adoption updates

Lots of news on the adoption front!

First, I was pumped to open up a super important looking letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security today and was even more excited to see that we have already been assigned our appointment date for CIS fingerprinting! Score!! I freaked out momentarily when I saw that they scheduled us for a day that I was planning to work. I quickly dialed up the office to get a feel for how busy my schedule was looking for that day, at which time I was kindly informed that they didn’t even have me on the schedule to work in the first place. Score #2!

Also in our mailbox today was my long awaited birth certificate! I took that and a big stack of other notarized forms over to the FedEx office to get them out of my hands and onto our dossier service. I love that. After hours and hours of filling out paperwork, it is so liberating to plop it on someone else’s lap to deal with.

So really all that we need to make our dossier complete is our FBI clearance and our CIS clearance. Then it’s off to Rwanda!

A few people have asked about fundraising, and I am so excited to report that God has provided every penny that we have needed up to this point through your generous gifts. We had another chunk of money due last week, and the amount that was due was within $60 of the amount we have been given in donations to this point! Unbelievable! Our next large payment is due when we receive our referral… and then comes the travel costs. I continue to stay awake at night brainstorming ideas for fundraisers, and we are diligently working on grant applications. But if you are, like, BFFs with the Jonas Brothers or something and could convince them to host a benefit concert for us, holla back at me! I would totally be game. 🙂

And, hands down, the best part of the day was when Carson asked to pray before dinner. I kid you not, the child looked up into the sky and said, “Dear God, thank you for me food and for me little brother in Africa. Amen.” His sweet prayer brought tears to my eyes and a wonderful ending to the day.