Short Update

Just a short update, we are sending our paperwork off to the adoption agency tomorrow so they can send it out for Consulate Authentication. I have almost all of our paperwork State Sealed already. With exception of my NJ Divorce certificate (took 2 and half months to get it from NJ) my Homestudy as it is not yet finalized (I expect that this week) and our I-800A approval as we cannot send that out until our Homestudy is approved.  We are moving along and cannot wait to brig Luke home. As soon as our dossier heads off to China we plan to send Luke a package and introduce ourselves and let him know that there is a family that cant wait to get him home. There is no guarantee that the orphanage will give him our package, but there is a good chance they will. You have to wonder what he will think when he sees pictures of us for the first time.   Soon little man, soon.........We are praying and waiting!

Yesterday was Aaron's Graduation from HS and it was amazing! I just wanted to say Congratulations to Aaron. We are so proud of you and cannot believe that Aug 21st you will be a College Freshmen at Valley Forge Christian College! Crazy how fast life goes by! OH SO PROUD! So many amazing things happening to our family this year. Plus our agency said there is a very good chance that Luke will be home this year. YES I said, THIS YEAR! What an amazing Christmas present that would be! 
OHHHH I cant wait!

Homestudy Update

FINALLY we have our Draft for the Homestudy. We started the whole Homestudy process March 

5th, 2010, so that is a long time for a Homestudy but it is finally almost done. I now have to review the Homestudy and my Awesome Agency (Madison Adoption Agency) has to review and approve the draft and and then make any changes and our Homestudy agency will fix any mistakes. When that is all done I will receive a finalized Homestudy. YAHHHOOOO! That means we can finally move on to the next step in bringing Luke home. The next step is the I-800A (that means the application for determination of suitability to Adopt a child from a Convention Country) China is a Hague Convention Country so there are a lot of steps to be done and hoops to jump through. But at this point we are just saying "show me the hoop and tell me how high you want me to jump". Also when my Homestudy is finalized I will have the ability to apply for some possible Grants to help with the adoption costs . So lots of good things are happening. :)

John Waller- While I'm Waiting

Today has been a day of Moving Mountains and tearing down walls! We have hit some real rough patches with our Homestudy and some quite long delays, but today we made amazing headway and I am seeing a huge light at the end of the Homestudy tunnel. Things around the house have been crazy as I have been buried in paperwork, phone calls (trying to move mountains) and ofcourse both Aaron and Paige has Birthdays.. Yahooo Paige is now 4 and Aaron just turned 18. We are trying hard to get Aaron ready to head off to college Aug 21st as well, so busy isnt quite the word to use at the moment. Aaron is at his prom right now and he looked amazing, I will put up a picture for sure.

I mailed off almost all of our documents for State Authentication yesterday (3 different states but I am sure there are other people going through this process that have more states involved then that). It felt amazing to get those papers out of here. But now I cant wait for them to come back so I can send them to the Consulate. This sure is a unique process and I dont ever quite know how to explain it to someone that knows nothing of international adoption.

As far as our Homestudy's progress we are waiting on 2 pieces of the puzzle to come together and they are paperwork from 2 doctors that we need, as soon as we get those our Homestudy is done and we can move onto the next phase. I will keep you updated as to what that next phase is and how it goes. For now I keep looking into the light that just started to shine upon our progress. I beleive that God has a plan and he knows the perfect time for Luke to come home, I am praying that I get to travel with a friend of mine as she goes to get her new daughter in a province oh so close to our sons. That would be an amazing blessing from the Lord if he allows that to happen. We shall see.....