797

After 64 days of waiting (plus 26 more for a grand total of 90 days!!! if you add in the wait time from our failure to include the correct money amount, Carl's job change and our home study update), our I800A has finally been approved and our 797 has been issued.  Don't get too excited because we still haven't received it in the mail yet, but we know that it was issued on January 12th.

No this is not our immigration officer, but too funny of a picture not to include.

This means that we have been approved by the USCIS (Homeland Security) to adopt a child from China and bring her into the US. It doesn't mean we've been approved to adopt Hope specifically.  That will come a little later.  For now, we will anxiously await that paper in the mail and get ready to do a fast turn around with the certification and authentication processes before our Dossier makes it to our agency on its last stop before making its way to the officials in China who will make our dream come true...eventually.

One step closer, but still so far away.

Please pray for our process as we make progress in the coming weeks.  We're going to be running into some speed bumps on all kinds of levels.  The mail may be slow due to tomorrow's holiday, state certification may be postponed due to former governor Janklow's funeral, authentication may take longer than usual due to Chinese New Year and Embassy closure on January 23rd and 24th and who knows what else will pop up.