A huge sigh of relief...

Today in the mail...I received...yes, you guessed it! Our homestudy report is finally in our hands! I am so relieved. I cannot even begin to explain the relief.

I'm so thankful that this part of our process is over.

Next step...mail our I600A form to Atlanta and await our fingerprinting appointment.

I'll have our dossier in the mail to AAI in the next few days.

Then we're about halfway there. We just need to pray that we get our fingerprinting appointment quickly. It could take us anywhere from no time up to a few months for that part of the process. I would love to have this part finished before Christmas.

After USCIS stuff, the wait for a referral begins.

This is really happening!

YIPPPPEEEE!

If you can't tell, I'm just a little excited! Why, you ask? Well, 30 minutes ago, I emailed the OK to our homestudy agency for our report draft. And that, my friends, is such a load off.

What's next, you may ask? Hopefully next week we will have 3 copies of the report in our hands. One report for AAI, one for the USCIS paperwork, and one copy for us. Our dossier is just about completed (with the exception of final notarizing, and a few more passport-sized photos) then we can mail off our end of the process.

Our I600A application will be mailed off to USCIS next week, as soon as we have our homestudy in our eager little hands.

Then the wait begins.

So that's all I know for now. I'll let you know what I know when I know it!

The end is in sight!

Well...the end of the homestudy process anyway! This part has taken longer than we expected. Like 3 months longer. I received an email this afternoon from our new caseworker. Bless her heart...she has been so bogged down with extra homestudies that she shouldn't have had to mess with...but praise the Lord, she's about done with ours! So after several phone calls to the DFCS office (those people are near to impossible) and a couple of visits (to DFCS) for our last paper, the light is getting brighter!

Hi Shana,

I have the DFCS clearance! Technically this is supposed to come from the DFCS office fax (rather than the family) so I will need the original one by mail. Please put that in the mail today, ok?
I am not about to ask you to have them fax it to us again under the circumstances.

I am off the hook for jury duty today. My plan is to finish your homestudy tonite – but I may have a few questions so if you can, please check your email periodically. I will email you if I have any questions. So, look for a few emails from me and/or a draft copy to review.

As soon as the draft is approved by you, I will print several copies and get them in the mail to you. Please let me know if they need to be notarized. Assuming Im on jury duty tomorrow, that may be hard for me to take care of immediately, so just let me know.

Thanks!
S****

I never thought I would be so glad to see anything finished. Of course, this just means that we're on to the next step of waiting! But that's okay...one down, a few more to go!

We're coming sweet girl!

Getting it together...

We are slowly but surely getting our home study together after the upheaval of our caseworker not being on the "case" anymore, if you will.

Just have to mail a few things to One World, then we can start wrapping this up. I'm so ready to be done with this part. It has definitely taken longer than we had originally anticipated.

I have to admit to a bit of concern over the next step. Once we turn our dossier in to AAI and send them a check for the first part of the international fee, the money that we have saved up will be gone. We are saving monthly for this endeavour, but what we are saving is simply not enough money as fast as we will need it.

So I said all that to say that once the dossier is turned in, our "security net" of having funds available is no longer in existence. We will be in a free-fall of God's grace and provision. And that reality is completely exiting and completely terrifying all in the same breath.

We've said from the beginning that this was a step of faith for us and our family. Never will that statement be more true than in the very near future.

We covet your prayers that all of our needs for this time will be met by the one that owns the cattle on a thousand hills. For all of this is His anyway!

One of the downs of the adoption process...

I received a rather unexpected email this morning from the director of our homestudy agency.

Hi Billie and Shana,

Effective immediately, K*** is no longer working with our agency. Im sorry that this has happened during your homestudy process, but I think in the end it will be in your best interest anyway. We will do what we can to expedite the remainder of this for you.

Once I have your paperwork from K***, we will wrap up your homestudy as quickly as possible.

I will let you know when I see the financial information if I have any concerns, but again, our goal is to help you get approved. Please don’t hesitate to call or email me with any questions or concerns.

S****

This is just one of "downs" of the process. I'm trying to accept this with grace and dignity. But what I want to do is rant and rave! God isn't taken by surprise by any of this...He has this all under control. So as soon as I know what's going on, I'll update again.

Just pray that this gets taken care of as soon as possible!

Small Poll...

Okay...I know that I'm a little OCD. I can admit it. Billie and I were talking about our 4th daughter's name. How should we spell it?

1. EllaGrace (capital 'g')
2. Ellagrace (lowercase 'g')

Here's why I'm trying to decide:

1. All of the girls have 9 letters in their names.
2. All of their first names are broken down into 2 syllables then 1 syllable (Jen-nah Kay, Lor-ah beth, Au-drey Ann)
3. JennahKay and AudreyAnn have an additional capital letter and Lorahbeth doesn't (it didn't look right to me to have the 'b' capitalized in her name)

So here's what I'm thinking:

1. If I capitalize the 'g' then Lorahbeth will be the only one without an additional capitalized letter in her name.
2. If I leave the 'g' lowercase then every other girl will have the second part of their first names capitalized (JennahKay, Lorahbeth, AudreyAnn, Ellagrace) and that would really keep my OCD happy!

I know that I'm WAY overthinking this. I know that in the scheme of eternity, it really doesn't matter...but right now, it really matters to me.

I really started something when we gave Lorahbeth a double first name! Then when we found out that AudreyAnn was a girl, I couldn't very well give her a "normal" first name (then she would have been left out)!

So if all 3 viewers of this blog will kindly leave a comment about how you think our 4th daughter's name should be spelled, I would appreciate it.

And to add to my OCD...since we probably won't know the exact date of her birth, we may get to choose. This may be daunting to some...not me! She will have an August birthday. Then we'll have the last 6 months of the year covered! AudreyAnn really threw me off when she came on July 31st. I think that was God's way of reminding me that I'm not in charge of everything!

Here are our family's birthdays:

July - AudreyAnn
August - Daughter #4
September - Lorahbeth
October - Shana
November - Billie
December - JennahKay

So anyway...I know that this was a slightly pointless post, but it was fun all the same...and now you have a little glimpse into my mind (crazy though it is)!

Not much to report...

Not much to report now. Just waiting on our homestudy report to be finalized. In the meantime, I've been running around gathering up stuff for our dossier. The stuff that is highlighted is what we have gathered already.

We will be ready to send in our dossier to AAI at the end of August. Just waiting for the funds to be there for the first part of the international fee.

The next step after the homestudy report is finished is to apply for our I600A, then be fingerprinted, then wait for our 171H...we need the 171H in order to bring EllaGrace into the country.

I found this website the other day that sells adoption t-shirts. I found some really cute ones.

1. Our Family
2. I'm Expecting
3. My Sister
4. The Stork
5. I'm in Love (My personal fave!)

Please continue to be in prayer for us as we patiently wait and trust in God's timing for us and our child. It's hard to keep from being frustrated because things aren't moving as fast as I want them too. I just have to remember that God has ordained a very specific little brown eyed girl for our family, and He is moving in such a way that will allow us to receive her at the appointed time.

We truly covet your prayers!