One thing after another...

So exciting news is I'll be going to the Doctor's office tomorrow at 1:45 to meet one of my co-workers (also a notary...God bless him!) to get a new letter.  Then planning to drive to Columbia Thursday afternoon to get all our paperwork authenticated by the Secretary of State.  If all goes well, Eddie and I will go to Atlanta this weekend to visit hte Haitian Consule for the final step of completing our dossier!

Next road block...I heard this morning that the IBESR has stopped accepting dossiers until June 1.  This will hold us up about 3 weeks, as we have been working so hard to have ours together for my trip down in two weeks, but I'm choosing to look at this from a positive perspective.  I'm praying that the IBESR will get much accomplished in the next 5 1/2 weeks and will have our dossier at the front of the line on June 1!  Then they can focus on getting our little girl home to us!  Not to mention the blessings all the families getting processed in this time will receive!  These are likely families that have been waiting a long time...

Please be in prayer with us that the IBESR gets much accomplished in the next few months and keeps the momentum going with new dossiers in June!

Here we go again... :-(

So we FINALLY got our last documents on Friday!  Getting ready to send them to the translator today.  That's great news!  However, I just realized the notary commission on my doctors letter expires THIS November.  BAH!  I doubt they even have access to another notary...  Please be in prayer with us that we will get that worked out so we can get this dossier wrapped up and ready to go to Haiti TWO WEEKS from today.

Had a great weekend though!  Hope you all did  as well!

One down, one to go!

Just got the phone call that my doctor's letter is ready to be picked up today!  YAY!  Praying the other doctor's letters will be done today as well!

...then only to get them translated, then off to Columbia for validation, THEN off to Atlanta for authentication...

Praising God that we're moving again!  We have a LOT to do (especially the two road trips...) before I leave for Haiti in 2.5 weeks...

Weekend Update

This weekend I got the opportunity to spend a little more time working in Catrina's room, so I thought I'd post photos of my accomplishments.  :-)  Eddie and I also put together her desk, but it's kind of boring as of yet...I'll post a photo of it once it's decorated.  In the meantime, a new and improved ceiling fan:

Simple Gifts

I've always felt it is SO important to stop and appreciate the simple gifts God gives us as we walk through life.  There's no huge advance in our paperwork (which we'd really hoped there would have been this week), but God certainly gave me one of those simple gifts this week.  You'll recall in my previous post that I booked my next trip to Haiti for May.  I wanted to book that trip as soon as possible, but as with our October trip last year, things just weren't workign out!  So, I ended up booking my trip for May.  Turns out this was necessary, as it's looking like we'll JUST have all our paperwork ready to go then.  The simple gift I am referring to came a few nights ago when I was entering some mundane event on my calendar and realized that the Sunday I will be in Haiti (WITH CATRINA) is Mother's Day!  I hadn't even thought about the fact that Mother's Day was coming up and now I get to spend it with my daughter!  I can't think of a better gift for that day!  Praise God for simple blessings!  :-)

Leaving on a jet plane...

Hope you all had a great Easter!  I have always just loved Easter for all of the obvious reasons...hope, life, salvation! (Notice a distinct lack of eggs and chocolate bunnies...though I have to admit that I do appreciate those in their own context...  :-))  This Easter was particularly special for us.  Easter is Catrina's favorite holiday, so that alone had her on our minds alot.  Then we had some friends bring their sweet little girl home from Haiti on Friday night (a Good Friday indeed...) and we were invited to meet them at the airport to help welcome her to the US.  What a beautiful experience!  It was such a blessing to be a part of this, and while at the airport the new father took the opportunity to reflet on his own correlations between the beauty of the Easter story, particularly pertaining to adoption.  Basically, Christ's death and resurrection happened so that we can be adopted into God's family.  What a perfect opportunity to celebrate adoption!  Then as has become almost second nature to us these days, we find ourselves musing at each family get together that maybe this will be the last time we celebrate Easter without Catrina.

So specifically pertaining to our adoption, we are wrapping up the loose ends of our dossier (the formal application to Haiti to adopt Catrina)...for real this time, we hope!  :-)  We got the first draft of our Psych Evals last week, so now we are waiting on the final notarized copy.  Once we get that I'll be road-tripping to Columbia to get some of the major parts signed by the Secretary of State and either this weekend or next weekend, we'll be road-tripping to Atlanta to get the whole packet authorized at the Haitian Consule. Few additional things that are in the works and will need to be completed before this are the final transaltions of all of our documents, my letter of recommendation from my doctor, and our 2011 tax return.  We will welcome any and all prayers specifically concerning all of this.  It seems like a lot of loose ends to tye up, but in reality compared to what has already been done, this is small potatoes...especially for God!

I officially have tickets to leave May 7 (hence the title...) to take our dossier to our lawyer and visit Catrina.  I'll be there through May 15.  Saddly Eddie can't make this trip, so ya'll give him a call of encouragement during that time if you can.  :-)

In less exciting news, I heard from a friend of mine that the IBESR has absolutely refused to take some other couples dossiers if they do not meet certain criteria.  Criteria that we are a little in the gray area on.   Please also be in prayer in the upcoming weeks that the IBESR will not only accept our dossier, but that it will process with God-speed.  And we'll give Him the glory!

Again, hope you all had a blessed Easter!