A few steps forward and one step back

Let me start with the one step back. The item that we expect to take the longest in this process is receiving approval from the US immigration office. They’ve been reported to process the form we need in as little as 6 weeks or as long as 3 months. We mailed our original application on August 26th… and got it back, unprocessed, on Saturday, September 5th. (Background info – this form is 2 pages long but has 4 pages of instructions. At least ½ of one page is devoted to explaining how to pay by personal check, how they will process your check, etc.) You know how I follow directions very carefully, so I’m sure you will understand my shock when we got our whole packet back with a form letter explaining we needed to send a money order. Ugh! Are you serious?! Okay, fine, God must have a plan for this delay – I WILL find a bright side… that leads us to the “few steps forward.” The bright side comes in the fact that our home study was finalized, printed and notarized last night. (3 cheers for our wonderful social worker and fabulous notary!!!) That meant we were able to mail a copy of the home study to the immigration office along with our original form AND their beloved money order. Sooooo, hopefully that will encourage them, since they have all the pieces necessary, to send us our appointments for finger printing. We actually had about 16 different documents and/or letters notarized last night AND my marvelous, amazing, wonderful husband drove them all to Tallahassee today to be apostilled. (Yup, it was a new word to me, too. An apostille is essentially a certification issued by the Florida Department of State for notarized and other official documents that lets the Ukraine know it really is an official document.)

The moral of the story is we have collected almost all the documents needed for our dossier. Other than the immigration approval, the only thing missing is two forms from our doctor. They were actually filled out last week and are just waiting for his notary…

Please continue keep us and all the timing of this process in your prayers. Our desire would be to travel in November and be home before the end of the year, but it is more important to stay on God’s schedule, not ours.