Update....but not really an update

Hey friends! This is the part of the process where a lot of things happen behind the scenes but not much DAILY excitement.

Our first big step was to get a list of documents to our home study agency.

They, in turn, copy all of that and send it to our social worker and she writes our home study update.

This home study update then goes to China as part of our dossier (AKA big stack of documents).

The good news is that we get to reuse our dossier that we used with MinLan. Can I get a big hallelujah!?!?!?!?  That thing is a BEAST to put together!!!!

Ok, so all of our documents have been delivered to our home study agency.

Last I heard, our social worker was still waiting on a few documents to be sent to her.

Once she has them, she can sit down to write and update our home study to reflect MinLan's addition to our family and to add in our desire to adopt John Preston.

Then she will send a draft to be approved by our placing agency in Delaware.  Our goal is to have that rough draft sent to our placing agency by March 31st.

Once they approve it, the official copies with be signed, notarized and ready to go.

Once our home study is done, we can also begin to apply for grants for our adoption.

Our next big hurdle is the funds due to get our dossier to China.  It is a real possibility that it will be ready to go but that they will be waiting on us to pay our balance due them in order to send it.

I think this is one part that scares me. Not that I LIKE waiting on other people to do their part, but I hate the thought that everything will be ready to go and they will be waiting on US.

To think that our precious boy has been waiting almost EIGHT YEARS already for a family and that now he will wait even longer.

We have been busy though...

We have had several fundraisers and are grateful to all of you that have supported us.

We have had several friends join our Story of 1000 and we are so thankful.

Bryan has been able to work some overtime at work so that has helped too.

On days like today, I feel like I am not doing enough. I wonder if I am wasting my time on fundraisers that might not be successful or if there is a better way that I could spend my time in order to get John Preston home more quickly.

Thanks for checking in with us. I hope that soon I am able to share with you two things:

1. We have paid our current balances with our agencies.
2. Our home study is written and our dossier is on its way to China.

Please continue to pray that our sweet boy is happy, healthy and cared for in his foster home.

Join us praying that God continues to show out in a mighty way in the area of financial resources for our adoption. I know He wants us to depend on Him. I have never felt closer to and more dependent on the Lord than I have during the adoption process.

But the uncertainty is hard.

He made a way for us to bring MinLan home and I know He is going to do the same for John Preston.

One of mine and Ethan's favorite songs is "Jesus Paid It All".....

The lyrics say:
"Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness
Watch and pray
Find in me thine all in all."

We are watching and praying...expectantly.

Love,
Jenifer