On the sixth week of waiting, my true love gave to me...

an FDL from the mailbox. Not as exciting as before the change in process, because we are on the waiting list already, but the government has approved us! Before the change, I thought I would be like Michelle, camping out at the mailbox, bugging our mail lady on a daily basis. (If you don't know what I am talking about, check out her post!)

P.S. Did you hear? The referrals have started again!!!

No news...

is not good news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can they drop this fabulous bombshell on us and expect us to wait to hear anything from them?

7:45 am PST-Ok, I know they are not in the office yet, but maybe??
8:35 am PST - Come on already, I have to leave soon!
9:02 am PST - OH no my cell phone battery is dead. Give it a quick charge before I have to leave.
9:30 am PST -Heading out the door with nothing!
11:46 am PST-Run home to check just in case
12:25 pm PST-Home for the rest of the day..maybe I'll hear something
12:31 pm PST-E-mail from Julie stating we will have to wait until Monday to get our number. I am glad they at least told us, so I am not expecting news any second!

Until Monday....Sharon inspired me to have a poll.

What number will we be on the girl's list?

(Add your guess to the comments and on the poll in the right hand column.)

FYI: On the last update there were 16 on the girl's list. There are EIGHTEEN dossiers in office, authentication, en route to Ethiopia, or in Ethiopia waiting for CIS and I would guess they all get numbers too! Our dossier was accepted on April 2. What's your guess? Sherlock Michelle I am expecting you to be the closest with your keen detective skills!!

Jumping for Joy!!!

That is what I was doing when I came home from getting my haircut this afternoon. My mom was watching the kiddos for me and I thought I would check my e-mail real quick to see if there was anything important. What a surprise when I saw I had 8 new e-mails. I read the first one from Michelle and it said something like "I am freaking out for you!!!!! You will be a number this week!!!!! Are you so happy?" I had no idea what she was talking about. The next said something similar and so on until I got to the one from our agency stating the change in procedure and then I understood what everyone was so excited about. It just warms my heart to have other families to go through this experience with and share the ups and downs.

So what am I rambling on about you ask. I think God works in funny ways sometimes. We have had lots of prayers in the last few weeks (thank you everyone for supporting us) that we would receive our FDL, so that we could finally be a number on the list and be waiting for the referral of our daughter. Well our FDL has not come, but we get to be a number and begin the real wait for our little girl!!!

I have been frustrated with the process, because we will wait up to 4 months for our FDL and then have to wait another 6 months for our referral. I never understood why we couldn't be waiting for both at the same time. I guess since the referral time has increased AGCI realized that we could wait for both our referral and our FDL at the same time.

What this means for us is that we will be put on the list in the order that dossiers were received at AGCI. I have no idea where that will put us on the list. I know there are at least 16 families before us on the girl's list and expect that there will be another half dozen or so put on before us due to the recent changes. I am guessing we will be in the 20-25 range, but again that is just a wild guess. Hopefully I will hear from our case worker tomorrow with some sort of news and will post it as soon as I know! I am just so excited to be officially waiting!!!!

Thank you everyone for your support along the way and I am glad to be able to share our joy today with you.

USCIS is a big ....

tease! We got a very official looking envelope in the mail yesterday from them and all it had was a booklet in it. My brain knew it had only been 2 weeks, but my heart would have loved for it to contain our FDL! Do they not know that we are waiting with anticipation? Could they have not just handed us the booklet at the office? Adoptive parents are not to be messed with. I think they had better start following the warnings on this sign!

A big CONGRATULATIONS to ...

Brian and Autumn who received their FDL today!!! They made it on the list and will probably get a referral this summer!! It is so exciting to see God at work moving the adoption processes along.

Looking for a miracle

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ~ Mark 11:24

Lots of people have been asking me how long FDLs take in Washington State. When we asked on Friday, they told us "120 days, but we hopefully can process it sooner." They have been taking about 5-6 weeks, but recently our office has also started processing applications for Oregon too and no one is quite sure what that is going to do to the wait. (FYI-120 days is really long when some offices get them processed in 1-2 weeks)

I know God is in control and truly believe that all this waiting has to do with our referral to the specific child God has picked for our family, but it doesn't make the wait any easier. I also know that this is just the first big wait in the process. After this we will wait for a referral, and then after we accept the referral we will again wait, but this time to travel and pick up our child.

So I am inspired by Autumn, who told me that although this process is all about God's timing (which I fully recognize and acknowledge), it wouldn't hurt to pray for a miracle of sorts. Through an answered prayer, God would again show his glory to us. So I am praying that we receive our FDL much sooner than 120 days. I have no control in the matter (and if I did I would have stayed in Yakima annoying them until they just handed it over already) and recognize that the Lord will do what is best, but I am still asking God to move the process along a little quicker than the possible 120 days. I am filled with an overwhelming love for a child I have never met and I can't wait to hold her in my arms, so is it selfish to ask God to make it happen a little quicker?

CIS Application check, Dossier check

Because of the distance to travel, the weather forecasts, the imminent snow and the fact that we had to travel over Snoqualamie Pass, we decided to leave last night for Yakima. We were up bright and early this morning, although I actually got to sleep in until almost 7 without my 2-year old human alarm clock. (Ten years ago, I would have laughed at the idea of sleeping in being 7am!) We made it in and out of the office within a half hour and then were on our way home! Now begins more waiting. I am praying for God's will to be done and then of course that his will is a fast turnaround and receival of our FDL! : )

I also got to mail our dossier today and AGCI will receive it Monday. It is nice having it out of the house, but I will be a little concerned that it makes it to Portland safe and in one piece. Three months of our lives is tied up in that package!!

Beep! Beep! Beep!

That is the sound I will be awakend with tomorrow at the very ugly hour of 3...in the morning. Jason and I are headed off on another road trip for the adoption. We are leaving at 3:30 for Yakima and the CIS office there to get our final set of fingerprints taken (I think) and to file our I-600a. The office there has had a policy of letting people walk-in without appointments, so we never mailed anything into them and will just drop off everything and be fingerprinted all at once.

I will also be mailing in our dossier tomorrow and the tree we had to cut down to make all the required copies! After it has been received and processed by AGCI, they wll send it off for authentication in D.C. (which takes about 1-2 weeks), then it comes back to AGCI, then they get it ready and sent off to Ethiopia where Almaz (The fabulous woman who runs Hannah's Hope in Ehtiopia) has it translated (another 1-2 weeks) and keeps it at the office in Hannah’s Hope until we have accepted a referral. At acceptance of referral, our paperwork is submitted to MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) and it is another 3-5 months before they issue the court date so we can travel.