Adoption Update 12/15/2012

We received the following notification from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Wednesday morning:

USCIS in Port au Prince, Haiti is pleased to inform you that the I-600 petition, which you filed at this office on May 8, 2012 on behalf of James, seeking to qualify him as your immediate relative has been approved. Your case has been transferred to the Adoption Unit of the Consular Section for the visa process. This completes all action by USCIS on the referenced petition. The Consular Section will soon contact you to follow-up on your case.

We know of several other families that received the same approval either Tuesday or Wednesday. And a few of them already have visa appointments for next week. YIKES!!! My thoughts, due to another family ahead of us, is that it'd be a couple weeks before we receive our visa appointment date for a couple weeks out. Maybe not???

We're waiting to hear when our visa appointment will be. We're praying it is no later than the week of January 7th, so we can travel no later than the week of January 14th. We'd like to travel the first half of January. The timing would work out well with family coming to stay with the other kids, and also for us to be back home for Kaylen's birthday on the 21st.

The unknown timing and not being able to plan are just about making me crazy, since I like to have things well-planned-out. I want to know what to expect. I want to have my lists and agenda set. And that's just not possible. So I'm praying for myself to trust in God's timing. Someone suggested on a Facebook group of adoptive moms, to make a list of things you'd like to accomplish, and work on the list when this last step of the process gets to you. I've done that, and I feel like I'm getting a lot done, but still have a lot more to do! Many have also said that this last part of the wait is the hardest. It's definitely true. We didn't make it this far in our previous adoption before the earthquake struck, so I had no idea!

'For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' (Jeremiah 29:11)