A REAL Update!

Things are actually progressing, really!  We just got the AMAZING news today that Claudia's country has approved us! 

So what does this mean?  It means that we are eligible to adopt a child from her country within a set of parameters (age and sex of the child to be adopted).  Of course Claudia is within these parameters.  Her country knows that we want to adopt her specifically so now we are waiting on our official referral for Claudia specifically.  According to our agency this could take 5-7wks (it takes a while to translate the documents).  But we are praying it goes more quickly (the approval of our dossier was about a month quicker than expected). 

Once we get the "official referral" we have 2 weeks to accept it.  Our plan is to review it and accept the referral imediately.  Once we accept the referral to Claudia we will need to fill out more paperwork, the USCIS I-800 form, which is the"Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative."  That is currently taking about 3 weeks to be approved.  The US gov. will submit out pre-approval to her country and then they will issue a letter authorizing that the legal adoption may take place which could take 2-3 weeks.  Once we have the letter, we can then get ready to travel!

Our hope and prayer remains that we will be in her country this fall and home before Christmas.  Her country shuts down for the holidays so if we cannot travel in the next few months, we may have to wait until next year to get her.  Please pray for smooth proceedings from here on out and specifically that she will be home this year.

We still need about $14,000 to get her home the majority of this money is travel expenses.  Please pray with us for God's continued provision financially.  Advocate and donate for us if you can. We still have T-shirts for sale as well as bracelets.  You can still purchase coffee to help us fund raise as well.

Baby girl, we are coming for you!  We don't want to miss any more moments with you.  No more birthdays or holidays alone.  You have grown so much since the first picture we saw of you, the picture that led us to you, we want to be with you to watch you grow.  You will be home soon!

Paperwork Delivered!

Our USCIS paperwork is now in the PO box of the USCIS.  My delivery confirmation message: "Your Item's StatusYour item was delivered at 12:00 pm on May 21, 2012 in DALLAS, TX 75222" YES!  Now this does not mean that the paperwork is in anyone's hands, BUT I know that it has been delivered safely. One step closer...

I have been scrambling around all day today to find a licenced psychologist to perform our psychological evaluations and am having NO LUCK at all.  Apparently you have to be crazy to get in to see one!  All that I have called say they only do evals for rehab and counseling and such...  I am still looking for one to get our evaluation done.

Please do not forget all of the awesome fundraisers we have going on right now.  There are so many different ways you can help!  Kaleigh is still doing a give-away at www.prayingclaudiahome.blogspot.com

We have bracelets and other jewelry still for sale (click on the links on the right)

You can make a purchase at my Etsy shop HERE

You can purchase coffee (See the Button for Just Love Coffee to the right)

Or you can simply make a donation using our Family Sponsorship Page (tax deductible) or Chip in to the right.

Every day that passes is one day closer to the day that we meet our beautiful daughter.  It still seems so surreal that our daughter is out there, waiting for us. We are doing everything we can to get you soon Claudia!

Clairification...

Ok, so I know that in my previous posts I discussed that we were looking to adopt more than one child from Latin America.  You may have noticed that in my recent posts I have only been talking about "our daughter."  We found out from our agency a while ago (when we were switching agencies) that during the time we work trying to work with our original agency that one of the girls had been applied for.  This was a bit sad but also was great news.  This means that we are not the only ones looking to adopt children with DS from LA!  Raising two children, about the same age with DS would have been very difficult, not that we did not take that into account before pursing the adoption but we felt that God had a plan for all of this.  He does have a plan!  Now, I am not God, I cannot even begin to guess what His plan is for us but maybe, just maybe He wanted us all along to only adopt one of these precious children?  Not only that but maybe He did not want to make us choose which one we would adopt (how hard would that have been!?!)  So, we are currently pursuing the adoption of one little girl from Latin America with Down syndrome. 

We have known for some time that we would most likely only be adopting one but today we found out which one it is.  It is bitter-sweet news, we would have been happy to adopt either one, but now we also know which one will almost definitely not be coming home with us.  We are so happy that she will have a home soon!  Now please help us pray that our home study process goes smoothly so we can announce to the world who our daughter is!