What's Happening Now?

Lots of adoption stuff going on in the past few days:

• had our documents certified by the Secretary of State on 9/20


• sent our documents to the courier in Chicago via FedEx on 9/20


• confirmation e-mail that our documents had been submitted to the consulate on 9/24


• fingerprinted by the USCIS on 9/25

So, now we continue waiting! We're waiting for the documents to be returned to us from the consulate in Chicago and we are waiting for our I-171h from the USCIS. Our adoption coordinator is going to Guatemala during the third week of October and is planning on taking our dossier with her when she goes. A referral should hopefully come soon after our dossier gets to Guatemala!

Please be praying for us and for the baby girl that God has chosen for us!

Home study

We sent our home study to the USCIS yesterday. Our branch office in St. Louis is saying that it is taking them 6-8 weeks to process the I-600A form, which will give us permission to adopt a foreign-born orphan. We have heard of people receiving the clearance much sooner than 6-8 weeks, though. So, we could use your prayers! Specifically, that God would perform a miracle and help the USCIS branch office to move quickly!