After much prayer and several conversations with our adoption agency, we decided that God is leading us to switch to Ethiopia.
Sunday 2/3 - We submitted our application to the Ethiopian program. (When they said "start over" they meant it. We have to re-apply and get accepted for Ethiopia before moving forward.)
Monday 2/4 - I met with our social worker to discuss updating our Home Study. The easy part is updating the wording in the home study report. The hard part is that we need an IR4 Visa instead of the IR3 Visa we had for El Salvador. (An IR4 Visa means the adoption will be completed in the US and IR3 means it would be completed in the other country.) The way our social worker explained it, it involves submitting a big packet of paperwork to the state, the state losing it, her tracking it down, and finally we will get a "foster license" that allows us to apply for the IR4 Visa. We will then amend our USCIS document (171H). We are VERY blessed that we only need to amend rather than re-do this document, as it can take up to 3 months to apply for and obtain this one document.
All in all when I left our case worker's office, I felt very overwhelmed. I realized that all the rest of our paperwork for our dossier would need to be redone, as most of it expires after a year. This includes obtaining notarized birth certificates, marriage license, physicals, letters of reference, employment letters, financial statements, guardianship statements, powers of attorney, etc. I feel like I'm in the movie Ground Hog Day, as it was almost a year to the date that I was obtaining and gathering all of these same documents for El Salvador.
Wed 2/6 - We went and got fingerprinted for DCFS. Although we have already been fingerprinted by three different systems, we still aren't in the right computer for the IR4 Visa. We laughed that the FBI should be able to track us down world-wide, since our fingerprints now seem to be in every computer system invented. We were blessed that this appointment went VERY quickly (10 minutes). We pray the processing of our prints goes as quickly.
Wed 2/6 - I completed and mailed the paperwork back to our social worker to be submitted to the state to get the IR4 Visa.
Wed 2/6 - We obtained approval that we are accepted by AWAA into the Ethiopia program. Another blessing, as it often takes up to 10 days for them to review your application, and they did ours in three days.
We are now waiting for the packet from AWAA with our agreement forms. Once we sign and get these back to them, they will send our dossier packet, so that we will have an "official" checklist and details on the documents we need to gather.
I'm praying that it will only take a month or two to complete. But as a friend spoke over me in recent days "Don't put God in a Box!" So I am trusting His timing to be perfect! Although it makes me weary to think of the work ahead, I know that God will provide all the strength we need to complete it!
"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the wearty
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."
- Isaiah 40:28-31
Sunday 2/3 - We submitted our application to the Ethiopian program. (When they said "start over" they meant it. We have to re-apply and get accepted for Ethiopia before moving forward.)
Monday 2/4 - I met with our social worker to discuss updating our Home Study. The easy part is updating the wording in the home study report. The hard part is that we need an IR4 Visa instead of the IR3 Visa we had for El Salvador. (An IR4 Visa means the adoption will be completed in the US and IR3 means it would be completed in the other country.) The way our social worker explained it, it involves submitting a big packet of paperwork to the state, the state losing it, her tracking it down, and finally we will get a "foster license" that allows us to apply for the IR4 Visa. We will then amend our USCIS document (171H). We are VERY blessed that we only need to amend rather than re-do this document, as it can take up to 3 months to apply for and obtain this one document.
All in all when I left our case worker's office, I felt very overwhelmed. I realized that all the rest of our paperwork for our dossier would need to be redone, as most of it expires after a year. This includes obtaining notarized birth certificates, marriage license, physicals, letters of reference, employment letters, financial statements, guardianship statements, powers of attorney, etc. I feel like I'm in the movie Ground Hog Day, as it was almost a year to the date that I was obtaining and gathering all of these same documents for El Salvador.
Wed 2/6 - We went and got fingerprinted for DCFS. Although we have already been fingerprinted by three different systems, we still aren't in the right computer for the IR4 Visa. We laughed that the FBI should be able to track us down world-wide, since our fingerprints now seem to be in every computer system invented. We were blessed that this appointment went VERY quickly (10 minutes). We pray the processing of our prints goes as quickly.
Wed 2/6 - I completed and mailed the paperwork back to our social worker to be submitted to the state to get the IR4 Visa.
Wed 2/6 - We obtained approval that we are accepted by AWAA into the Ethiopia program. Another blessing, as it often takes up to 10 days for them to review your application, and they did ours in three days.
We are now waiting for the packet from AWAA with our agreement forms. Once we sign and get these back to them, they will send our dossier packet, so that we will have an "official" checklist and details on the documents we need to gather.
I'm praying that it will only take a month or two to complete. But as a friend spoke over me in recent days "Don't put God in a Box!" So I am trusting His timing to be perfect! Although it makes me weary to think of the work ahead, I know that God will provide all the strength we need to complete it!
"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the wearty
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."
- Isaiah 40:28-31
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