Have I Mentioned the Roller Coaster Ride?

shortly after my last post, i received an email from officer brewer, the person who's handling our paperwork. she mentioned that we have approval, it will be mailed out on monday and that the u.s. embassy has already been notified! woo-hoo!

i left a message for jynger at our adoption agency but she's at a conference all weekend. hopefully, she will check her email and respond. she will have a good idea of when we will be cleared for travel! we hope to leave may 11th or 12th, but we really need to wait and talk to jynger.

thanks for all of the prayers! i will update you on our travel as soon as i hear something!

God is good!

Still Nothing

we are just days away from may and we still haven't received our I-600 approval. i NEVER thought it would have taken us this long to get mia.

we've been at the far end of every single timeframe that the adoption agency gave us. they said it takes families 12-16 months to get a referral of a child - it took us 16. they tell families that it takes 4-7 months to receive your child after the referral and it has taken us 7 SO FAR. i know this is not the case for most of the families that have gone through the process. i've heard their stories and seen them receive their children is shorter amounts of time than it will take us.

i'm just having a hard time understanding why we seem to be the exception. i know there is a reason for everything - i know that. when we first heard that our paperwork was going to be delayed, i had a huge sense that there was a good reason. i just lose grasp of that at times - times like now.

God is still good - even though we don't know why we have to go through the things we go through.

Rollercoaster Ride

okay, here's how yesterday went...no, first let's start with last week. on thursday of last week, i spoke with pat at congressman istook's office. she said that she has been trying to make contact with the uscis office in dallas (they have our paperwork). pat mentioned that she is having a hard time getting anyone to call her back. who doesn't call a congressman back? anyway, we figured that that wasn't working so we contacted kenny marchant who is a congressman from texas. we graduated from snu with his son matt. we figured that with our paperwork in texas, having a texas congressman contact the uscis office might be smart. on thursday of last week, deanna, my parent's pastor's wife, contacted congressman marchant's office. deanna is very good friends with kenny and his spokesperson ( i think her name is susie miller).

anyway, yesterday we got the response - but not the response i was wanting to hear. the uscis officer working on our file was just now looking at applications filed before january 15th. we filed on march 10th. this was devestating. that would mean that all paperwork was backed up 2 months. i didn't know WHEN we would possibly travel now. i just broke down. there have only been a few times during this adoption journey that i have just really wept...ya know, the ugly cry! yep, that's what i was doing.

that night dustin went fishing with a friend and i went to charleston's with my parents. before i left the house, i decided to check my email. three weeks ago, i sent an email to officer brewer, the person handling our paperwork in dallas. i waited and waited and nothing came...until now. officer brewer apologized for the delay in responding to my email and said that our file would be reviewed and a decision will be made THIS WEEK! can't believe it! wow!

so, now we just need to pray that all of our paperwork checks out okay. if it does (and it should), we will recieve our approval in the mail. we will then just need to wait for the u.s. consulate in kolkata to recieve the same thing and then we will be cleared for travel! finally!!!!

i've decided, after this is all done, i'm going to make t-shirts for dustin and i saying, "i survived the adoption process". we will wear it proud!

God is good!

Sorry, No News

okay, so there's really no news. we are still waiting on the I-600 approval and then we can travel. we originally contacted state senator owen laughlin, who is my aunt's brother-in-law. from there, congressman frank lucas' office contacted us and now this week, we've been contacted by congressman ernest istook's office. each person that has contacted me has been very nice, and really seems to want to help. i just hope that they are persistent enough with the government agency involved to push our paperwork through.

this wait it getting very painful. the agency processing our paperwork is saying that it will take 60 days for us to get approval. that means we would travel in mid may. that's just not okay with me! i really want to have mia by her 1st birthday (may 20th). she's just growing up without us.

i'm asking those of you that read my blog to please, please, please pray specifically that those people who our working our file will process it quickly and that we are able to travel before the end of april.

thanks for the prayers and i will post again when i hear from congressman istook's office.