More paperwork and the Dossier

So now that the homestudy is complete...now what. Last week was a busy week, we officially started working with our agency, One World Adoption Services once we paid our first fee of $3,200. With that we got more paperwork to fill out as well as a better understanding of what our Dossier will consist of. Our Dossier is what our agency will send to the Congelese government. It consists of 10 things. For those interested I'll list those things for you.
1. Homestudy
2. State criminal clearances
3. Marriage license(certified copy)
4. Birth Certificates(again certified copies)
5. Tribunal letter(notarized)
6. 1717h or1797c (Immigration Pre Approval, notarized)
7. Copy of state adoption laws
8. Copies of passports
9. Passport size photos
10. Medical letter from doctor stating good health, free of HIV and TB
and $2,300 for the Dossier fee and translation fee

There you have it. Once we complete these things then we wait. Wait to be matched up with our little boy! Right now on paper it says the wait time from when the Dossier is turned in could be anywhere from 0 to 12 months. Last week was a little discouraging in that we were bombarded once again with things to do and papers to fill out. As well as the realization that the wait could be a lot longer than we had hoped for. And to add to that, Alyssa is now asking daily when her baby brother is coming =) I guess it's the Lords way of making me verbally claim the truth..."The Lord will bring our baby brother home when its time...He is in control."

Merry Christmas to us!!

We had several fun surprises during Christmas week. Our first surprise was receiving our FBI clearance (finally...after 2 1/2 months) and just days later having our actual Homestudy documents in hand! We are now past such a huge hurdle! Now that we are done with the homestudy we can start moving forward with our agency as well as apply for grants and loans. Our next Christmas surprise was seeing God continue to provide...our next agency fee is $3,500 which we were short on, we had just $1,000 in hand. Within 2 days at Christmas we received $2,500...which enables us to make that next payment! Kevin totaled up what we have received so far... $6,000!

Not really sure what the timeline will look like now. We should get a better picture after communicating more with the agency. We have been praying daily for our little guy. Praying specifically that he is being taken care of...fed, held and protected until we can bring him home.