Uh Oh! It Happened! :(

This afternoon has been worrisome and stressful.

I received an email from USCIS.

When I first glanced at my phone, I thought, Wow, are we getting our USCIS approval in record time??!

You see, I have been praying we would not receive an RFE, Request for Evidence, from USCIS.  Many families have been receiving them lately, which in serious cases, can delay the adoption by several weeks or even months.

Was this email our Approval Email?  Well,,, No.

Turns out our son's birth certificate, which was submitted with our adoption file, has an incorrect date of birth, essentially a typo. :(  UGH!

This quickly put me in freak-out-and-fix-it mode which set off a flurry of emails, texts and facebook messages...to USCIS, our adoption agency and the creche adoption staff.

(And texts to family) (And lots of praying) (And facebook posts requesting prayer) (And some tears, I admit it..)

Wisly's birth certificate has been a thorn in the side of our adoption this whoooole long process.  I guess it's only apropos that it would cause us a hitch at the end of the process. ;-)

Fortunately, I was able to connect with 2 of the creche staff directly and received their assurances that this would be dealt with right away and be fixed soon.  They contacted USCIS to let them know they are on top of the situation.  Tomorrow morning, a creche staff member plans to pick up a new birth certificate (from where, I forgot to ask..), take it to the civil registrar to be legalized (takes 2-3 days generally), then get it back to USCIS...hopefully first of next week. 

So there is a Silver Lining!  Praise Jesus!!

If you were one of the folks that immediately started praying when you were made aware of the situation, THANK YOU!  It appears it won't be a difficult or lengthy solution.  But would you please continue to pray?  This is Haiti.  Anything could happen. ;-)

Please pray that C4C can accomplish these tasks in record time, all because of God's Hand on this process, and may God receive all the glory!

I do also thank the Lord that USCIS contacted us directly, and today, instead of 6 weeks or more into the process.  I am told that they can tend to be slow at informing adoptive families of errors in their files, so praise God we found out now instead of later! :-)

Will keep ya posted!

4 Weeks in US Immigration

Today marks four weeks in the final stage of our adoption -- US Immigration (USCIS).  Six weeks is the average time frame to receive I-600 approval, at which point, our case goes to the Visa Department to be issued a visa appointment and receive Wisly's visa.  Please pray with us for FAVOR and efficiency!  July is 3 1/2 years into this adoption!

Yard Sale Fundraiser...Success!!

A couple weeks ago we had our last BIG adoption fundraiser...a multi family Yard Sale at our church!  We collected donated items for months, literally, because we had such a difficult time finding a Saturday when my husband and I would both be in town and when people would be available to help.  We settled on Father's Day weekend.  It turned out to be a great day!  (see photos below)

We had several AMAZING helpers who helped organize, price and set up inside the church on Thursday and Friday,,,including several ladies who baked yummy desserts for the Bake Sale portion of the event.  Saturday morning we were there before 6:30am pulling tables and large items outside.  At 6:45am, we had serious shoppers lined up.  Eeeek!!

One of our Yard Sale signs we placed on street corners

The sale went until 3pm and then at 4pm, the guys from Providence Ministries in Dalton, TN arrived with their large moving truck.  We had had SO MANY items donated, that with the "leftovers", we filled up their truck--wow!!

The highlight of the day for me was when my 74 year old dad disappeared for a couple hours and returned to report, "I've been Sign Spinning with one of your yard sale signs!!  Did it help??" 

OH.MY.WORD.  I wish wish WISH I had a photo of THAT!!!  My poor dad was in blue jeans (he's a proper Northern Gentleman in the South who never ever wears shorts or removes his shirt) and a white children's sailor cap (he's a bit thin on top!) to protect him from the sun! lol

And actually it DID help!  

I love my Daddy...and my sweet mom, too, who helped greatly on the inside of the building, out of the sun. :-)

A HUGE thank you to my dear hubby, my girls (who were so very patient all day) and all the friends from church who made the day a big success.  

When you add up sales, donations (and a few IOU's)...we raised approximately $1250!!  Nearly enough for our final creche payment and visa fees!!  Thank you, Lord Jesus!!

Enjoy the photos from Friday when we were setting up:

Our sweet Noelle made this poster to display at the sale

Never hurts to put out a donation jar, right? :)  We had quite a few people add to the jar after they paid for their items!

Silly Noelle found a crazy hat and crazy glasses to model!

Love our church family in Chattanooga!!!

Step Number LAST!!!

Wisly's passport was printed May 27th but we've been waiting to find out when our adoption case would actually enter the final stage, USCIS (US Immigration) at the Embassy in Port-Au-Prince.  We have some friends living in Haiti who are adopting two kiddos from Chances for Children.  Our two families have been essentially in the same stage together for several weeks.  Their file was submitted to USCIS on Tuesday May 31st.  We've all been hopeful that our file was submitted along with theirs.

Since I had not received any updates or confirmation from our agency, I decided to send an extremely brief email this morning to the Adoption Unit at the Embassy.  It can't hurt to just check, right? :-)

I was pleasantly suprised to hear back from them this afternoon!  It looks like our file was submitted on May 31st along with our friends' file!  Thank you, Jesus!

And to answer everyone's question,  "When do you get to pick him up?"... Hopefully by the end of July.  You see, the final stage is actually a series of steps, just like most of the adoption process.  It looks like this:

~Our adoption file/dossier is submitted to USCIS for final I-600 approval (They are saying 6 weeks for approval at this point.)

~After approval, our dossier is transferred to the Consular Section (DOS) of the embassy to issue Wisly's Visa appointment.  (We will get an email with instructions on filling out the DS-260 form online.)

~Medical documents are issued and Wisly's exit medical exam is completed.

~The creche staff attends the visa appointment on our behalf.

~We start planning travel with our agency!

~The visa is approved!

~The visa packet is taken to IBESR (Haiti Social Services) for the travel approval document.

~The IBESR travel document is issued.

~We travel to Haiti to pick up our boy!!!

Exciting times!!  Keep praying!!  We're almost there!!

We Have the Passport!!!

Praise God!!!  We received the news from our agency that Wisly's passport was printed/issued last Friday!

Now we are waiting for confirmation to see if/when our file was submitted to US Immigration.  Hopefully it's already been submitted!  They are saying it takes approximately 6 weeks to get approval.  Then the VISA appointment so our boy can come home!

Our prayer request during this final phase is for our file to be complete and error free.  I have known lots of families to receive an RFE = Request for Evidence.  In other words, more paperwork, more documentation, more proof of a proper adoption process...which equals MORE TIME.  Hopefully this will not happen with our case!!!

So ready for our sweet fella to be home! 😃