USCIS Approval!

It’s been awhile since I last posted. We did not get USCIS approval by Sept. 1  as we had hoped, but our adoption agency is now saying that if we get our dossier to them by the week of Sept. 12, we will probably still be ok. OK, as in make the Oct. 1 deadline for having our dossier in China. I've already sent our agency most of the papers that make up the dossier. 

That being said, we got our approval today! I spoke with the agent handling our case this afternoon; she was working on our application at the time. She then emailed me later to say that we were approved. This is a big moment in the process. We should have the form we need from them by Friday. It will go to China with us, but a copy of it has to be notarized, certified, and authenticated. It will then be turned in to Children’s Hope as part of our dossier.  This piece of paper will have to be hand carried to Springfield for certification at the Sec. of State’s office, then hand carried to Chicago to the Chinese Consulate, and then to St. Louis to our adoption agency. This will obviously take more than one day because of travel time and business hours.

On another note,  $4,650 will be due when we turn in the final papers of our dossier. Sadly, we did not receive the interest-free adoption loan that we applied for; we were told that they simply did not have the funds available. I sent off an application to another interest-free adoption loan provider today. We did, however, receive a matching grant from Hand In Hand. They are a Christian organization, and they are willing to match dollar for dollar donations up to $2,500. I will post more info. on  that tomorrow.

So far God has provided the money that we've needed for this adoption. My family has been a huge help as well. We have to believe that God will continue to provide us with the ability to do what He's called us to do.

Keep praying on our little one's behalf.

                                                                         Lori