This is a huge week for Elizabeth and for her adoption, and we need your prayers! Allow me to review…
- Elizabeth flies from eastern DRC to Kinshasa on Tuesday. I will be an absolute basketcase until we know they have landed safely. Pray for their safety and for Elizabeth’s heart in this time of change and transition.
- Fingerprints! Good: yesterday, we received our date for our fingerprint appointment! Bad: the scheduled date is after our old fingerprints expire… and right around the time we hope to be traveling. Good: we know that USCIS will sometimes see people as walk-ins before their appointment dates. Bad: they are closed tomorrow for Columbus Day. Good: I’m going to ask to have half a day off of work on Tuesday so that we can beg and plead to be fingerprinted as walk-ins. Please pray that they will be willing to do so and that our new I-171H (i.e. US document stating that we’re cool to adopt) can be generated quickly!
- Once Elizabeth is in Kinshasa, they can apply for her passport. Pray that the passport paper situation will be resolved and that she might be given a passport this week. Again, once we have the passport, we can request an embassy date and schedule our first trip!
On a different note, I am still sleeping pretty horribly. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about packing lists and paperwork and everything in between. Matt made me stay home from church today to rest, and what do I do? Mountains of adoption paperwork. Seriously, my brain is in hyperdrive and I can’t shut it off. I’m testing out the Tylenol PM waters tonight… here’s hoping that I can find some rest!
You guys have seriously prayed us through the past two and half years of our adoption journey, and words cannot express my gratitude. I feel as though we’re in those final agonizing weeks of the longest pregnancy in the history of the world. I know that it won’t be some sort of utopia when we bring Elizabeth home. In many ways, things are just about to become more hectic and complicated as we adjust to being a family of five with one child who will be needing quite a bit of added attention and energy. My heart just aches, though, to have this precious little girl in a home and family- our family- loved forever.