Good times...

Today I received an envelope from the Dept. of Homeland Security. Seems our I600A made it to the right place. Finally.

Hopefully in 2-4 weeks we'll have a fingerprint appointment.

The paper says that this should be finished in the next 90 days. We'll see.

You know how government stuff goes!

Anyway...a bit of relief that everything made it to where it's supposed to be.

Now on to more waiting!

Too cool!

I was just surfing online the other day when I came across this:

Now I know that this little girl's first name is probably Ella and the middle name is Grace. So it's not exactly Ellagrace's name...but I thought that it was cool anyway!

And here we are, thinking we were being original! I guess we're still a little bit on the original side, since her first name will be the two names joined together.

Anyway...I finally got our I600A sent off again. Hopefully my friend in the brown uniform can get it to the right place.

Fingers are crossed!

A sigh of relief...

Today I received my I600A application, birth certificates and check back in the mail.

I guess it takes a while for the USPS to return something to a person.

At least I have it now.

I'm half tempted to drive it to Atlanta myself just to make sure it gets where it needs to be. We're still contemplating that one.

I will probably give it another shot. This time I will use the lovely brown truck again.

Second time is a charm I hope!

Stinkin USCIS office...

I can't believe they don't have a phone number!

We were given the wrong address to file our I600A. I tracked it to Atlanta and it showed up as received. Turns out, it was received at the wrong address, but was handed back over to the postman to be returned to the sender. That would be me. I'm the sender.

That was last Friday. It's now Thursday and I still don't have my returned package yet. So needless to say, I called the bank yesterday and cancelled my $830 check. If someone stole my package, at least they can't cash the check now.

So one of two things has happened. Either (1) the envelope is on its way to my house OR (2) the nice postman delivered it to the correct address.

If it's the second option, when the USCIS office goes to cash the check, they won't be able to do so. Then I'll have to mail another check. Oy Vey...

If only there was a phone number so that I could call and actually talk to a human. That would be nice. After all, our tax dollars are paying these people. I should at least be able to get ahold of them.

In other news...our dossier was sent to the state department on Tuesday. That's the same day AAI received our paperwork in the mail. That's what I call a quick turnaround.

Our dossier will not be taking its trip to Ethiopia for another 2 weeks or so. That's okay though. I was just hoping for it to be on its way by the end of the month.

As long as things are progressing...

The USCIS office on the other hand...not so much.

**Update**

Found out yesterday that our dossier could possibly be on its way to Ethiopia in the next week! This is much, much sooner than anticipated. And for that, we are all very excited!

As for now, our dossier is in transit to Washington state (see post below.) Should be there by Tuesday. I'm trying not to track it every few hours!

A little obsessive, do you think?!? :-)

Nah...

Also, we changed our requested age. We have now requested a girl age birth-5 years.

A sweet lady at AAI informed me that we could possibly wait longer for an older child. That goes completely against what I have always thought. She said that the average wait for a girl age 18mo and up will be longer than for an infant. (An infant is a child under 12 months of age.)

I was told that the average wait for the request of a girl age infant-5 yrs is about 7-8 months. Could be longer, could be shorter.

So since we are not opposed to a baby (actually, the more I think about it, the more excited I get about having another crawler around the house!), we had our homestudy changed to the new age request.

We've had quite a reality check the last couple of days. This is really happening!

When I told Billie that our dossier could be headed to Ethiopia so soon, the first thing he said was, "we really need money".

Yup.

We lack about $14,000 or so to complete this. $6,500 for the Ethiopia program fee and the rest for travel and Ellagrace's visa. We're not worrying though. Yeah, it's a little nervewracking...especially if we recieve our referral as fast as Emily and Jay did...but what will we gain by worrying?

Not a dern thing. Not a minute, not an hour, not a day...and definitely NOT $14,000!

My job this coming week is to fill out and mail grant applications. If you know anyone that would be willing to donate frequent flyer miles, please let me know. I'm not sure how all of that works, but I'm more than willing to find out!

Thank you for your prayers and support. We treasure it all!

Dossier complete!

Our dossier is complete. Finally. All of the running around and notarizing and phone calls are done!

By 3:00 today, our dossier will be on a lovely brown truck being driven by a lovely man in a lovely brown uniform. On its way to the airport for its big trip across the country.

Whew.

I can equate this early part of the adoption process to the first 8 months of pregnancy.

All of the excitement thinking about this new life. A lot of work getting organized and prepared.

Clothing purchased...bedroom ready...name chosen...

I have a feeling that this next part is going to be like that last 4 weeks of pregnancy.

All of the anticipation. And then you still have to get through that last month.

It's long.

Very long.

Like the "begging the doctor to deliver you early because you can't handle being preggers one more day" kind of long.

That's what I'm anticipating.

You see, we are so excited about this new member of our family. We absolutely can't wait to feast our eyes on her face.

The waiting from here on out is going to be the hardest part.

But that's okay.

Because once the due date is here...all of the waiting...is worth it.

Here are a couple of photos from the last 2 days:

Dossier (laid out on our 6 person table)

Our family at the UPS drop off. (It was very difficult to hand this envelope over. Billie asked me if I would rather drive to Washington state and hand it over myself! I told him that that's not a bad idea...he just rolled his eyes. Seriously though, I almost made the man pry it out of my hands. I wanted him to understand the importance of what was in his hands!)

And it's off...

Our I600A is on its way to the Atlanta Citizen and Immigration Services office. Hopefully it will be there tomorrow.

What's next?

We wait for our fingerprinting appointment.

We get the appointment.

We wait.

We drive 2 hours to Atlanta to get fingerprinted.

We drive home.

We wait some more.

Eventually we will receive our 171H...this will allow us to bring Ellagrace back into the country as a United States citizen.

And that, my friends, will be a glorious day!

We covet your prayers and support.

Thank you!