The above has been my mantra as of late.
Soooo...remember how I told you that we had some time before we travelled. That I was content to wait until the fall without even a remote possibility of travel this summer. No looking over my shoulder, constantly checking my email to see if the embassy was scheduling things for us. A little breathing room to have date nights and do some last minute nesting and much needed fundraising...
Well, maybe not. Or maybe so. We just. don't. know.
The US now recognizes Charlie and Mollie as our next of kin. So the next steps are an investigation to insure that they meet US definitions of orphans (this is to insure there has been no child trafficking and ethical practices in the adoption--a time consuming but necessary step). After that, they get a visa. Then we go pick them up. Then we wait a bit for their home country's gov't to do some things and we come home after a 2-3 week stay in country.
The embassy has offered us an opportunity to do something at the end of June which could mean we would travel this summer. Or not. And we may not even be able to the thing which they want us to do no matter how hard we try. (Sorry if this is cryptic, but it's complicated. Just know that several people's schedules need to align for a meeting at which we aren't needed in order to conduct our orphan investigation.) So there are A LOT of variables. Will we be able to find the party needed to go to the meeting for an interview about our children's past? Will we be able to raise the funds needed in order to pay for that person to fly 1,000 miles to even get to the embassy? If that person goes to the embassy, will the Embassy be able to finish our orphan investigation then and there or will they still need to travel to our kid's hometown in late August to finish the investigation? When our agency asked what the likelihood of further delays after this meeting would be, they answered in broad generalizations--much like a doctor would when asked by a sick patient "Hey, am I going to live?"
If they are satisfied at the interview, the next step is an embassy appointment. Our attorney will take our kids to this for us and also to their embassy medical appointment. If those things check out, then our kids would get their visas to come home to America. And then we would travel about 10 days later.
So if you are confused, welcome to the club. There are a lot of us waiting Congolese adoptive parents here.
This also means a couple other things, a shortened timeline to travel means I need to get packing. I need to start stock piling new monetary bills. (Because we have to pay for everything in country in cash. Like everywhere. For three weeks in a hotel.) And all of the bills need to be new and crisp. And we have to have paid our agency's bill completetly. We have to pay to fly the necessary party to the meeting. Oh, and our agency doesn't take credit cards. So basically, we don't have the luxury of just putting the last minute details on the credit card, which is a blessing and a curse.
So pray for us. Jesus knows our needs and has not brought us this far to leave us hanging. We know that.
And you can buy a tshirt. Or seven.
And don't forget to bookmark our search page with Amazon. Just by buying off the link in our sidebar, we get between 4-7% of your purchase. It's win-win. I'll give a shout out to the best purchase. So far, the item to beat is a Hen Apron.
And in the next week or so I'll be putting together a super fun raffle for a year's worth of Chik-fil-A. I'm just sort of hammering out the details now.
This has been a marathon. And I am not a runner. So I'll say I'm weary of the fundraising. But I'll limp across the finish line to get my babies. Charlie has the biggest smile on the planet and I can't wait to be the cause of his smile. And Mollie? Well, let's just say in every picture she is wearing jewelry. So I'm packing some nail polish to paint her piggy toes. So if I seem like I'm whining about the cost, forgive me. This is nothing in comparison to the cost my Savior bore to adopt me. Nor it is even a smidgen of the blessing that has been bestowed upon us.
Charlie and Mollie, already you have taught me endurance. You have enlarged my heart. You have taught me of my Father's yearning for me in ways I never would have guessed. Thank you.
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