There actually are several reasons why it took a while, however, so I think it will be easiest just to discuss those as well as update you on our adoption along the way.
First off we were completing our home study!
The home study process, as I'm sure always is with a first time adoptive family, was a little nerve wracking. We had an amazing social worker though, that made the meetings as comfortable as possible. Get this... she was actually an adoptee herself from our girl's country! We loved getting to know her, and it was actually pretty painless. It was great to get her perspective on some adoptive things like cultural and racial differences and how to best prepare our child for situations.
Ha, of course I freaked out about our house being spotless for the home visit, baked muffins, and making sure all the child safety things were in place. But, in reality it was pretty simple! It was mostly a check to make sure our roof wasn't falling in and that we had adequate space.
The worst part of the home study process was definitely just gathering all the documents and waiting on approval from various government checks- one in particular that ended up taking 2-3 weeks longer holding up our approval because we signed a date instead of typing it.... sigh. Don't even get me started.
It all Comes Tumbling Down
While we were completing that process, and partially the reason for not updating in a while, is not knowing what to say about this, and wanting to protect her privacy in it, until she was ready to make it public. I know a lot of you saw me ask for prayer for an unknown reason, I'm sorry if a lot of you thought it was something going on with our adoption, it was something that pretty much turned our world upside down, as i'm sure most of you that have experienced cancer or cancer with a loved one understand.
Shortly after we were matched, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I'll try to just lay out the facts, and leave out the roller coaster that were all of our emotions through those first few weeks. If you remember from my mentioning it in the choosing of Ava's name and discussing her grandmother, my mother's mother died from breast cancer when she was in her early 30's, so it's something that hits pretty hard emotionally in our family to begin with, but then we got some much worse news. Not only that she had cancer, but that the cancer may have already spread to my mom's liver and possibly her brain. Because of the possibility of it being in multiple areas of her body, decided to go on to a more advanced hospital MD Anderson in Houston.
Praise the Lord that the tumor in my mom's brain was found to be benign. It's just something that will need monitoring. Regarding her liver, however, it's something they're still not totally sure about. There was a biopsy, but the location was hard to get to, so they're unsure of the accuracy. She just finished her first round of chemotherapy, and she'll go back the end of this month for further testing.
Our family could definitely use your prayers in this trying time. My heart aches for my mom. I'm able to say everything calmly now as some time and the initial shock has passed, but it's still so difficult and I HATE seeing her suffer. As you all i'm sure know Chemo takes so much out of her, and makes her feel pretty terrible. It's a hard fight, but she's really looking forward to getting her grand baby home. Ava know's nothing about this of course, in her little world halfway across the globe, but she's becoming a big symbol of hope in our family through such a trying time.
Trying Times Continue
Shortly after this happened, we faced another trying time full of unknowns. Will works with a smaller branch of a gigantic company as a research engineer. He loved his job, the small little group he worked with, and getting to travel internationally frequently. And then one day, we received news that the "higher ups" would be flying in to make a major announcement in a week, but for certain other reasons, we had a pretty bad feeling that it would not be good news.
Let me just say, a week is a very long time to wait for that. Especially just after finishing home study, being matched with our girl, a lot was on the line for Will's income, mostly the chance of losing her if he lost his job for starters, and on a lesser note yet still troubling losing precious time since in our adoption paperwork every second counts. That again is one of the times I asked for prayer.
The week came, and as we mostly expected Will's branch was getting moved and combined into an Atlanta research group. Thankfully and Praise the Lord, however, they still wanted to keep everyone in his group within the company. His group would be divided up into various groups, some going to Germantown (a bigger engineering facility close by) and others to the research group in Atlanta.
As with all big companies this was a process, and they called each in individually to make offers. Will was one of three who got the offer to move to Atlanta. Not good news at all! A move right now would be pretty detrimental to our adoption and that timeline, not to mention needing to be close to my family during this time, and having just finished finally moving in to our house. Thankfully the company understood, and still did not want to lose Will, and made him an offer to the Germantown group. It was a frightening time, but we are so thankful to have it worked out. Still a bit sad since Will's small group was so close knit and he'll be traveling much less, but we are so thankful and praising the Lord for a steady income at this time. He just started work there this week, and is liking the new place thus far.
Needless to say the past few months have been very trying. We knew God knew that both of those things would happen... it was no surprise to Him. He knew it would happen in this time. God is definitely teaching us even more, to rely on Him. We've said all along throughout this process that things have reminded us of the song by Hillsong "Oceans" where it talks about God calling Peter out on the water, calling him to a deeper faith and dependence. That continues to become even more true as we walk this path. Sometimes terrible things happen, or scary things, things you have no control over. I believe God is working everything for His good and for His name's sake. I continue to praise His name and have faith in Him in all of these things.
We've Kinda had a Lot Going on...
- In our adoption news, we were able to get our home study approved.
- After that approval we were able to apply for grants finally! Please continue to pray that God will provide financially to bring sweet Ava home.
- We were also able to send our acceptance paperwork to her country, which was amazing. There's something all to sweet, to be able to say Yes we want her as ours officially. That also starts the process to get her legals.
- We were able to apply for immigration approval (USCIS), the first part. And, we received word last week that we were approved!!
- Once we had that form, it was the last part needed to complete our Dossier (the big huge gigantic book of tears, sweat, and lots and lots of prayer ha... with tons of legal documents, medical forms, extra notarized copies, etc etc etc)
- Last week we were able to send in our Dossier to Holt U.S. where they check everything, make sure there are no mistakes, nothing left blank, all the forms are right etc. (There could be major delays here!! and that is what you DO NOT WANT)
- Yesterday we received word that our Dossier looked great!! Amazing news!! And that it was sent to our girl's country today!!! It will be translated there, and will await Emigration Permit Submission.
If you'd like to know in detail all the steps just check out my new tab "Adoption Timeline" I'll keep everything updated on it.
And Now... We Wait...
Now our part is pretty much done, minus a few things that will take place later, filling out our second part to USCIS approval once we receive legals, and a few documents for court.
I'll be honest, It's kind of an eery feeling knowing that everything is out of our hands... but it's a good feeling too knowing we've done all we can.
Please join us in praying for a short wait and a smooth process the rest of the way. Ready to get this baby girl home!!!
Oh and to stay busy... I've started working on her room. Who knows how fast she could get here right?! So I need to be prepared... ha (fingers crossed) And I'm pretty sure I have enough projects that I might still not be done by the time she gets here... hahaha... so let the process begin! Expect some budget savvy updates in the home projects/DIY section coming your way soon! :)
It might be slow for a while, but I'll definitely try not to make it quite as long before an update this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment