More Good News....

Man, I am just full of good news today. First, we get to go on Wednesday to meet with our social worker and review our final homestudy draft! Then, as I was inquiring about something else, I asked our social worker about immigration approval. Come to find out, I don't have to wait for the final approval of the home study to submit the immigration application! This saves me (and my daughter!!!) some time! I was going to have to wait for it to be approved (signed) by the agency, and then sent to SC DSS for approval, and then it is forwarded to immigration. BUT, this way, I can do the immigration application and get a fingerprint appointment scheduled. In the meantime the home study can be getting approved locally. Also in the mean time I can get the FBI to figure out if Tim and I ever committed any henious crime and approve us!!! I'm a bit irked with them right now.

Speaking of fingerprints and criminal background checks... all that good stuff. I am all for making sure parents have a suitable background before handing them over a child. I mean, it is one thing to be able to biologically produce a child, the parents make that choice. But to voluntarily turn a child over to someone, you should be sure that they are not going to harm the child and can provide for them. I am ALL for that. But is there really any reason that I need to pay a TON of money for immigration approval (which will expire...why???) and even more needlessly, once I get fingerprinted ONCE, why do I need to do it again???? SEVERAL TIMES at SEVERAL DIFFERENT AGENCIES??? Can't they all just work together and agree somehow that 18 months from now my fingerprints will remain the same? I mean, unless I cut off my fingertips, or burn them with acid or something like that...they are going to be the same. And I have bigger issues if they happen to be different. I mean, I have a degree in science, but even if I didn't... I know that your fingerprints do not change. You can identify me with the ones that I had as a baby. Oh well.... it's all part of the fun (and expense!!!) of international adoption. And since I've done it at least 5 times now, and have only successfully adopted one child - I must have determined that it is VERY well worth it. With Anna I had to be re-printed once. We then had to be fingerprinted two times (once for Vietnam and then once again because our fingerprints expired while waiting to adopt from Kyrgyzstan). Neither of which led to a child. Now here we are at fingerprint session number 5. Hopefully this one will result in our daughter. That is not to mention all of the fingerprint appointments we have had locally... the police station knows us by name and we have no criminal record. I'm not even sure they check anymore because we have them write us letters so often :)

I am praying, praying, praying that things continue to move slowly. Tim and I really do deserve a break with regard to the adoption. I am so dying to meet my daughter!!! Maybe tomorrow I will tell the story of the emotional rollercoaster of today. For now though, I have kids that need their mom!!!

In Christ! (Keep praying for us in HIS name!!!)
Charity