January 2014 Signed, Sealed, and Delivered! This is how babies are made!

As we began the new year, we excitedly prepared for the last piece of our dossier!  Our I-800A appointment was set for January 6th.  We both had to take off of work.  We didn't want to run into any kind of trouble, and since we didn't know where the office was located and we had other dossier related appointments for that day as well, we decided to spend the night in Des Moines.  What a COLD DAY!  It was insane.  You can see from the pictures we took of the t.v. below that the temperatures were nearly unbearable.

To start off the day we had a 7:30 AM appointment to get a whole box of dossier documents notarized.  We spent about 1 hour signing our names over and over.  The notary was sweet enough to take this pictures of us after we finished all of our signing.

Then we were headed for the Office of the Secretary of State to get these freshly notarized documents apostilled.  What a thrilling journey because we knew we were inching toward the dossier finish line!

After getting our documents picked up (and nearly freezing to death) we went to our I-800 A appointment.  We had to park about 2 blocks away and walk in the freezing weather.  Our eyes were watering so much from the cold wind that we could barely see to make our way into the building.  Once we reached the safety of the building we were abruptly met with a security guard informing us that the building was closed and our appointment was cancelled due to the cold weather.  Our hearts sank and we tried to explain how we had both taken the day off of work (unpaid) to make this appointment.  We had driven 250 miles round trip and spent the night to make sure we didn't miss this appointment.  It didn't matter.  Only the security guard was there and we had to leave.  So, on our way back out we went.  We did have a good time together shopping and ate at Cheesecake Factory.  Then we went back home.  We did have a lot of work left to accomplish to get the dossier in the mail.  We went to work on making the copies.  

 

We thought we would go crazy!  We had to make 10 copies and we had 6 originals because of trying to get a sibling group of up to 4 children.  There were SO many papers everywhere and it was so hard to sort and organize everything properly.  Finally, the day came (01/27/14) that we finally put our dossier in the mail!  YAY!  What was really cool was that we asked the post lady if we could take her picture as she took our package.  She told us of how she had been adopted as an infant and her experience.  It was like a confirmation of just knowing that God is in control.  

Our dossier- Signed, Sealed, and Delivered!

We can’t help but wonder what 2014 will bring to our family.  Janie has begun her last semester of school.  In May she will finally be a Family ARNP!  This year will likely bring a referral, and maybe even our children!  February 4, 2014 we have our appointment with USCIS in Des Moines.  Hopefully we will have good weather this time.

Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow's cause.