Hello, friends! I realize it's been a very long time since I've updated on here. I started a private Facebook group as well, and posted there but forgot to add those updates here!
Here's the highlights of the past few months:
-March 31, we had our home study, and it was approved soon afterwards.
-April 15, we mailed off our next application step, the I-800A. This application is to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and examines and determines our suitability to adopt. Average processing time for that application is 2 months, and on June 20 (2 months + 5 days later!),
... Read morewe received our approval notice from USCIS.
-At the end of April, we held an epic, massive, humongous yard sale. We had so much help from friends and family, and so many generous donations poured in! We were humbled and awed at how much we raised--$9,000! Once again, we couldn't have done it without you, our village, walking alongside us. In the case of the yard sale that was even more clear, as Aly worked herself to the point of exhaustion and landed in urgent care. Thank you, thank you, to every person who helped make that event such an incredible success.
-Once we received our I-800A approval, we compiled all of our documentation, had everything notarized, and then sent it off to the WA Secretary of State's office to be apostilled. An apostille is like a notarization certificate, but occurs at the state level and tells a foreign government that the apostilled document is legal/official/certified. It took a few weeks for those to all go through, but at the end of July, the dossier (ie completed paperwork file with our whole life story and then some 🤪) was scanned, emailed, and then mailed to Colombia to begin the translation and in-country review process. Meanwhile, we also learned we needed to send a whole-house walkthrough video showing our clean and tidy home we'll be bringing the child(ren) home to. Frantic cleaning ensued, the video was completed, and we sent that off the first week of August.
At this point, I've been told our file now takes up a 5 inch binder, and is in the hands of the review committee at the orphanage we will be adopting from. We're solidly into the waiting phase ;)
Once we receive a referral, we will have two weeks to review it, pray over it, get an adoption medical specialist consultation regarding the details of it, and make a decision to accept or deny the referral. Once we've accepted a referral, we will send part two of our USCIS application in, this time to get the child-specific details approved. Then we'll get an Article 5 letter from Colombia's government, and once we receive that (4-6 weeks???) we make travel plans!
Continue to pray that we would be preparing well for this transition, that God's grace would cover every step of the process, and that our Colombian little one(s) would have His hand of protection and mercy covering them. We don't know who we're bringing home yet, but God does, and that brings us great peace as we sit in the waiting.
Psalm 139:13-18
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
