Home Study Done!!!

We are pleased to say that our home study was finished and approved by our adoption agency last Friday! This week we sent it off to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). They will read over the report and let us know if we are approved to adopt internationally. They say this takes from 45-90 days to hear back from USCIS. One step closer, yay!

We also sent out a few grant applications as they all want a copy of the home study too. Hopefully we will hear good things from them. :) It will be a while before I expect to hear back. Most processing times are from 6-12 weeks at least. I'm starting to freak out a bit about all the timing, but I know it will be ok. At least most of the time I know. :)

I know God's got this, but sometimes I forget. I am having some major control issues this week. Not sure what's different from previous weeks. Maybe it's that we are moving one step closer. I don't know. I know I don't have real control over anything, but even those little things that I thought I had control of are slipping away. On top of it, one of my children keeps stumping me with their behavior. Nothing I do seems to be getting through. It's a helpless feeling. If I think about all the unknowns that are in front of me, it's overwhelming. I need to give it to God each time and dwell on Truth.

We did find out that "Kayla" is doing ok with her foster family. However they are still very anxious for us to come. We were glad to have an update. :)

As most of you know, we are having a fundraiser with Delicate Fortress now until May 29th. www.delicatefortress.com When you checkout use coupon code GALE. Let me know if you would like more information. Next will be our Yard Sale on June 9th. If anyone has things they'd like to donate let us know. Email, call, text... We are very grateful for the support you all give to us!

Thanks for reading!!

Cindy

Another of our fun pictures!

Not too much happening since my last post. We are waiting on the Home Study Agency to review our Home Study so we can move on. The reports have all been finished by our social worker, it just needs to go through a review process now. It was maybe going to happen last week, but didn't. Maybe this week.

We have found out that the foster family that "Kayla" is with, is getting very anxious for us to come. We are praying that "Kayla" is still being well taken care of, despite their desire to get this process over with. We are also praying for protection of "Kayla" from tension and feelings being given by the foster parents. That she knows she is loved and that a family is coming for her. There is a possibility that she will leave that family and go somewhere else until we get there. We aren't sure of when we will travel. I estimate in September or October, maybe. It depends on the speed of our paperwork. We will know exact dates about 2 weeks before we leave. Talk about last minute! For me anyway. :)

We did find out that we will have someone to stay with our kids when we travel to Ecuador. Huge answer to prayer! That is a big relief! So the kids will be staying here while Tim and I travel, not coming with us. Lizzie has said she is interested in going, but I think we will have here stay and "help" with her brothers. :)

We have a busy summer ahead of us. In addition to our adoption process, I will be watching a little boy 3 days a week and we may "foster" a dog for a friend. We are also planning to go see family in Michigan for the 4th of July and Tim has some travel for work. It will be a whirlwind.

Thanks for reading!

Cindy