Request

Mother's Day is coming up (May9th in case any of you need to pick up a last minute card!), and I've got really mixed emotions. Excitement --- because this will be my first mother's day, and complete heartbreak -- because this may be our child's birth mother's last mother's day. Honestly....not an easy thing to think about, but I find myself thinking about her a lot. I don't know who she is or where she is.....but she's most likely already given birth to our child and she's either very sick, very hungry, very scared, or (probably) all of the above. As consumed as my thoughts are about the child we're about to have and how impatient I am to have him or her home with us, I am constantly reminded that there's another mom, half-way around the world, who will forever be a part of our family's story. I want to ask all of you who read this to pray for her. Pray for her health. Pray for her strength. Pray that she knows how much she is loved. Pray that she has peace. And, please, ask God to bless her for the sacrifice that she's about to make.

Surprise....

Remember when I said that we should hear back from the USCIS office in about two months with our fingerprint appointment date? Well, we got our mail today and....... WE HAVE APPOINTMENTS! We just sent our application in six days ago, so this is a lot earlier than we expected. Our appointments are scheduled for May 11th, so we have about three weeks to wait. There really is no standard on the timeframe between getting fingerprints and actually getting final approval so it may still take us around three months to complete this stage, but it was still a very pleasant surprise to have heard back so quickly!

Yard Sale

We've been trying to think of creative ways to save / make money for the adoption, so when we heard that our new neighborhood was having a yard sale we were in! We honestly had very low expectations for how much money our stuff would make us, but we were pleasantly surprised!! Not only did we make a lot more than we expected, we actually met another couple in our town who are also adopting their first child from Ethiopia!!! They aren't using the same agency that we are so its difficult to determine if they're in the same "stage" of the process, but it sounds like our kids will come home within a few months of one another. Who knows, maybe our little Ethiopian kiddos will become good friends!

USCIS

After some minor issues, our USCIS documents are in the mail! Well, technically they're in this FedEx truck somewhere, but they're on their way to Texas!! This means that our first long waiting period begins.

Everyone who has talked to me in the last week knows that I wasn't in the best mood on Wednesday and Thursday. Our home study was finished on Monday, and we just couldn't seem to meet up with our social worker to get our official final copies. I REALLY REALLY wanted to get the USCIS sent off, and we had to have the home study in order to get it in the mail. In my mind, we lost three days. Well....God knows what he's doing! When we got our home study on Thursday, I rushed to the computer to find the nearest FedEx location (because we were getting this thing in the mail that night!) and in my email there was "Urgent News from FTIA". Of course, I opened it right away and the immigration forms that we were getting ready to mail had completely changed. Not only that, but they now needed to go to a different office. If we would have received our home study any earlier than Thursday, we would have sent the wrong form to the wrong place!!! How crazy is that?!?

Well, after taking a couple days to figure out the new form, our documents are on their way to Texas. In about two months, we should hear from the USCIS office to schedule a fingerprinting appointment. Then, once our fingerprints clear, we will get a form back from them saying that we're approved to bring an orphan into the U.S. This whole process will most likely take three months. Anyone have any advice on what we can do while we wait??

Approved!!

"Michael and Krista Williams possess the physical, emotional and financial resources and capabilities to parent a child. They are well prepared for this planned adoption and I, therefore, recommend them to adopt a child from Ethiopia. "

That's right....we have an official APPROVED HOME STUDY! Now we have documented, authenticated, signed and notarized proof that we really are qualified to be parents! Our social worker, Cindy, was wonderful. She has been such a great resource for us through this stage of our journey. She even got us a gift for passing the home study... a beautiful poem about an adopted child's legacy. I'll admit it made me cry, so Mike had to read it to me. Its just been an emotional night.

Anyway, we are so excited to have finally passed this milestone and now we'll be sending off for USCIS approval to begin the next phase of the waiting game!

Progress

We are happy to report that we received our home study this afternoon!!! I have to say, it is really strange to read a huge report about yourself.

Technically, the copy we received today is just a draft. Our social worker wants us to read through and note any corrections that she needs to make. Once we email her back, she'll modify the report and give us our final "official" copies to send to USCIS.

We're finally making some progress again!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Williams Family! We woke up this morning, and the Easter bunny really was in our front yard --- okay, so maybe he was more interested in eating our landscaping than leaving Easter Eggs, but he was still pretty cute.

Even though Baby Williams isn't home with us this Easter, Grandma Robin and Grandpa Steve got them an Easter gift -- Baby's First Bible. It has a little baby chick on the cover and they even got a stuffed baby chick to match (this child will quickly learn about the importance of coordinating accessories!!).

Its exciting to think that next Easter (God willing) our little guy or gal will be home with us!