Where are we?

We so appreciate all of you who have been praying for us along this journey, keeping up with our progress, and offering words of encouragement. There's really not much to update... it feels like everything has slowed to a crawl, but in reality, things are progressing along normally. Well, as normal as normal can be for an international adoption!

We are officially approved through the state of South Carolina and DSS, which is exciting news! This means our homestudy is complete! We've been waiting on this milestone for a while, so we could begin to apply for grants. There are several generous organizations that want to help as many people adopt as possible, and you can apply once you have a completed homestudy. These grant applications have become my new phase of paperwork, as there isn't too much left for me to do but wait. We know that God equips those He calls, and are faithfully trusting for His provision to make this adoption happen.

We are waiting on a few more documents to come in, and our fingerprints are still being reviewed by the FBI. Hopefully we will be cleared soon by them, and can continue on to get clearance from the Department of Homeland Security. Once that happens, and we have everything notarized, all our information heads across the ocean to get translated and wait in queue. We're maybe 2-3 months away from being in queue, unless the fingerprint clearance goes much faster than I am anticipating! That's when the BIG wait begins...the wait until we receive a picture of our child along with any available history! We still have a ways to go, but we are surely getting closer to meeting our little one that God has for us!