I was down and then I was up!

Today was a good reminder for me to look around and not focus on what is not happening in John's adoption but what is happening.
I have been waiting for our Immigration approval so we can move onto the next step in John's adoption which is getting the paperwork to the Secretary of State and then onto the Consulate.
After that we are DTC or Dossier to China!!!!

I called Immigration today since we walked in for our fingerprinting appointments weeks early.
We even went back in when my Mother's prints failed.
The 27th was our actual appointment date but still we have no Officer assigned to us to even look at our application.
I felt a bit down thinking it is taking too long and my sweet boy is waiting and waiting.
However, someone. Some dear sweet soul was also thinking of my little boy!

I was checking the timeline of my Immigration paperwork when I scrolled through and thought I saw the donation amount for John's fund have an 8 in it.
No, it had been at $568 for so long now.
I scrolled back up and I stared at the screen, blinking.
It read $818.00!My eyes didn't see much more for a few minutes as I became all weepy but I just want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart whoever you are, John's special angel.

Happy New Year from the Hemmes' with love!

Fingerprints ~ Check!

I was surprised and thrilled to have received our fingerprinting appointment letter in the mail last Monday.
The appointment date was for Dec 27th although once you are in the system you can walk-in if your particular office allows it.
My family was all on board for this and we made plans to leave the next day.
I had heard the Atlanta office was good about this so I hoped for the best as we drove the two hours to their office.
DH was still in his military uniform as an extra incentive to let us fingerprint ahead of appointment as I had heard active duty military don't need an appointment.
In the end we walked right in and everyone there was so pleasant and helpful.
We were in and out in under 30 minutes!
I've since called USCIS to let them know we walked in early and let's hope this speeds things up.
With Christmas right around the corner I am wishing that our approval comes in time to have it sent to the Chinese Consulate before the week's break.
My timeline is not always His timeline so I know to be patient but always hopeful.

Just sitting around waiting

These days we are just sitting around waiting on our fingerprinting appointment for Immigration.
It should be within the next two weeks and then we will drive to Atlanta to be fingerprinted early.
Sometimes it speeds up the process and sometimes it doesn't.
We'll pray it does!
Since we are reusing our dossier we only have a few documents this time to be notarized, certified and authenticated.
Our home study which I had to mail away to another county to be certified, our Letter of Commitment which is already done and then once our Immigration approval comes, a copy of that will need to be notarized and certified as well.
Then those 3 papers will need to be sent by courier to the Chinese Embassy to be authenticated.
I am going to guess that all will take about a month, so just after the new year we should have all our paperwork ready to send to China to meet up with our dossier which is already there.
I'll go into more detail as things happen but that's a quick version of where we are.

We still have our BIG fundraiser reveal but sadly I can't give out any more clues until our funds go up.
Just $20.00 will get you one more clue and $32.00 will reveal the entire secret!
A teaser I will throw out there, the actual fundraiser will be on January 25th and it is going to be in the newspapers and t.v.
Now don't you want to know more?