3rd time's a charm!

So much to share tonight.  Best news is our final home study has been received by USCIS, according to the US Post Office at least.  We need a lot of prayers for a world record completion time on this phase of the process.

Second thing was not so good.  The forms that caused us the most problem were definitely the medical forms.  They were rejected once because they were not signed in blue ink.  For some reason out of all the forms, the birth country wants these signed in blue ink so they can be sure they are not photocopies.  Apparently no one told them high quality color photocopiers are pretty easily and cheaply available at this point.

With the second copy of those in hand (and signed with blue ink) we took them to the county clerk for certification prior to state certification/apostille.  Patty's were rejected immediately by the clerk because the expiration date on the notaries stamp did not match the official date on record.  Tom's were authenticated but when we got home we realized the clerk had crossed out the expiration date on his too, writing in new numbers, thus invalidating the entire form.  All four medical forms would have to be done again.  What are the odds both of our notaries would not know their correct expiration date and no one would ever have checked or told them?

Since neither of our doctor's offices have a current notary, we had to get notaries to meet us there again for the third time. By this point, everyone at our doctor's offices and most of the notaries in the county know us pretty well.  On the third try, the county clerk accepted the documents.  Yeah!  At this point we have every document we need for the dossier except for the USCIS approval.  We have to take the whole package to the state capital for certification soon.

We also received the following fund raising bracelets today, emblazoned with the name of this blog "Hope 4 Every Child".

We are going to run a fundraiser and adoption awareness table at an upcoming community day, advertising for Reece's Rainbow and our little Jenny.

I mentioned to a friend today how this waiting part of the adoption sometimes feels like when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness waiting to enter the Promised Land.  He wisely suggested that when we are facing impossible bureaucracy or other setbacks that we use the prayer Moses said each time the Israelites set out on a new journey.

Num 10:35 - "Rise up, O LORD! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you."

With that encouragement, let us rise to meet any challenges that remain and get this little girl home soon!