The Mail

This process reminds me of the reverence I held for the mail at camp growing up.  When it was mail time, I would hold my breath, hoping that I had a letter from home.  Actually, I wanted a package.  A giant box full of junk that I could share with my cabin-mates, silly sunglasses, plastic leis, pens, tiny American flags.  When I was older - 14 or so - I would actually pack the box myself and give it to my mom to mail a few days after I left.  That way, I was certain to receive the necessities needed to make our cabin uber cool-hip-elves for the Christmas in July party.

Up to date I have been rushing to get paperwork notarized and sent, only to receive letters requesting more notarization, which means more FedExing. Nevertheless, those letters, too, excite me.  To me, it is one step closer to our little one. One step closer to an incredibly long journey.  One step closer to completing our little family.  In previous posts I have mentioned the emotion that comes with sending documents to reach such a goal.  I thought I was excited when I received our appointment for our fingerprints to be taken in Houston in early May. (For time line purposes, our prints were taken May 18th).  I was wrong.  Nothing compares to when I received the only "package" USCIS will ever send us.  Our I-171H Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition! Our I-600A has been approved!  My heart continues to race as I type!

We have been approved, which means that our dossier is now complete.  Wow!  I wish I could send it to Rwanda tomorrow.  However, our dossier needs to be authenticated by the Secretary of State in D.C. and then sent to the Rwandan Embassy.  That process should take approximately 3 weeks from today.  I am crossing my fingers that we will be DTR* in 4 weeks.  It seems so long and so short.  Of course, then my patience will be put to the test as we join the ranks of families waiting for their little ones.
Please keep those families, ours and those that have the privilege and honor of placing such precious children with their forever families in your prayers and thoughts.   

*For those not familiar, DTR stands for "Dossier to Rwanda."  It is a great moment for adopting families.  Then the real waiting begins.

Long time. No post.

It has been a while.  In the past month, we have completed and gathered all of our paperwork to compile our dossier, submitted our dossier for certification in Austin thanks to an awesome family (who are currently waiting on their precious little man), submitted additional information to the State Department, had our biometric fingerprints taken and found a fabulous Power of Attorney (POA) to represent our expanding family in Rwanda. 
At home, we are keeping our little one in our thoughts and prayers and just living day to day.  This process is not for the faint of heart.  I always knew it would be emotionally and mentally draining, but to be living through it is pretty raw.  I hope that others have blissfully calm experiences, but for us if the experience isn't hard, tough, draining; if we don't re-evaluate ourselves, our family, friends, motivations, dreams, hopes every ten minutes; and continually place trust, hope, faith in a higher power then it really isn't worth receiving all of our resources.  We are incredibly thankful that this is an endeavor worth undertaking.