Praises!

We received our passports in record time!  We can hardly believe it!  We turned in our paperwork just before closing time on November 15th, and received them yesterday, December 3rd!  So, we received them in approximately 12 business days!  (And that is with one of those days being Thanksgiving!)  We were told it could take anywhere from 4-8 weeks!  Wow!  Thank you, Lord!   (Not that we need them to travel anytime soon! But it is necessary to have copies of the passports to submit with all of our paperwork for the Dossier.)  

Also, we finished the last of our paperwork for the home study and sent all the remaining documents (reference letters, employee verification, medical reports, etc.) on Friday night.  Yesterday, we were able to schedule our 2nd interview for next Monday with our home study social worker.   This has all gone very quick as well!

Now, we just need a few more documents to complete the bigger collection of documents that will get sent to the Ethiopian Government for their approval.  This is called the Dossier.  (French word; loosely translated . . . BIG stack of papers; pronounced DOSS-EE-AY . . . I'm still working on NOT saying it the way it looks.)   One of the documents we need for the Dossier is an approval letter from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, which can take up to 3 months or so to receive after submitting our application.  So, we'll have a good case of hurry-up-and-wait.  Then, once we receive this USCIS approval, we will submit our Dossier to our adoption agency.  Then, we'll wait again for its approval by the Ethiopian Government, and then we'll wait for a referral of a child(ren)! 

But, today, I'm rejoicing!  And feel greatly encouraged with how quickly and fairly easily everything has gone to this point!  We'd be ever so grateful for your prayers for continued smooth (and speedy) sailing through this process!   And for safe travels on this long journey, as we have an enemy who would love to see the process thwarted!