Update...

This week nothing is exciting as our pre-approval last week... Lets see..

I got to spend Mothers day with my mom on Sunday. We spent the day looking for furniture for the kids rooms. Addy is growing out of her bed, and Asher is definitely growing out of his bed, PLUS we are trying to figure out how to organize the rooms with two kids in each.  :) About 5 furniture stores later...we accomplished finding stuff for the girls, and then Monday I took care of the boys. It was nice to spend time with my mom alone- we rarely get to do that.

Its been a crazy week, for some reason we have a ton of things on the calendar and months ago I picked up a ton of hours for this week! We are making it through, though. After I got home from work Monday we received in the mail our appointment notices to get fingerprinted. I was extremely worried that John would have been gone back home for the summer when the appointment came. Our agency encouraged us to apply last month, which I did. I was VERY happy to get the notices in the mail. Only problem was they had scheduled appointments for 2 weeks out, the day after John leaves! Our agency told us it was ok to just walk in and explain the story, they don't have to fit you in early, but they hadn't heard stories of anyone being turned away. So, Tuesday morning, John luckily didn't have any tests, so we made the trip to Kentwood to the USCIS- Department of Homeland Security. They did fit us in, but gave us the run around even though there was NOBODY else in there! It was a horrible experience, I have never been treated so inhuman in my life!! From the moment we walked in, it was ..."sit here, fill this out, back up, sit here, stand here, give me your left hand, leave the child there..." Then against the advice of the worker there, I sent Dan today without an appointment. They made him wait 2 hrs to get his fingerprints! It was horrible, Im glad its done. It was nice of them to fit us in, and hopefully it will speed things up by 2 weeks. :) Thats 2 weeks sooner to kiss those asian cheeks!!!

Tonight we were able to see the movie "Stuck" at church. It was so good, but horrible at the same time! The conditions kids live in are horrible, the politics and red tape involved keep the kids in institutions much longer than they need to be. Its so unfair!! They deserve to be in the arms of their forever family.

The movie made me feel blessed to be with an agency we trust, and to feel we are moving along in the process. One of the things that is stressing me out right now is that most of our dossier paperwork is at the embassy in Chicago being authenticated. However, there was a silly problem with one document that had to be corrected. Being corrected meant getting a new one, sending to the Secretary of State again (where it is now), and then sending back to the embassy- meanwhile they held all of our documents at the embassy. I check the mail anxiously everyday waiting for the S of S to send it back. Im nervous that the embassy will lose our papers or something in the mean time. It makes me even more nervous because the number at the embassy doesn't accept calls, its just a recording, so I had no way of getting ahold of them AND Dan took this message while I was at work one night... It makes me nervous. You can keep that in your prayers. :)

Last week I began the paperwork for a grant due today! Im so thankful for our homestudy social worker, CCAI, Scarlet Thomas, Emily Dewitte, and Pastor Rick, who all on a moment notice took time to email paperwork to the foundation for us. Im not sure how we pulled off getting all of that paperwork together in 3 days, but we did!!

Its been busy, but things are coming together, Thanks for keep us in your prayers!!!