Where we are

So, my mom is in Hawaii! I'm so glad that my mom and dad got to go. She said her swelling legs got kind of bad on the plane, but has improved since. She is going to Boston for a second opinion next month. She also sees her doctor at Emory next Monday, and hopefully I will get to go too.

As for our paperwork, I feel like we are making progress! I meet with our social worker tomorrow for my "alone" meeting. We have almost all the paperwork done for her to be able to write the homestudy. We've gotten our medical check ups, been drug tested, filled out many financial forms, gotten letters of recommendation, proved that we have health insurance and car insurance, and that we were married and born. All that's left is for Mark to get cleared by the local police (pretty sure he will be fine there!) and get fingerprinted. We have to get fingerprinted by the FBI twice! Once for the homestudy, once for immigration later on. Oh, we also have to finish our parenting class via DVD and online testing! No, it is not easier the second time. But it is still worth it and I understand why they have all the requirements.

So, after the social worker writes our homestudy, we submit that to U.S. immigration and WAIT for them to approve us. In the meantime, we prepare additional documents for China and our agency. There's a lot of overlap! At this point we will be "in line" to be matched. And I can't believe it, but a lot of families are being matched within a few months. So we could know who our child is by early 2009! Then while we're waiting for China to approve us for the child, we have to be sure to have all the documents for China notarized, sent to the county and state for certification and then to the consulate for authentication. It's a LOT of papers and it's called a dossier.

After our dossier gets to China and we get our initial approval from China, we can expect to wait 4-8 months until we travel. That's where I get "sometime in 2009" as my answer for "when are you going to China?" I'm guessing late 2009, just so I don't get my hopes up.

Right now I am researching medical conditions (in my free time between taking care of my family and home, worrying about my mom and doing paperwork, sometimes not in that order!) and trying to find doctors who will be ready to review files for us when we are matched. Did I mention that when we accept our referral within 8 hours we also have to have a doctor already lined up as well as a written treatment and care plan?! Okay, my blood pressure is going up.

Let me pause and take a deep breath (bold for my own reminding of myself!):

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 (Jesus)

Okay, everyone needs a snack and Jake wants to play basketball now....

Check the "Room for at Least One More" blog on the right if you have a chance. So much about God's faithfulness.