I-800A is on its way!

I've been feeling better over the past couple of days. My uncle's passing is becoming more of an acceptance and less of a shock, although I'm sure it will be a long while before it feels "normal". We've had a bit of interest on our house since we lowered the price and that sparks some hope in that area. We did get an offer on the van over the weekend, but it was very low and we would rather not sell it at that price. We're hoping a better offer comes along soon. The best picker-upper for me has been the generosity of a close relative loaning us the $890 needed to move forward in the adoption process. As of this afternoon our I-800A form is on its way to USCIS! So no waiting for our van to sell before we can begin that process. For those who don't know what that step is, it is asking the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for permission to adopt a child from a Hague Convention country. Once they receive our application, they will contact us with an appointment to be fingerprinted for an FBI criminal background check. A few weeks after that task is completed we should receive our approval notice. Typically this process can take up to 90 days, however I've been asking around in some adoption groups that I'm a part of and right now the processing time is supposedly much faster. That is more great news!

Other than the above, there isn't a whole lot else to get done before we can send our dossier to Latin America (LA). We have several small jobs to do, such as going to have some forms notarized, creating a scrapbook of our family, getting passports renewed, and heading to the local police station to ask for a letter stating that they've conducted criminal history checks on Robby and I and we're clear. We do still have to go back to the doctor for even more extensive work-ups on our entire family (physicals, blood draws, TB skin tests, etc.)- which should be the very last of the "big" tasks that's required of us- but that paperwork has to be three months current when it gets to LA, so that has to be completed last minute. So all of that to say that there's a light at the end of this tunnel! I am optimistic that our dossier will be on its way to LA by Thanksgiving and I believe that Lene will be spending her 6th birthday next March with her family.

In the world of grant applying, I have done pretty darn well. I've worked my tail off filling out an incredible amount of information and gathering numerous documents for seven different grants, with two more applications also nearly complete. Believe me when I say that I understand why many adoptive families don't apply for many of those! Nonetheless, seven have been mailed out for our family and at least one is already being processed. I am anxious to hear back on those, although typically it takes several weeks to several months for that to happen.

Please continue to pray for our family. With all that's been going on in our lives, we could really use it. We are especially anxious for our house to sell; that would improve our finances (and stress levels) an enormous amount. Thank you, friends.