Happy Camper

Yep today I am one happy camper. I have spent a great deal of time over the last 5 weeks preparing the necessary mountain of paperwork and documentation to update our home study and renew our approval from the US Immigration office (it expires every 18 months) for our second adoption. I was aware that our move to China would require us to do "some" paperwork and have a new social worker come and give our home a seal of approval but my expectations proved to be about 1/10 of what was actually required. Well, after a couple of days of just being plain overwhelmed (and sending out an urgent prayer request) I began tackling my mountain in true Everitt fashion.....I made a list. And let me tell you I worked that list and I begged, borrowed and stole (well I didn't actually steal but work with me here, ok?) from every person that could help me with any one of the 17 documents I had to gather from South Carolina, Texas and even a police clearance report from the local Chinese officials. {It was clean by the way}

So....I had to gather all these documents while the social worker was simultaneously creating a document proving that indeed we are STILL fit and STILL stable enough to bring an additional child into our home. (can you detect a hint of sarcasm). But, the LORD was gracious and sent the sweetest, Christian woman to be our social worker here in China (she works for a US agency) and we so enjoyed our day of interviews with Emily. In a nutshell, I had about 5 weeks and I needed to get all those documents created or completed and in my hands and then to the social worker's agency in Tennessee; the sw's agency needed the documents to complete the home study update; my adoption agency (America World) in Virginia needed to read and approve the home study update; and then all of those things had to be matched up with our application to the Immigration Services in Dallas. I'm telling you there were a lot of hands that had to touch these documents. Oh yeah......did I mention that it had to all be received by the Immigration Service on or before August 20 or else we would have to pay a hefty $700+ fee to get back on track.

Well as I'm sure you can tell from the title of my post today.....it all got signed, sealed and delivered and I have a fed ex confirmation to prove it. And, I might add, with one day to spare. I was one happy camper this morning when I tracked that package and got my confirmation. WooHOO!!!!

So....you might be asking yourself, what does this do for our process. Well- the short answer is not a darn thing. We still have our place in line (we've been here a year now) and we are still anticipating a long wait to receive the next member of our family. We know the LORD's timing is absolutely perfect b/c I have a precious little daughter who is sleeping soundly in her princess bed just one room away. We will continue to trust Him and walk where He leads but I have to be honest.....I'm sure hoping He leads us to my little girl soon. My arms are starting to ache for her.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for me during this particular part of our journey as well as those many, many who have supported our passion for adoption. God is good and we just get to go along for the ride.

Chat with ya later!