Waiting

Lately I've been feeling like the little girl in the backseat on a very long road trip. I've even been tempted to try out a whiny voice as I ask, "Are we there yet?" I imagine God, like our patient parents on a cross-country trip, placating me with "Yes, dear...just around the corner...only one more hour." It worked all those years ago, so I suppose we ought to resign ourselves to the reality that the journey to our little one is going to be of cross-country proportions.

It is hard to believe that the last time we wrote was March 8! We didn't write for a while because really we had very little going on. We were waiting for our passports, waiting for our homestudy, and waiting for our forms to come from Citizenship and Immigration services. So the last month can be summed up in a single word - waiting.

The cliche "good things come to those who wait" recently proved true for us. :) Our passports arrived, our homestudy was completed, and our forms from USCIS came (although they were not the ones we wanted).

With the above documents, we were able to take the next step in our journey - filing for approval from the federal government. We submitted our "petition to adopt an orphan" on Wednesday of this past week. The check for fingerprinting and additional background checks cleared on Thursday, and on Friday we received acknowledgement that our paperwork had been received (which was pretty obvious to us as the check had already been deposited!). The response seemed fast after all this waiting. Unfortunately, USCIS plans on taking 90 days to process our two page form so we're in for more waiting.

We have completed most of the 27 documents that go overseas in our dossier. Once we receive our approval from the US, we'll have all of our paperwork apostilled (essentially a notary of the notary that signed our documents), then our small forest will be sent to the embassy where it will be translated. Once translated, our dossier will be sent to Kazakhstan. From there, it will take 4-7 months before we receive a letter of invitation from Kaz. Whew!

Even though we've been waiting for lots of things, we have managed to stay very busy. As most of you know, we spent a week in Colorado at the beginning of this month to celebrate our Nana's life and to be with our family during a sad time. When we returned, Derick left for a conference and Shannon headed to the hospital to visit her grandma. Two days later, with assurances that her grandma would return home, Shannon headed to South Carolina for a Beth Moore conference. We have been home for a week now, and does it feel good! We are taking great pleasure in small things like making coffee, mowing the lawn, and listening to the birds sing outside.

During this next "waiting" phase, we have lots of things planned to keep us busy (just in case daily life isn't enough). :) We are looking forward to learning more about our child's birth country. We also have big plans for our garden and landscaping. We anticipate reading lots about parenting, and sometime this summer, we'll begin taking Russian classes. We will also begin preparing a place for our little one.

Please continue to pray for the baby that the Lord has for our family. Pray for our patience and anticipation. And please pray that through God's provision, our forms would move through the USCIS office with ease and great speed. Even though this journey feels like a long one, it is still sweet and exciting. We're glad we get to share it with you.