We're Invited!

Before I launch into my latest adoption news I want to say hi to everyone.

HI!

Thanks for reading and for your comments. Ana, I do remember Cassidy kissing Pablo's toes! And Holly and Korana I know you two were some of our friends who actually prayed for Cassidy through her Addison's Disease diagnosis. What good friends you have been.

I started this blog thinking it would just be a way to get some of my fervor for the adoption out and into the world - somewhere away from my mind and constant running thoughts.

But I see now that it has been so much more than that. It has reconnected me to some of you and brought me others that I never would have had without the blog!

I am so thankful for your thoughts and prayers and wishes and fun memories. For your playing along with my baby name game as seriously as you know I'd want you to. And for you mommy bloggers who comment on my posts even when you don't have to just because you know how important comments are!

There are some readers, I know now, that are lurking here. And that is fine. Welcome.

This post is for a group of you who I know my mom has been inviting, informing, and asking for prayers from. Here's a post to make your day and renew your faith in miracles.

WE GOT OUR INVITATION TO GET FINGERPRINTED!!!!!!!!

In a turn of events never before seen in the international adoption community (at least that is what they told us at training today) it took only 5 days for our homestudy to be sent (not received-SENT) to US.CIS, processed, and for us to receive our invitation back to be fingerprinted. Tuesday - Saturday of this week.

Since I leave on Thursday and will be gone almost a month we basically thought this would be out of the question. And that the dossier and US.CIS clearance would have to wait until I got back. (Not a huge amount of time in real time but in adoption time it is an extra month's wait.) But I know that there are some prayerful women reading along, who haven't made themselves publicly known, and I'm going to give credit where credit is due.

So. Where do we stand?

Today we finished our last required training for the state of Colorado.

24 hours of in person training - done. 10 hours of online training (x2 since we changed agencies and AAI had different requirements) - done.

Homestudy approved, finalized, sent to the international placing agency - done.

Received and completed all but the Denver police record check for our dossier (did not realize we had to send in this paperwork and it will take 5-10 days) - so, semi-done.

Sent I600A, received invite for fingerprinting which we will do on Tuesday, to receive final US.CIS approval to adopt approximately 4 weeks later - done.

Vaccinations - done.

We basically have everything but the referral of a child. But that is ok. I know it will happen.

These last few days have been rough. I have been really sick from my yellow fever vaccination so work, preparation for travel, and adoption paperwork have all taken a backseat to laying on the couch shivering and sipping cranberry/grape juice courtesy of my sweet husband.

Feeling much better today. Empowered to get it all finished before Thursday morning.

I probably won't post again before I leave but I will try to post from Kenya.

There is one final request I have. (Hmm, I can't guarantee it will be a last request in this whole adoption thing, but it is a final request for now.)

Could you just pray us into a referral by the week of October 11-15th?

We have the owl lovey ready. We have a soft plastic baby photo book with pictures of us and the house prepared. We have a box of Chee.rios packed (thanks for those last two ideas Jill!) We have two baby/toddler toys that it took us, oh, at least an hour, to choose from the baby toy aisle at Tar*get. (BTW, is it just me or is Tar*get baby aisle incredibly overwhelming? We went in with the goal of 1 or 2 baby/toddler appropriate toys and ended up glazed eyed, drooling, finding ourselves comparing the toy that makes bell music when shaken to the toy that blinks lights when shaken - what??!! Is this what I can expect? Basically we had absolutely no idea and I am thinking this is just the beginning. What's going to happen when we have to hit the diaper aisle? I have heard horror stories about the diaper aisle.) So. I am going armed with all of this in a big ziplock bag. I can ignore it all until I get to Addis on the night of the 11th. But then...it would be really nice to be able to use it.

It may be asking a lot. I don't know. I'm just not willing to say that I'm asking too much when it comes to this adoption. I have waited. Maybe not the same waiting as others but I have waited a long time in a different way. And we have prayed. And we find ourselves on the same page. And we have followed the signs and stuck to the path even when it looked really really hard.

Can we have this last thing? If it can be prayed into existence then I ask you to pray. If she/he is there waiting anyway can we just know who he/she is by October 11th? Not asking for prayers or wishes for bio family to die or any crisis to occur that makes this easier just for us. Just - if baby is waiting let us be matched by October 15th at the latest.

Ok, I have put the big ASK out there. I've decided it is not too much to ask.

Much love to you all and thank you for joining me here.

Maybe my next post will be of baby animals which are seriously the next best thing to human babies. I'm going to try to visit a rehab home for baby animals in Nairobi before the conference starts.

Here's to optimism,
~A