I was totally surprised yesterday when I checked my email and had one from our agency saying that we were ready to file our I-600! It happened a little sooner than we expected which is always great:) It was so exciting to get the I-600 from our agency with our baby's information filled out. We got it sent off last night and our agency received it this morning. I think this is our last leg and from here on out it is in the hands of the US gov't. I think the next step (besides all the moving updates) is waiting for the call!
Of course, everything can't go smoothly and quickly. Unfortunately we are still waiting for our homestudy addendum and after calling the homestudy agency for about a week I had a little freak-out session. It is so frustrating when they won't even call you back. Well, we finally talked to her this morning and apparently the social worker that had done our visit hadn't sent her the addendum yet and she was hoping to have it today but of course it didn't arrive. The social worker told her that if she didn't have it in the mail tomorrow she would overnight it so hopefully we should have our copy by Tues or Wed...we'll see. We also found out we are going to have to get a new I-171H...boy, does it ever stop? I feel like we are starting all over again sometimes but I know that God is in control and it is all going to get done somehow. Our homestudy agency is supposed to send our addendum to the Ohio USCIS office and I emailed both they KY and OH USCIS office to have our file transferred. I'm just nervous about how long it will take to get it and if it is going to hold us up.
Once we do finally get our addendum we have to have it county and state certified along with our new medicals and then send them all off to California to be authenticated. I had such a hard time too trying to make doctors appointments for us. I called several doctor's offices and most of them were scheduling 2 or 3 months out! Well, obviously that wasn't going to work for us. I finally found an office that could get us in sooner but they wouldn't do physicals on the first appointment and they didn't have a notary which we need. Well, FINALLY I found a doctor that is going to see us on Tuesday and they have a notary and they are going to do our vaccines for our travel. It's all starting to come together but I just really have to lean on God so I don't go into panic mode again. I still just don't see how we are going to be able to get all the stuff done without it holding us up be we are trusting Him. God's timing is perfect and we are going to go get Alexa when He thinks the time is perfect. Well, hopefully my next post will be about us receiving our addendum...oh, and any prayers would be greatly appreciated:)
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
It Finally Happened!
I can't believe I have been so bad about updating our blog...especially since we have the best news ever but in the move we were so busy with remodeling the house and I didn't have computer access, BUT... we got our referral of our beautiful daughter! I'll never forget the day our agency called. It was May 6th about 4:30pm and I was working out in the yard and fortunately I went into the garage to get something (where I had left my cell phone) and as I was getting ready to leave my phone rang. When I saw that the caller ID said it was my agency my heart started racing. I kept trying to tell myself not to get too excited because she was probably just calling to ask me a question about our move. When she said she had good news for us and that she had a referral for us, all I could say was "are you joking with me?" and she said she would never joke about something so important:) I then screamed a little and started jumping up and down. Once I caught my breath she told me a little about this precious baby that God was making part of our family. She was born on February 24, 2008 so she was about 2 and a half months old. She told me she was hitting the submit button on the email to us with her photo and medical information but that she had been having problems with her email and to let her know if it didn't go through. As soon as I hung up the phone I screamed and jumped a little more and called Nic and basically told him that he needed to come home immediately because we had a baby and I wanted to look at her picture for the first time together. He was in shock when I told him that we had a referral because we just weren't expecting it that soon...we hoped but didn't think it would really happen.
I went upstairs and checked my email and I hadn't received it yet so I called our caseworker back and she said she would send it from someone else's email. Well, after about a half an hour Nic was home and we still hadn't gotten the referral and we started to panic because it was after 5pm and the agency was closed so we thought we would have to wait until the next day. But finally, the email popped up and Nic and I prayed together, took a deep breath and opened the email and fell in love. I know I am a little biased as a new mother but I have never seen a more beautiful child in my life:) She was just more beautiful than I ever imagined and my heart was in her tiny hands at that moment. Unfortunately I can't post her picture until we have her home but she has the biggest round brown eyes ever and the cutest nose and mouth and in spite of the huge sweatshirt and pants they have on her you can tell she is tiny.
After looking at her medical history and hearing back from the adoption doctor we were a little concerned with some of her red blood cell counts. The doctor told us she could just be anemic or be malnourished or it could be more serious and to think about that before we accepted the referral. Well, Nic and I prayed about it and individually decided that we felt like this was the child God had made for us and we both decided we wanted to proceed with the referral and I have never been happier. We accepted the referral and asked if there was any way we could have the orphanage give her iron formula. The neatest thing was the dream my mother-in-law had a few months ago. She had written it down the night of her dream and after we got our referral she called me and told me about it. In the dream a baby was born and God told her that this baby would be part of our family. She looked at the baby and she had big, round brown eyes and clear, pretty skin (which looks just like Alexa:) and she looked at the date of the dream and it was on February 24th!...wow!
On Monday, June 16th I couldn't believe it when Nic told me we got an email from our agency with updated pictures of our baby! I ran to the computer and we opened it together and we were very excited to see that they had sent us four new pictures of her. She looks very healthy and happy and is cuter than ever. She even has a small smile in one of the pictures and I can see more personality in them. The email said that she was doing well on her new formula and that her caregivers say she is active and happy. It's just so hard because I want to hold her in my arms and have her now. It's hard to know that when we get her she will have changed since her pictures and I don't want to miss a minute of her life. We are praying that we will get to travel sooner than the 5-6 months that we were told. It's already been a month and a half and I am praying we will get to travel in September (or sooner of course)
I went upstairs and checked my email and I hadn't received it yet so I called our caseworker back and she said she would send it from someone else's email. Well, after about a half an hour Nic was home and we still hadn't gotten the referral and we started to panic because it was after 5pm and the agency was closed so we thought we would have to wait until the next day. But finally, the email popped up and Nic and I prayed together, took a deep breath and opened the email and fell in love. I know I am a little biased as a new mother but I have never seen a more beautiful child in my life:) She was just more beautiful than I ever imagined and my heart was in her tiny hands at that moment. Unfortunately I can't post her picture until we have her home but she has the biggest round brown eyes ever and the cutest nose and mouth and in spite of the huge sweatshirt and pants they have on her you can tell she is tiny.
After looking at her medical history and hearing back from the adoption doctor we were a little concerned with some of her red blood cell counts. The doctor told us she could just be anemic or be malnourished or it could be more serious and to think about that before we accepted the referral. Well, Nic and I prayed about it and individually decided that we felt like this was the child God had made for us and we both decided we wanted to proceed with the referral and I have never been happier. We accepted the referral and asked if there was any way we could have the orphanage give her iron formula. The neatest thing was the dream my mother-in-law had a few months ago. She had written it down the night of her dream and after we got our referral she called me and told me about it. In the dream a baby was born and God told her that this baby would be part of our family. She looked at the baby and she had big, round brown eyes and clear, pretty skin (which looks just like Alexa:) and she looked at the date of the dream and it was on February 24th!...wow!
On Monday, June 16th I couldn't believe it when Nic told me we got an email from our agency with updated pictures of our baby! I ran to the computer and we opened it together and we were very excited to see that they had sent us four new pictures of her. She looks very healthy and happy and is cuter than ever. She even has a small smile in one of the pictures and I can see more personality in them. The email said that she was doing well on her new formula and that her caregivers say she is active and happy. It's just so hard because I want to hold her in my arms and have her now. It's hard to know that when we get her she will have changed since her pictures and I don't want to miss a minute of her life. We are praying that we will get to travel sooner than the 5-6 months that we were told. It's already been a month and a half and I am praying we will get to travel in September (or sooner of course)
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