Article 16 Letter and I800!

Update! On Tuesday Holt emailed us stating that we received the Article 16 Letter (only 11 days after we received 1st Approval!!) and that they will be mailing us Nate's documents and other things we will need to submit with our I800. So on Wednesday the package from Holt came at 10:30am and I quickly gathered all of the required documents needed for the I800 and overnighted them to USCIS. That means, USCIS should receive our I800 today {approximately around noon :)}. They estimate that approval process to take 2-6 weeks. Once the I800 is approved we should receive our tentative travel dates!! We're getting so close I just can't believe it! Thanks so much for your continued prayers! It is so evident that Jesus has his hand on this whole process and we are so thankful!! We love y'all and we'll keep you updated :)

First Approval!!!

Y'all. JESUS is AMAZING!! Seriously.
I will begin with a story.
So, when Conner and I were shopping on the Monday after Christmas (12/28/15 to be exact), we were looking for a dresser to go in Nate's room. We were leaving Angel's Antiques, about to get in the car to head home to measure his room to see if the dresser would fit, and a lady from across the parking lot kind of loudly said, "Umm...excuse me". We were literally about to get in our car but stopped and said "Yeah?" We thought she maybe needed help getting her purchases into her car but she surprised us and said, (talking to Conner), "I saw that your shirt says 'Chosen' on the front and all of a sudden the Lord started to speak to me. He told me to tell you that you may be in a time of waiting but he is just using this time to strengthen your faith.... Does that resonate with y'all at all?" Y'all. We were speechless. We were like, "Uh, yes! Yes it does actually." The lady apologized for being so "random" and told us to have a good day and we got in to our car. I was freaking out. I was like, "Conner, did that just happen?" So as we were driving away and freaking out, we started thinking we should have gone over to the lady to tell her our story, but regretfully we didn't. Instead, we got in the car and were literally at a loss for words.
Then today happened. So this morning when I was getting ready, Holt (our agency) called. I heard my phone ringing while I was in the shower but didn't think anything about it. Then when I got out, my phone said I missed a call from Holt International. It was JP saying that she had some news from Thailand and I needed to call her back. So when I did, she didn't answer and I had to leave a VM. The longest 5 minutes of my life went by and she finally called me back. So, she said we got FIRST APPROVAL, which is basically the very first step in the travel process!!! Another freakout moment! She said that we are expected to travel in May, June, or July!! We will know more when we get our Article 16 Letter sometime around the end of the month. Until then, we will work on a little bit of paperwork (it's never-ending!) and just wait some more :)
Y'all. This is an answered prayer for sure! We have been going crazy with him being half a world away from us. It's the hardest thing I've ever gone through and it hurts but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! We have been at this for more than 2 years now, but God is so faithful! He has been with us throughout this whole process, even when we were doubtful, anxious, impatient, and hurting. He is always there and always faithful. I can't even explain how excited I am that this is really and finally happening!!
To our prayer warriors: Please be praying for Nate and his foster mom and dad. I can't even imagine what they will be feeling like on the day they hand him to us. Such a bittersweet moment. He will be hurting and confused. Please pray for his heart and that he grows to attach to us and love us. Please pray for peace and blessings over the foster family. They are such a selfless couple to do all that they have for Nate and the other kids they have loved on over the years. Please be in prayer that the Lord would prepare his heart and ours for this transition.
We want to thank everyone for being so sweet and supportive. This would not be possible without the love of our Lord Jesus and our loving family and friends! Y'all are seriously the best!

Nate's First Birthday and June Progress Report!

Today our sweet baby Nate is 1 year old! I can't believe it! It feels like its going too fast yet I want time to hurry up so we can travel to get him! The estimate for travel as of right now is sometime in between April and September 2016.

We received a progress report on Sept 2nd that was written for June 10th (9 months old) and the pictures we received are from May 25th (8 1/2 months old)... go figure! The report states that he is doing well. He has 2 pairs of front teeth (they didn't go in to any more detail so I have no idea where... I'm guessing 2 top and 2 bottom) and he is pulling up and walking around holding on to things. They say he sleeps well and eats well (still on formula and taking supplementary foods in between). In the pictures he is standing up in his crib and also playing on some stairs. He looks happy and healthy which is what we have been praying for!

We had a birthday party for him tonight and it went really well other than him not being here of course.  We had a lot of family and friends come celebrate with us! We did a Thailand theme and Conner made his speciality mandarin chicken and we had some sushi. Not really Thai food but we wern't real confident in our Thai food making abilities... After dinner with the grandparents, every one else came over. Thank you to everyone who came or called us! It really meant the world to us! We didn't open his presents until everyone left. When we started opening, it was just Conner and I and Conner looked at me and said, "It's not fun opening your kids presents, is it?" Nope. It sure isn't. BUT we are trusting in the Lord and His timing. We know we will travel in His time and that is all we can pray for :) 

We have such great family and friends and we love y'all so much!! Here are a few pics from the party!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATE!! WE LOVE YOU! 

The non-Thai but delicious dinner we ate with the grandparents before everyone else came over :)

Nate's Thailand themed cake! Publix did a fabulous job! We also saved/froze his smash cake for when he gets home... not sure how it'll taste though :/

Blowing out the candle! Conner's mom saved Conner's first birthday candle and so we used it on his cake! Thanks, Mimi!! 

The grandparents!! 

Conner with Will and sweet baby Alexandria :)

Sweet Kaylie dressing up and celebrating Nate! 

