Submitting to immigration

I have not had a chance to make any updates lately but we have been busy working on Homestudy paperwork and getting our immigration forms ready to mail. The envelope is sealed and ready to send to the immigration office tomorrow. We are working on a deadline because Haiti has recently become a Hague country with means that the laws about adoption will be changing. We are trying to get our paperwork in to be grandfathered into the old system (I-600). Our agency says that as long as our immigration paperwork is pending by April 1 we will be okay. Our immigration cannot be approved until our homestudy is complete, so it will be a few months before we hear anything official from immigration. If we are approved under I-600 laws we must sign our I-600 forms in Haiti by April 1, 2016.

The Homestudy is quite a process and is very time consuming. We have been working on getting clearances and fingerprints from the GBI and FBI. Everyone in the family has to have a physical, so tomorrow the kids go for theirs and Joey and I will be having ours done soon. We have a lot of education to do within the next few weeks. We are hoping to have our last homestudy meeting during spring break, then it will just be a waiting game for all of our paperwork to clear to bring our homestudy to a close. After our homestudy is complete we will compile our dossier (everything Haiti might need to know about us) to send to Haiti for approval.

In terms of a timeline: chances are it will be around this time next year when we are matched with a child. From that point it could take another 9-12 months for our child to be able to travel home with us.

God has really placed a burden on my heart to pray for the well-being of our child prior to his/her arrival into our family. We have been praying for those who care for our child before we can bring him/her home, whether it be biological parents or caretakers at the orphanage. Please join us in praying for the very formidable period of our child's life when we can't be there for him/her.

Amy

First paperwork submitted (and a Mary Kay party!)

This has been a very busy week, but the good kind of busy. I'll only hit two of the big highlights. On Monday I had a Mark Kay party! I know you are thinking...seriously...Amy had a Mary Kay party!! But my wonderful friend Ashley told her mom, Ms. Carol, about our adoption plans and she offered to have a party and allow our family to have 50% of the profits from the party. I thought this was such a nice gesture and couldn't pass it up. I was extremely humbled by my friends who sacrificed their Monday night to come out and buy makeup to support our adoption. Many of them had been at work all day and I know they (and their kids) were tired, but that didn't keep them away. Several friends who couldn't make it to the party called in their orders which was so thoughtful. We had a great time together and I even put on some makeup! I sat for a long time after everyone left feeling overwhelmed by the support and sacrifice of the friends God has blessed me with.

Major Highlight: On Wednesday, God blessed us to be able to make our first payment and submit our first set of paperwork to Lifeline Children!!  We are now waiting for our first phone interview before our Homestudy begins. We are thankful for His blessings and praying for the child He has for our home.

 Abandoned,
                                                                                                                             
 Amy