pray for quick turnaround

So the dossier is back from the Rwandan embassy in DC and in the hands of our caseworker in Texas who has promised to overnight it to SD and TX Sec. of States office for authentication (our paperwork was done in SD and has to be authenticated there, but there are two docs completed by our agency in TX and those have to be authenticated by TX). Lucky for us SD is super fast and will have the envelope back to our caseworker by Wed. But, please pray that the turnaround in TX is as fast. If they were quick we could have the dossier back in DC by Friday (although realistically it will be more like Mon. or Tues.) The person in DC who processes said he would give our case priority since we have had this six plus week delay now... but we'll see. God is good and we are just thankful that we get to do this in order to one day hold our new family members.

Unfortunately

Unfortunately for Buster, I, and our kids, we are delayed again. But fortunately for us we live in the full understanding that God's timing is perfect and there are a million reasons, that we probably cannot even fathom, why our process keeps hitting road blocks. Only God knows... so all we can do is trust in His sovereignty.

The new processing person at the embassy had been going back and forth on whether or not they were going to change their policy and make families authenticate at the state level before they authenticate at the federal level. Today (after five plus weeks of waiting) they decided that they are going to require families to do this. This means we have to get our paperwork back, send it to the state, have them stamp our paperwork saying it is indeed from where we said it was from, send it back to the embassy, and then wait some more for them to approve it before it goes to Rwanda.

I shed a few tears (rare for me) but cannot stay sad or sorry for myself. As bad as I would like to control the situation I am somehow relieved that I cannot... and all I can do is be content knowing that I serve a God whos plans are perfect.

No news... waiting again

Called the caseworker today. She did NOT get a call or email from the person at the Rwandan embassy in DC, as expected. (Good thing we are used to things not going as expected by now! :) She said she would call first thing in the morning to see if he is reviewing our file and what happens next. Keep praying!

Meanwhile Congrats to the Greer family on their approval from the ministry in Rwanda! Hooray! We're hoping for a quick referral, court date, and travel time for them!

hoping for tomorrow

We've been waiting to hear from the Rwandan embassy for a couple of weeks now regarding whether or not we need to have documents authenticated at the state level. The person in charge of processing at the embassy in DC has been replaced and the new person is suppossed to be checking on whether or not Rwanda has decided to change their policy and require the state level authentication. For now, he thinks that it is not their policy to require it... which would be great news for us, saving us time and money. However, since he is new he wants to do some double checking and make sure the policy is not going to change. If anyone out there reads this post in the next 24 hours please please please pray for favor for us. We really really want them to give our dossier the green light without having to backtrack, especially since our dossier has been there for five weeks now and this is suppossed to only be a two week process. If he comes back tomorrow and says its ok then they will issue our non objection letter and the dossier can go to Rwanda without further delay... if not.. then we will be sad and have to do more work and wait longer. So.... please please please pray for this process. I know it seems like a small detail but it is pretty important. Thanks all!!!

disappointing news

I got a call from our caseworker today. I had contacted her earlier this week because I had noticed that other adopting families, from another agency, were getting documents authenticated at the state level and I wanted to see if we missed something, or if Rwanda had changed their policies again (they have been doing this because adoptions from there are still pretty new and they are still trying to nail down their specific policies). Our caseworker at our agency called the Rwandan embassy (where our paperwork has been for the last three weeks) and they told her a couple of things. 1. The person who had been in charge of processing paperwork to go to Rwanda left suddenly last week and it will be at least a couple of weeks before they find a replacement for her and start processing paperwork again. 2. At this time they are not requiring that documents be authenticated, but they might when they get the new person in place...
What this means for us is that a. we are going to have to wait at least a month or more than we expected to even to get our paperwork passed through to Rwanda. and b. just to be safe, we will have to get our dossier back from them (the embassy where it is sitting on the workers desk to be processed) and send it back to the State of SD to have all our paperwork authenticated. I'm sad, because this delay has added more time and more money to our process (not having to authenticate the docs saved us about $700). And, I realize that everyone says 'all in God's perfect timing!!!' which I know is right thinking, but it still stinks, and I still feel frustrated cuz' I just want the process to go faster, not slower, so that we can meet our baby(s). I knew going into this that there might be some hiccups... but it is still pretty annoying when those hiccups actually happen. Perseverance, Perseverance, Perseverance. Patients, Patients, Patients. Prayer, Prayer, Prayer. :)