take two...

Here's the latest on the adoption front...

Exactly three months ago, to the day, we mailed the above package--our I-800A form and completed/approved home study--to US Immigration (CIS). In non-adoption terms, this was the final hurdle in completing our dossier (paperwork) for China.  I had completed every other piece of paper needed for our dossier, and an approval letter from CIS--which grants us permission to bring a foreign child onto US soil--was the last piece of paper I needed before we could send our thick dossier to China.  We were told that the immigration process would take about two months.  

About two weeks after I mailed off the packet, we got our appointment time to get fingerprinted--the last set of fingerprints for this adoption as well. Chris and I went to Sacramento on May 13th and got those prints done, no problem. Then we waited...and waited...and waited...for our approval letter to come.

About a month later, on June 14th, just when we were starting to wonder why it was taking so long, we got this lovely letter in the mail...

A Request For Evidence...boohoo...not the long-hoped-for approval letter.  The letter stated that our home study did not contain a child abuse clearance for me from the state of North Carolina.  Part of our home study involved getting child abuse clearances from every state we've lived in since the age of 18...which for me, is five states. Apparently, at the time our home study was completed, North Carolina did not release this information--it was against state law. Hence, this information was not included in our home study.

After some investigation, we figured out that this NC law had just changed, and instead of CIS honoring what the law was at the time our home study was done, they said we needed to go back and obtain this clearance in accordance with the new law, and have our original home study revised and re-approved based on this. Seriously?

So, that's what we did, and thankfully, we were able to obtain the clearance very quickly, but it still took a few weeks for the home study to be revised, re-notarized, and re-approved by our adoption agency.  

The good news is that I received the amended home-study and approval letter with the proper NC clearance in the mail this past Friday...and a few hours later, I mailed the below package to CIS.

This was all feeling like deja vu on Friday when I took this package to UPS. I felt like we were back at square one. The same package was sent off to CIS three months ago, and here we go again... 

TAKE TWO! 

Hopefully, this time we will receive our coveted approval letter.

Once I receive the approval letter, I will attach it to our dossier and drive these precious pieces of paper to the Secretary of State in Sacramento to get State Certified (say that ten times). Then I'll make a ridiculous amount of photocopies and then I will overnight them to our adoption agency where they will be authenticated and translated into Chinese, and THEN (finally!!!) they will cross the big blue Pacific Ocean and land on a desk in CHINA... 

Hooray! 

when that 

day comes.

(I'm mindful that this might all sound like a foreign language to a lot of people. I'm realizing that adoption is a lot like being in the military--it has it's own language and a whole slew of confusing acronyms that you only understand or care about if you're in it. So if you're still reading this, I thank you.)

So, that is where things are at, and I've had my share of frustration at the delays and the red-tape that we've had to navigate. I realize that even the delays are part of God's perfect timing, but bureaucracy is still annoying no matter which way you slice it.

And yet again, I'm seeing how this adoption process is like a crash course in spiritual discipline, as I try to embrace the discomfort of waiting.  

A few weeks ago my friend Kelly came out to visit and she remarked, 

"Wow, this pregnancy is going to be a lot longer than nine months."

Yes...I'm on month seven and there will definitely not be a baby arriving in the next two months.

One thing that's encouraged me in the last week is an entry I read in My Utmost For His Highest.  I think this is real wisdom:

"We always have visions, before a thing is made real...God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way.  Every vision will be made real if we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry...The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be...Don't lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you."  --Oswald Chambers.

So in the midst of the waiting and the frustration of legal processes, I'm mindful that the paperwork we've compiled to find our Ren will land in China exactly when it's meant to, and in the meantime, God is preparing and equipping me for the reality of becoming his mother.  

I will let you know when we receive our CIS approval. It's going to be a grand celebration when it finally comes. In the meantime, we always appreciate your prayers!  Thanks for reading and for your support from afar.