Colombia background clearance, CHECK

Merritt's background clearance from Colombia came last Monday! I thought for sure it would take longer than a month, but we were truly blessed. The man we made contact with in Colombia has been awesome. He really went above and beyond. He even took it upon himself to have it notarized and translated for us. He really was an answer to prayers and we are so grateful for his help.

We are now working on switching agencies. We have decided on an agency and are in the process of filling out all the paper work. My goal was to have our I800a sent to USCIS (former INS) by the end of December but that is coming quickly and I don't know if we can get everything back that we need in time. Once we get the I800a sent off we could be waiting 3-6 months to hear back from the USCIS. We can't move forward with anything until we get approval from them.

I realized there would be a lot of waiting with our adoption but I thought it would be after the paperwork was done, not for every step of the process. It used to be possible to have dossier to China within a couple of months but with the new process it has taken us 9 months...so far. Some of that has been our fault, but most of it has not.

But despite the frustrations I am feeling very hopeful and I think our agency switch will turn out to be a good thing. I just keep reminding myself that there is a reason for our hold ups. I have faith that we are being guided to the little girl that is meant for our family and it will happen in the Lord's time. He knows things that we don't. We want to thank all of you for your prayers. I know they are being answered.