We were submitted!!!

Our dossier was submitted today!!!

Now we are waiting for our travel dates, we will probably receive them in about 2 weeks and be traveling to get our little one in about a month.

patiently waiting

Our dossier arrived in country today!! Yay!! We are getting closer.

I have resigned myself to just be patient and wait. I can't really do much else anyway. I think I will go crazy if I try to count down the days anyway.

So, instead of checking my email, my blog and every other source of information 15 times a day, I will just enjoy my children. Soon, our life will be completely different and probably a whole lot busier, so I am going to try to just enjoy the season I am in.

Please keep praying though,

1. For Priscilla to be safe and healthy and well taken care of.
2. That she has a caretaker now that she has bonded with, someone who loves her and cares for her like their daughter (yes, this will be harder for her to leave, but easier for her to attach, since she will already know what love is)
3. For our dossier to be translated and submitted soon.
4. That everything will fall into place so we can go rescue our little beauty soon.

Dossier

Well, our dossier was NOT delivered friday. The UPS tracking now says it will be delivered on monday. I'm thinking it is because of the weekend, and when they say monday, maybe they mean their time? I am hoping anyway.

The night after I mailed our dossier I was up all night, and every time I woke, I thought of "Castaway", you know the movie with Tom Hanks and he is on an island because his FedEx plane went down. Anyway, that is probably silly. But, I kept thinking about how there could have been a dossier on that plane. And what if the same thing happened to ours. :) Funny, I know. But, all I could think of was "how in the world am I going to do this again", somebody would seriously have to come take care of my kids, just so I don't go insane.

Since starting this journey, I have had so many times where the Lord has reminded me that He is in complete control, and that no matter how hard I try to make it happen in my own time, it just won't , because He already has the day and time mapped out.  My heart keeps screaming, "but, Lord, can't you just give me an idea of the time. Maybe just the week?" Aghh, it is just so hard to wait. If I weren't waiting for a child, who is living and breathing and all by herself, it would be so much easier. All I can do, is pray.

Since our dossier won't make it there until monday, I don't think there will be enough time to translate and have it submitted this week. So, we are praying for the following week.

Dossier is in route!!!

I am happy to say that the last 5 months of my life is sitting in an envelope on it's way to Priscilla's country. Woohoo!

Wow, it has been quite a journey getting here. Many, many tears and prayers have gone into this.

If you wonder what in the world we have been working on so hard for the last few months, maybe this will give you a glimpse.

I didn't count all of them, but I do know there is well over 100 pages and 33 documents. Some have been quite easy, and others have been extremely difficult. Many times (like last week) I wanted to give up so bad, because it is taking every ounce of patience and endurance I have had to get all of these papers together. 

So, today I received my last apostilled papers for this dossier. You would think that the sending part would be the easy part, but it didn't go that way. 

I took everything to FedEx. I had both kids with me, I put Justus in the stroller, so he wouldn't run off. I am trying to push the stroller with one hand, while holding onto my folder with our dossier in it and my planner that has the address in the other hand and trying to open the door with my third hand. :) Then I drop everything, and the folder falls on the ground and all of the papers fall out (now that I am thinking about it, I think it happened in slow motion).  Luckily, it was still in an order that I could pull it together. Whew!

After, I finally manage to get the door open, I see 2 employees just watching me. Like they couldn't help. 

Then, I went to mail them. First she said she doesn't know the city I am mailing to. I told her I mailed with them before to the same address. Then she says "I'm not sure where this will end up". Yeah, talk about being uneasy. Anyway, when she finally finds the city, she says it won't get there until the 15th. I said no that won't do. So, she laughs at me. Made me mad, so I took my papers and took them to UPS. 

They were wonderful, so friendly. And they are going to be there on the 11th. Thank you Jesus!

This is the so, so helpful and wonderful lady at the UPS store. She didn't even think I was crazy when I wanted to take a picture. The picture is bad. Right before I took it, she was smiling. Oh well.

I didn't think I would cry, but I did. I guess it was just that I have put so much into this. After we mailed this, we went to Walmart to pick up Malika's new glasses. On the way, I was thinking about it, and the thought occurred to me, we are trading paper for a real live baby girl. Yes, in reality it is more than paper, but the truth is, it is just paper. Our dossier is paper, and money is paper. 

I know we aren't done, but I would do it all over and over again just to give life to our sweet little girl.

Here is a picture of Malika with her new glasses. Isn't she beautiful.

Please continue to pray with us, our journey is only half over. 

• Pray that our dossier will be translated quickly and submitted next week. 
• Pray that they will send us our travel dates soon.
• Pray that all will go smoothly.
• Pray that Priscilla will stay healthy and bond easily and quickly.

Crazy week

This has been one of the most stressful weeks. I don't really have the heart to go into detail on everything we have gone through this week, I'm just plain too tired to.

Our dossier did not make it into the mail this week, at least not headed for Eastern Europe. Maybe next week. Several of our documents, I was sure were good, were rejected by the team that checks all of our paperwork.

We had a water leak, actually it has been going on for quite some time. We paid someone to fix it in October, and found out this week that it is still leaking. And on top of that, the wall is rotten, moldy and ants have made it their home.

These are not the only stresses I have been dealing with this week, but they are the only ones I am at liberty to share on my blog.

Anyway, it has been a very trying week. But the Lord is good, because last night I had a beautiful dream of our sweet little girl. God knows, I really needed that. I had a much better day today, thinking of her sweet little face and smile.

I am confident we will bring her home, I'm just not sure when. Please be praying with us that all of our paperwork will come together so that we can for sure send it next week.