Step 1...? Check!

I’m not really sure where “Step 1” started, but we finally feel it’s complete and we certainly feel accomplished and filled with joy!

After arriving home from Salem Friday (which is 2.5 hours away) and having just authenticated several of the last (of the last) documents, we received the final USCIS document in the mail.  We could have been frustrated, but instead were doing the happy dance in our seats with the girlies giggling away and commenting on how they had never seen us soo excited!  Or maybe the giggling was from their dad's rhythm, or lack thereof, even when he creates his own. ;)

We couldn’t believe it had finally arrived and that it said we were approved for “2 children 0-3 yrs”.  NOW…I know we talked and talked about this...and it was included in the home study but, seeing it written on paper was quite exciting and a bit scary!

Rather than waiting 2 weeks for our next trip to Salem, we sent the document overnight to the Secretary of State’s office to have them authenticate it and overnight it back.

We received it Wednesday and I spent several hours last night scanning all the documents.  The agency needs the originals as well as a complete copy and we have to keep a copy for ourselves to take with us to Ethiopia. I then checked, re-checked, and maybe even triple checked ;) that we had everything notarized, authenticated and ready to send!

We wrote the checks today...(THELARGESTCHECKI’VEEVERWRITTENSECONDTOTHEDOWNPAYMENTONTHISHOUSECHECK!) and FedEx’d it all to the agency…all 3.5lbs.

Our agency will review the documents, then overnight them to someone in Washington D.C., who “get’s up really early in the morning to stand in line...” somewhere for the final authentication. (That’s all I remember about that conversation.)

 
This person better be responsible and treat these documents with the same TLC we have the last 5 ½ months!  Or heads may roll…

 

I’m not really sure how I’m going to spend my time now??  It likely will involve applying for grants (which I’m dreading the paperwork…), fundraising, tracking down what other paperwork we may still need to prepare ie. I received some strange document today regarding Visa’s and something about some paperwork sitting at the Embassy in Addis??  I’m not sure what that’s all about but need to figure it out and I know we need to look into immunizations and what we need in order to travel safely, etc. Not to mention TRAVEL! I need to round up our miles, figure out what we have, what we don't have, and on and on.

I guess besides patiently waiting for a match, we can patiently work through all these to-do's!

Speaking of patience, this may not be my best quality.  Being Type-A I generally know what I want, how to get it and don’t beat around the bush waiting for something to happen for or to me.  Adoption is a different beast however.  It sort of reminds me of my Ironman days and all the preparation I made towards the race. 

Months and months of preparation. Some days not really understanding the why or the when or the how, but knowing that if I keep putting one foot in front of the other, it WILL pay off, and it always did. 10 times over.

 

The fight to get there was quickly forgotten by the glory of the finish. 

I think this will hold true in the adoption as well.  Once that baby (or babies :) are in our arms, the months of hard work and constant reminders to be patient with the process for the glory of the finish WILL pay off!

I feel I have handled this fairly well up to this point but I get inpatient and anxious just thinking about the next steps and how I will handle patiently waiting for our match, and then patiently waiting to meet our little girl once we’ve seen her beautiful face.  It makes me inpatient and anxious just writing about it! So I go back to Romans 5:4 – and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

xo ~Angela