Fun Mailbox & Prayer Requests

So today was a super fun trip to the mailbox because waiting for me was the state certified copy of our home study, the state certified copy of our Power of Attorney for Holt to act on our behalf in Ethiopia and also the form from USCIS that they are processing our 600A and we will be contacted soon to get our fingerprints for that.  I think I had listed before that we got the POA back from Indy because the notary’s name wasn’t printed out under her signature.  Well I printed it and then threw it back in the mail to them not thinking and forgot to include the cover letter which they require with it so that they know specifically which country you are adopting from and how to certify it.  So I figured it would be coming back again un-certified but somehow they remembered us and went ahead and processed it for Ethiopia.  Awesome!  The lady put a note on it saying that she hoped it was correct.  I called her to thank her for covering my silly mistake and she was thankful for a nice phone call from someone for once.  So, now we have every document we need for our dossier besides the approval form from the 600A.  We’re figuring that it will be another couple of weeks at least on that so please be in prayer for that to go through quickly.

We’d also like to ask you to continue to pray about the Show Hope grant.  They probably got back into the office today and it would’ve been waiting for them in their mail.  They say they take at least 90 days to process requests so it will probably be awhile before we hear anything but I’d ask you to still be in prayer for that one.

We were also told by our agency to call this week to talk to the director of the Ethiopia program at Holt about possibly being granted some funds from their Special Needs Adoption Fund.  I emailed her today but she doesn’t get back into the office until tomorrow.  So another person has a request waiting for her right when she comes back after the holidays :)  I’m trying to border on the line of persistent and obnoxious and hoping I’m staying just close enough to persistent for them not to hate me!

So, another trip to the notary for all of these documents and we’re at the stand still.  Antsy Jack said he feels like we’re already there and wants to speed this up.  While I do want our son home ASAP, I personally have enjoyed these last two weeks with a little less paperwork and being able to focus on having fun with the other three while they’re off of school.  Back to school for them tomorrow and back to researching and applying for more grants for me.  We also need to get started on our Hague training which is 10 hours for each of us and another $200.  Thankfully we can do it on the computer and at our own pace.

Here’s one very fun and exciting thing that we have been able to do, Judah is officially signed up for pre-school!  Emma & Jackson go to DeMotte Christian School and they are having sign ups so Judah has a spot with Mrs. Friend for next year.  They are being flexible with us not knowing when he’ll be home and knowing that even if he’s home during school he’ll need a few months to adjust before being thrown into school.  How fun and real it is to be able to do such a normal thing like signing him up for preschool!