Good News...

We received an email today saying:

"Your I-800A application is hereby APPROVED!  You have been approved to adopt two children from the following Convention country: Burundi"
(emphasis mine)

Yes!  We have a scanned copy of the approval now, and one is on the way in the mail.  This is from the US Citizen and Immigration Services giving us permission to bring a Burundian child into the US.  We are so thankful that we finally have this piece of paperwork... it took 3 months to approve!

A big praise is that we had a very kind person in charge of our file, who called me at home when he found out that they couldn't read Mark's fingerprints, and told us we had to send in more fingerprints.  He answered questions, and now even emailed me the approval and let me know that it is on its way.  How nice is that?  Thank you Jon (immigration services officer) from the Hague Adoption Unit of USCIS!

We are very excited that the US government agrees that we should adopt from Burundi.  We just have to wait to hear more from our agency about the possible delays in Burundi.  Now we need the Burundi government to agree that we can adopt from there!

In the meantime, while we wait on information (please keep praying!), we are still working on getting that psychological evaluation appointment set up.  This has taken us almost as long as the I-800A!  I hope to hear from the provider this week.  We want to be done with our part of the process so that we can just wait.

Waiting... not something that I enjoy.  Mark is looking forward to the waiting.  In fact, he says it will be the easiest part!  Hmm... I guess we have two different perspectives.  I think it will be a lot harder than when we had something to do and paperwork to work on.  Though I expect to have other things to focus on besides paperwork... like reading parenting books, reading adoption books, planning a nursery, buying things for the baby.  It will be a big deal when we finally get to see a face and hear a name of the child or children we will adopt.  We know that we should be getting this information soon, if all things are going as planned.  But they are not... because of the possible delays.  So, we will wait.  We will wait to hear if our process will be delayed much.  We will wait to hear about our children.  We will wait to receive an invitation to come pick them up.

Therefore, I envision 2011 to be The Year of the Waiting!  But also with a hopeful ending to it... The Year of Our First Adoption.  We expect and pray for it to happen this year.  Please join us in this prayer. One thing is for sure: God is more powerful than any government agency, He can move mountains to get our paperwork where it needs to be, and He can open doors where no one even expected.  Our church's verse this year is: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Psalm 20:7)  It is perfectly fitting!