Paperwork to Michigan and then to Chinese Consulate

Good evening!

This week has been a busy one with grants being mailed and some new things potentially in the works involving widows and orphans and our church.  More on that to come... if it takes off as we hope it does.  We were the ones who introduced it to our Respect Life committee.  :)  If it works for us, we would be working with an organization called "Both Hands Helping," which would allow our church to create a fund for adoptive parents while helping widows at the same time.  Google it if you want to know more.  Otherwise, just wait.  We should know more about what will happen in the next two or three months (I hope).

Today the big news is that our dossier and its two copies were mailed to Bethany Christian Services Global and sent to the China Team.  Here's a picture of our documents that had to be state-sealed, but don't let the picture fool you.  This was not even half of the paperwork we had to fill out!

We had to send in everything now because certain documents expire after six months of being done, so they need to be sent to the Chinese Consulate ASAP.  We were so eager to get this adoption moving that we did a lot of it early, knowing that timing could be an issue but also hearing that immigration moved really fast after fingerprinting.  Unfortunately, we are still waiting for immigration to come through.  We called a few days ago, and we have still not been "assigned an officer," and they really can't tell us more than that.  I asked if they were running behind, since I know some people who have received approval letters within a week of fingerprinting, and the secretary told me that they were and that it depends on where we live.  That seemed odd to me.  We're not that far from the processing center in Missouri-- at least no further than anyone else in Indianapolis.   Oh well.  There's no rushing the government.

We also trust God that there must be some reason for this delay.  Maybe our son is not yet old enough for the waiting child list.  Whatever it is, we will trust God's timing. 

The other big news for today is that it is the fourth anniversary of our first date.  We will be going to see the Indianapolis Symphony at Ellis Park-- and we have to leave right now!  :)

Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for immigration to come through.  We thank everyone who continues to read our blog, and we enjoy being able to share each step along the way.


-Jennifer and Howie