good news! and we need your prayers!

This weekend, we received some pretty fabulous news.  Our lawyer in DRC has said that all of Elizabeth’s paperwork is DONE!  He has yet to make it to an internet cafe where he can scan and send these documents to our facilitator, so we are hoping that everything is indeed complete as said.  If we do have all of the documents ready, then we can then go ahead and schedule an embassy appointment and begin planning our travel! This is huge!  And this leads me to my first prayer request…

Would you pray that our lawyer or the orphanage director would be able to make it to the internet cafe soon and that all of the paperwork will be confirmed complete and ready to go?

To complicate matters, we’re facing a major time crunch with USCIS.  Our second set of fingerprints expire on October 28th.  We have known this for a while and sent our request for an extension in plenty of time.  However, due to our confusion in sending our check to the wrong USCIS address… and then our check going MIA once it was there… we have had to start from scratch with a brand new request for fingerprints.  So, we now have 33 days for our check to clear and be posted… for our officer to see that and schedule our fingerprint appointment… for us to get fingerprinted in Durham (again)… for our biometrics results to be posted… and for our officer to generate a new I-171H.  Again, sorry for the adoption jargon.  In layman’s terms, suffice it to say that a lot has to happen!  And if we don’t have a valid I-171H, we can’t travel.  Historically, all of this has taken much longer for us, and our USCIS officer acknowledges that we’re cutting it close.  But we’re trusting that our God is bigger and more powerful than USCIS and that he can do this.

So, would you pray along with us that our check clears and is posted TODAY so that our fingerprint appointment can be scheduled quickly.  Pray that all of this will be taken care of before October 28th and that it would have no impact on our travel.

Finally, a couple at our church is arriving in DRC today to meet their two children!  I’m so stoked for them and love, love that there will be other Congolese kiddos locally.  (And ironically, I went to high school in Richmond with John.  Such a small world!)  Check out Kylie’s blog here!

Pray that the Whites would have safe travel and a smooth experience in Kinshasa.  Pray that they would be filled with peace throughout the coming weeks in Congo.  Pray for health, safety, and easy transitions for the two sweet children they’re adopting.

Over the past few years of this adoption journey, we have seen the power of God manifested in the prayers of you guys.  I don’t have words to express how grateful I am for the love you have shown us and the prayers you have offered up in faith for us.  So, let’s keep asking boldly to bring Elizabeth home soon!  Guys, He’s got this!