Last Update of 2013

My original intent was to write my final update of the year on New Year's Eve. However, tomorrow is going to be a busy day and I'm pretty sure if I wait, it would be New Year's Day or later before I get this up. So 1 hr. before New Year's Eve will have to do. :)

December 5th- Get a call from my Dr. office saying my re-done ear tube letter will be complete and notarized by December 12.

December 11th- Emailed our social worker to see if there's been any progress on our home study, just curious if she has any news.

December 12th- Hear back from our social worker saying she's received our home study, but cannot mail it out until Monday. I was a little confused because I wasn't sure if she had just gotten it from her supervisor and still needed to send it to the state for approval.
Also, completely forgot about my ear tube letter, and as I'm writing this, I still haven't picked it up...it's been that kind of month. Plus, our Dr. office is really not on the way to anything, so it'll be a special trip.

December 13th- I emailed our social worker for clarification, but she's not in the office on Friday's so I know I won't hear anything until the following week.

December 16th- We emailed a scanned copy of our I-800 form to our case worker so she can double check it for us (we want to get it right the first time). She emails back and says everything looks good.

December 17th- We get the email we've been waiting for...oh, for months! Our social worker emailed to let us know original, notarized copies of our home study were in the mail on their way to us (Hooray!)! Also found out that she was sending a copy to the state to have it certified for our agency, that saves us one trip to the capitol, her having it certified for us. :)

December 19th- After being gone all day I come home to a note from our mail carrier telling me there's a certified envelope waiting for me at the post office...Gah!

December 20th- Run to the post office to pick up the certified envelope with our home study in it on my way to school to help with our oldest's Christmas party.

December 21st- E runs out to get 2 cashier's checks. One to cover the processing fee for our I-800 form and another to cover the cost of us all being fingerprinted, yet again, at a later date. This next time it'll be for the FBI.

December 22nd- Put the finishing touches on our I-800 form, basically we all sign where we need to sign (E, myself, and my in-laws). I make sure we have the correct number of copies of the other documents we need to mail with our I-800 form.

December 23rd- First day of Christmas vacation for the kids. I and 4 of the kids trek over to the post office. Of course it being only days before Christmas there's a few people there, and my kids, upon entering the building, suddenly can't keep their hands off of each other or select post office merchandise. Even though they got strict instructions before entering the post office that they were supposed to stand right by me, and touch NOTHING! So, what could've been a 3 minute deal turned into a bit longer. Thankfully I double checked all the documents that needed to accompany our home study and I-800 form to USCIS to apply for immigration approval for our daughter. Somehow everything made it into an envelope, I addressed it, paid, and we made it out the door in one piece, and my children didn't bump into any of the elderly people at the post office. Yeah... I've been praying that God gets all those documents and cashier's checks into the right hands, because, well, I was a little distracted.
All that aside, we were so happy to get everything off for immigration approval before Christmas!

Now we wait, some more. Immigration Approval can take 2-3 months to get, and that's the final document we need to complete our dossier. So we're praying if it's God's will it won't take the full 90 days, but we'll get approval sooner.

December 28th- Email family pictures to our case worker for approval before I print them out. These pictures will be included in our dossier. She said they were great! :)

December 2013 was insane, really. There's no other way to describe it. The weird thing is, almost none of the insanity was adoption related. December is busy, no matter what's going on, there's just extra stuff. Programs and parties, cookie exchanges, shopping, decorating, attempting to get Christmas cards out (we succeeded this year!), and that's just Christmas related. Nevermind just the day to day craziness. And our oldest son is on the school basketball team, so now we are trying to find a new normal that includes basketball games twice-ish a week. We didn't do so good this month, we're adjusting, and, well, there were a few other things going on. Hopefully, January's new basketball normal will be a little more, um, normal. :)

Looking back, and still having vivid memories of this month, I know God carried me through most of it. This month was exhausting, and I had a few days where honestly, I was relying on the Lord moment by moment just to make it through the day. I'm so thankful for how He met me. Things didn't magically get better, but He gave me the strength to keep going.

As 2013 is coming to a close, I'm very thankful! Thankful for where God has brought us, what He's done in us, what He's done for us. I'm thankful that through the trials and storms of this past year He has been a refuge. He's not ever left us. He has been and still is faithful.

If you think of us, please pray for us. Please pray for our daughter. Please pray that if it's God's will our immigration approval will happen sooner then later and that all the details will be taken care of. Please pray that we continue to trust God's timing.


Happy New Year!