Well It's Official.....I have NESTED!!!! I took this week off of work to catch up a little on the cleaning. With the busyness of the salon it gets hard sometimes to make myself spend even a day each week devoted to cleaning the house. So....I decided to take a week off work and tackle the dilemna. The house now looks like the day we moved in, at least until the girls get home from school anyway. Then the cyclone hits. I thought it would be nice to enjoy the house without so much clutter for a few weeks before we bring Derek home and there is "stuff" everywhere. I love when the house looks so tidy!!!! But you know what....I am going to love it even more when there are pitter-pattering feet running through it screaming and tossing toys about! Wow, with a 12 and 16 year old I kinda still get a taste of it but not in the same sense. It has been 3 days of waiting since our I600 approval and I must admit this is the hardest point. I thought each step was the worst but this one is definately it, at least until we get there. I think all in all the hardest part will be sitting still with all of that anticipation as we fly 30+ hours to see Derek's face in person.
Thank you all for your continued prayers...we still need them though so don't give up yet!!!

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.....

We woke up this morning to open our inbox for our email and much to our delight after long anticipation....we have our confirmation of receipt of our I600 in HCMC!!! WOOHOO!!! Now you can all begin watching our ticker!!!! The letter stated that most determinations (approvals) are made within 60 working days!!! Let's hope we are lucky!!!!
Keep praying...everytime I post you can see how it's working!!!!

For those of you still tagging along this journey with us.....

We are officially on our final leg of the journey (well at least from here in the U.S.). Our I600 was submitted last week (we are still waiting confirmation of receipt from USCIS and then we will start a ticker for you to watch)and hopefully by the looks of other families whom have gotten approval the process is moving a little more smoothly and we will get approval somewhere in the 14-90 day range. I am estimating late June. What a great 5 year wedding anniversary gift that would be for us to give each other. An awesome across the world trip and a new son!!! What could be better??!!!
We received Derek's dossier documents yesterday explaining his abandonment. Wow those are really heartwrenching. It's certainly something to read. He was actually left outside the orphanage at 4 a.m. with barely any clothing and just wrapped in a towel, and crying. How sad!!! He will be so lucky to come to our home and have a family to care for him.
Please continue to pray as the final approval is all that's left before traveling.
Did I montion I finished packing??? 4 suitcases later??? Well one is actually filled with nothing but snacks for us and the kiddos on the plane ride home! Need to keep everyone happy...right??!!!

Pray...it's working!!! Thanks so much for all of your continued support, thoughts, and prayers. It has gotten us this far and it will bring Derek home!!!

Friday May 16, 2008

A wonderful day to remember.....

Today we received our "Official Match Letter" from the DIA. It is in Vietnamese but non the less we have it!!!! We are officially considered in Vietnam's eyes to be Derek's Mommy & Daddy!!!!! WOW...what a feeling!!!
Along with that letter came a new picture of Derek!!!! He is so adorable!!!!
Our I600 will be filed on Monday!!! WOOHOO!!!!

We just received a phone call from Ray at our agency. He was following up on our 797C approval. He was worried that it expired but I pointed out to him that it is good for 18 months and our approval is good until June 20th. We also clued him in on the fact that our social worker has completed our home study update and we just need the agency to give her the go ahead to print it and we can then submit it to the USCIS office in Philly and hope we can get a little help from our friends at Merle Phillips' office again to expedite the approval of our extension so there are no gaps left in the paperwork. So all is looking good at our end. He also told us that our I600 will be submitted this week!!! WOOHOO!!!! We will be on the final waiting stretch real soon!!!!
We'll keep you posted and we would appreciate your continued prayers!!! It really is working....do you see it????

Another Forward Leap....

Yesterday we received awesome news from our agency. Ours & Derek's dossiers have been approved by the DIA (Vietnamese Government) and our Official Match Referral Letter has been sent. We will hopefully receive that in the next 10-14 days. We aren't sure how long mail will take to get here from Vietnam. This means we are legally and officially matched to Derek and that he'll soon be able to come home. On Monday (which will actually be tomorrow our time) the DIA will be sending our referral package to the DOJ in DaNang and we will then receive copies of Derek's dossier. This is information we have been waiting so long to read. It will contain info about his abandonment and hopefully an updated photo and measurements. From there the DOJ in DN will submit our I600 to the USCIS on our behalf. Hopefully that will be done by the end of next week. Then our final wait begins. Technically the USCIS says 30-60 days for approval but we have seen some families who are already way beyond that 60 day wait. We aren't sure what time frame to expect for the USCIS to approve us and hopefully this step will finalize without another investigation needed. On the brighter side we have seen some families get approved in 1 day. I guess it depends whose desk the papers fall onto. I pray the USCIS will have mercy on us. The other great thing is that Michelle & Jeff's paperwork is hanging right in there with ours. We are praying we will finalize together and be able to travel together and return home together. What a great experience to share with such awesome friends. Speaking of which I am dying to be with them again. January was a long time ago.
So all in all next week we should have some news about our I600 and hopefully soon a new picture of OUR SON!!!!
Thanks for praying it is really working. God has been so good to us!!!!

SADNESS RULES...AGAIN

Remember last year around this exact time I was totally devastated because our CM was taking maternity leave.....well it's worse this time!!!! I received a call last week from Diane asking me to please keep this quiet until she could tell all her families (which I confirmed today that she has done)....Dianehas resigned AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Diane has become far more than a CM to me. She has become a dear friend whom I will miss immensly. She will be available to us until Friday and then our case will be taken over by Ray. Hopefully we are on the home stretch at this point. We were really hoping for Diane to lead us there but I can truly appreciate her desire to have time with her family. Her baby girl needs her more than we do and I am not the selfish type.

Diane if you are reading this....

WE WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

MORE GOD (or GOOD) NEWS TODAY!!!!

It has been confirmed that our age ammended letter has been submitted to the DIA and that on Monday our agency will try to find out whether the Official Referral Match Letter has been sent out to us yet. This will be great if they say yes since it could mean we could receive it with in the next week to week and a half. Also our I-600 and our Commitment Letter was sent to VN on Tuesday so once we get the match letter our I600 can be submitted and then the final wait begins. Our agency is still telling us 30-60 days for USCIS to approve our case. We are going to pray that we will not have any issues that need investigated from the USCIS and we can get approval as quickly as possible.
All the prayers that we are being showered with are being answered!!!
Thank You All and PLEASE Keep PRAYING!!!!! GOD is helping!!!!!