approval. GRRRR!!!!! So, we began talking to our attorney and also with our congressman's office and giving them info so they can try to help us get immigration to give us a provisional approval, This battle went on for a few weeks. A lot of back and forth, but in the end we prevailed! We were finally given approval and received a new RFE and a later date to complete the adoption by! In the process of all of this paperwork and waiting, I discovered that my attorney is a believer and was paying for a quick resolution to this. We knew that the odds were against us, but we kept pressing on and telling them how THIS child was aging out and we were his only hope and chance! Someone had to know how to fix this error! Finally, in late May or early June,  we got a call from our immigration officer that we had been given approval and she would get it out to right away!

I have to tell you that during all of this, we had people praying for God to remove all mountains in our way and as they came up, I would let my friends and prayer warriors know what the name of the mountain was and they would begin to pray against it. And as they prayed against it, the mountain was moved out of our way! Praise God! While we were waiting for this last document to be sent, we were busy compiling all other things for our dossier and sending them over to be translated.

So, we knew we were approved, but the actual papers from immigration did not come and after more than a week, we got approval to receive them via email. We got them, had them notarized and off they went to Eastern Europe! Many thanks go out to all these amazing parents who care enough to carry all these paper babies over!

During all these months we have been able to Skype twice with our son and let him know we love him and that we are still coming to get him. I spoke to him the last time about 1 1/2 weeks ago. He finally got to meet his 'poppa'! I think they were both a little nervous. Anyway, we had a nice chat and our friends were with him for a missions trip they were doing. We were able to send him some items as a belated birthday gift. He loved them!

Since then, we have gotten the final document over and we expect to be submitted this week and get travel dates soon. YIPPEE!!!!  We still need prayers and support to bring him home. This coming Friday we have a fundraiser Spaghetti dinner wit a local jazz band. On Saturday, we have a yard sale going on and friends have generously donated items to sale! Say a prayer for us as we hope to raise lots of money and have lots of people come out for some fun!

There will be more to come as each day we get closer to adoption day!!!!

Oh, and God is still trying to teach me that patience thing...I am starting to understand it!