more paperwork :-(

Let me just start with this:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed....Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." From 2 Corinthians 4

I have to admit I feel a little hard pressed on every side today. But I am SO thankful that I do believe in the unseen eternal glory!

Basically, I can't say everything here that I want to, but I just found out that we need a homestudy addendum because we are approved to adopt a child age 1-4 years. Well, it used to be okay as long as the child was 4 at referral (which Hope was). But apparently now, since she is over 48 months and might be 5 by the time we actually adopt her (her birthday is August 17), we need to send $340, yet another form and new papers from our social worker. Soon.

We also submitted some papers to immigration a week or two ago and may not have sent all the necessary documentation with it, for reasons I won't go into here. But all we can do is wait and see if our officer at CIS (Citizenship and Immigration for those who don't speak IA, which stands for international adoption...) contacts us for more info.

All I want is to get to China and get my girl!!

We sent a letter and care package via a service and hopefully Hope and her foster parents will get it soon. We had sent another letter and photo album back in April but I wanted to send another in case the first one didn't make it. We also paid this service to make a phone call to the orphanage (even though she is not there, who knows how that works) to ask 10 questions. The thing I most want to know is whether or not she understands that she will be adopted. That is very important to me that she is being prepared for the day when she leaves her foster family and soon after her country, language, food...and all that she has ever known will be different. Can you please pray that someone is talking to her about these things?




We were also able to send a few pictures, so I sent this one so she could see her bed and quilt (still in progress). It's a trundle bed next to Lilla's bed. I also put her name on the wall. And I decided to send a picture that included my mom since she is HOPEfully going to be able to come with us! Please pray for that too if you think of it! I will take with us pictures of our larger family to talk to her about when we are in China. She needs to know about Grampy and Grammy and all the cousins aunts and uncles too who are waiting!

We are on day 14 of waiting for TA (travel approval) which can take 6-12 weeks. Then usually 2-3 weeks until actual travel. End of July travel is still possible!