Hang on Tight
When you've been waiting so long in the adoption process, it's easy to loosen your grip sometimes. Take longer than you would on things. Put things off. Maybe even kick your feet up. And while you are sitting back, you aren't as alert. And it's easy to miss God moving.
Well, these last few weeks, we've been on the edge of our seats, hanging on tight and overfilled with so much joy seeing God unfold His perfect plan for us and for our boy. A bit of the 'flying by the seats of your pants' feeling knowing 'God is always in control' comfort!
So, big catch-up from when we received First Approval from Thailand. We now know we received that on May 4. Many, many, many dear friends hosted the most amazing shower for us shortly after. The theme was Thailand, and the emphasis was on worshiping the Lord and friendly competitions. What an honor to have your friends describe you with those items, and build a shower around that. It was so cute (and sad) that most of the kids thought our boy would be at the shower, so they were let down. For how much our friends and family are telling their kids about our boy, these kids are going to be in awe when they see he really does exist! And the prayers I hear families praying - little boys asking God to protect our boy until his parents can bring him here so he can play with them. The love we felt from so many people for us and our boy makes me tear up even now - we don't deserve that kind of love. But it's given abundantly! So true of God's love for us too!
Check our pics from our shower here.
In the meantime, prepping adoption paperwork, getting our boy's room ready with his wonderful gifts, dreaming about traveling to Thailand - talk about a big distraction over these weeks ;-)
Then on Friday (May 27), Jason called asking if I checked my email. I had not been, and knew him calling to tell me to check it meant one thing - we got our Article 16! I know most reading this have no clue what this is, and I've learned plenty in the last 24 hours - it is what we need to apply for our boy's immigration. Big deal! What makes it an even bigger deal, is we knew we'd receive it in 2-8 weeks from First Approval. We received it at week 3. Throughout this process, we have either been in the average timelines or towards the later part of the timeline. To get this on the early end was such a gift from the Lord!
Due to the holiday weekend, we received the actual documents yesterday (Tuesday). We had (what we thought) was most of our immigration application complete, until we started diving in last night. I won't say at what AM hour we went to bed, but it was a long night! Official documents going to the government that you don't want to screw up because you are so ready to bring your son home - those take a long time to look at instructions and examples to make sure you did it right. BUT, tonight it is shipped out to be delivered by lunch-time tomorrow.
Starting tomorrow, in 2-6 weeks our I800 should be approved, tentative travel dates are given, and final details come into place to go get our boy. We are hoping for travel either end of July or August - but all subject to change in international adoption :-)
We will not be able to post photos of our boy until he's adopted into our family, which won't be until 2017. So, whenever we see people, we love to show off photos. Proud parents. In a week and a half, we've had more people say how 'handsome' he is as we show off pictures.
My heart is bursting for Jason and I to give this little handsome guy the biggest hug and bring him home!!!
Well, these last few weeks, we've been on the edge of our seats, hanging on tight and overfilled with so much joy seeing God unfold His perfect plan for us and for our boy. A bit of the 'flying by the seats of your pants' feeling knowing 'God is always in control' comfort!
So, big catch-up from when we received First Approval from Thailand. We now know we received that on May 4. Many, many, many dear friends hosted the most amazing shower for us shortly after. The theme was Thailand, and the emphasis was on worshiping the Lord and friendly competitions. What an honor to have your friends describe you with those items, and build a shower around that. It was so cute (and sad) that most of the kids thought our boy would be at the shower, so they were let down. For how much our friends and family are telling their kids about our boy, these kids are going to be in awe when they see he really does exist! And the prayers I hear families praying - little boys asking God to protect our boy until his parents can bring him here so he can play with them. The love we felt from so many people for us and our boy makes me tear up even now - we don't deserve that kind of love. But it's given abundantly! So true of God's love for us too!
Check our pics from our shower here.
In the meantime, prepping adoption paperwork, getting our boy's room ready with his wonderful gifts, dreaming about traveling to Thailand - talk about a big distraction over these weeks ;-)
Then on Friday (May 27), Jason called asking if I checked my email. I had not been, and knew him calling to tell me to check it meant one thing - we got our Article 16! I know most reading this have no clue what this is, and I've learned plenty in the last 24 hours - it is what we need to apply for our boy's immigration. Big deal! What makes it an even bigger deal, is we knew we'd receive it in 2-8 weeks from First Approval. We received it at week 3. Throughout this process, we have either been in the average timelines or towards the later part of the timeline. To get this on the early end was such a gift from the Lord!
Due to the holiday weekend, we received the actual documents yesterday (Tuesday). We had (what we thought) was most of our immigration application complete, until we started diving in last night. I won't say at what AM hour we went to bed, but it was a long night! Official documents going to the government that you don't want to screw up because you are so ready to bring your son home - those take a long time to look at instructions and examples to make sure you did it right. BUT, tonight it is shipped out to be delivered by lunch-time tomorrow.
Starting tomorrow, in 2-6 weeks our I800 should be approved, tentative travel dates are given, and final details come into place to go get our boy. We are hoping for travel either end of July or August - but all subject to change in international adoption :-)
We will not be able to post photos of our boy until he's adopted into our family, which won't be until 2017. So, whenever we see people, we love to show off photos. Proud parents. In a week and a half, we've had more people say how 'handsome' he is as we show off pictures.
My heart is bursting for Jason and I to give this little handsome guy the biggest hug and bring him home!!!
Yay!! That child is so blessed already!! Exciting days ahead!!
ReplyDeleteSo glad Article 16 came quickly! The I-800 can also move very quickly, so be prepared! :)
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