My sweet friend Madison and her husband Blane came :)

Our friends Crazy Will, Sweet Sherri, and baby Alex who is only 6 weeks old. So precious!! 

My cousin Rachel, Sam, and cute little Kaylie Bug. Kaylie was very entertaining during the blessing!! 

Our sweet neighbor friends Ron and Sherri! Our dog Abby and their dog Millie are besties :)

Our best friends Drew and Ashley! They are such a blessing to us and love Nate so much!

Our friends (of many, many years) Micahel and ML! ML is the artist of the "Waiting for You" board in our adoption pictures and she also made a beautiful print for Nate that sits on his bedside table. Y'all are the sweetest :)

Nate's Uncle Brandon and Aunt Kennedy. Yes, they took a picture of themselves and cut them out and brought them to my house because they couldn't be here tonight. How SWEET is that!!

You can't really read the signs they're holding but they say "Happy Birthday NATE!" AND, they're wearing hats! Y'all are hilarious and I love you. 

Nate's Papa and Gramie! They are already setting Nate up for his camo wardrobe! 

Nate's PawPaw and MiMi who are always bringing him surprises for when he gets home :) 

We weren't able to get a picture of everyone who came but we truly do appreciate every single one of you! We love y'all and we'll keep you posted :)

Please be in prayer for early travel dates!

We have been MATCHED!!

The long awaited (1 year and 12 days to be exact) day has come where we have been matched with our little BOY!! We are over the moon excited to finally see the face of our precious baby!

So, on Monday, June 22nd,  I received a call from Holt (our agency) notifying us that they matched us with a little boy :) Luckily I was at home working on some school work when I received the call. It was about 3:30 pm so I immediately got off the phone (after jotting down a few details) and called Conner who was at work. I told him (well, sobbed) he needed to come home IMMEDIATELY so we could meet our baby! It took him about an hour and a half before he got home (the LONGEST hour and half of my life!). When he got home we looked over all of his information and pictures. He is seriously the most precious thing in the world! Later on, we started cooking dinner and invited family over to meet him. It was so fun to be able to surprise our family with the news! Some were able to come over and some we had to FaceTime or call. Everyone was super excited and just loved him instantly!

We are naming him Nathan and calling him Nate. These are roots from his birth/Thai name. He is 9 months old and healthy! He lives with his foster mom and foster dad. They have grown children that are out of the house and have fostered several children before Nate so he is in very good hands! His reports say that he sleeps through the night and is a very good eater! We are aware that this will likely not be the case when he arrives home but we are so glad to know he is happy and healthy with his sweet foster parents. We have received some pictures but I am not able to post them since this is not a password protected site :( Thailand is super strict about posting any pictures or identifying information about Nate so we have to keep his privacy safe.

We are hoping to be able to travel to Thailand before Nate turns 2 years old (Sept 2016). Holt estimates travel anywhere from 10-18 months from match. I know this is a very long time to wait but unfortunately it's just the process Thailand requires. The Thai government has to approve the match between family and child and there are several families in front of us so... we wait. But that's OK because we are rejoicing that the Lord has led us to Nate! He is happy and healthy, loved on and cared for, and we are one day and one step closer to meeting him and bringing him to his FOREVER home!

We are SO thankful that we have family and friends that love us so perfectly. Many, many people have expressed love and support for us through out the whole journey and it really means the world!

We are expecting to receive another update on Nate at the end of August so we will keep you posted!

To our prayer warriors, these are some things we have been praying over: Please pray for Nate (health, happiness, adjustment, attachment, and most importantly that he is loved and cared for in the wait), his biological mother and father (peace and that they would know the love of the Lord), and his foster mother and foster father (that they would love and care for Nate as their own, be able to meet all of his needs, and just blessings upon them and their family for such an amazing and selfless act of caring for Nate and the 18 other orphans they have cared for).  Overall, that the Lord would be preparing Nate's heart and our hearts for his arrival. And of course, a speedy travel date! We want to get to him as soon as possible!!  We appreciate all of your prayers! God is so good and we feel so blessed to be Nate's parents!

We're on the waiting list!

God is good! We are officially on the waiting list! We mailed in our dossier last week and there were a few things that we accidentally didn't include. I mailed our documents to Holt last week and Villa Hope's missing document was received by Holt yesterday. Today Holt offically approved our dossier and they will mail it to Thailand on Friday! They didn't give us a "number" or anything but just said we are estimated to receive a referral in January! This is only an estimate but how awesome would be it to receive our match only 1 year from starting the process! WOW. We are super excited and cannot wait to see our baby's precious face! Please pray for patience as we are waiting!

The dossier has been mailed to Holt!!

After 21 days we finally received our dossier back from US Pack (the courier service that walked our dossier through certification at the US Dept of State and Thai Embassy in Washington D.C.)! We received it from FedEx yesterday morning so I quickly gathered everything together to mail it off to Holt, our adoption agency in OR. We had to include 2 copies of the dossier, passport photos, family photos, and the US processing fee. I got everything together and overnighted the package. Holt emailed me this morning letting me know they received the package and will be reviewing it soon. She said they will be getting back to us on Tues or Wed of next week. So once they review it and hopefully approve it we will be on the waiting list!! Holt did say though that we will not be able to be matched with a child until our 3 year wedding anniversary in January. We knew this would be the case since this is a Thailand requirement but we started the process anyway since it takes a while to get everything submitted. They said we will still work our way up the waiting list but they would just skip over us until January IF we were to get to the top of the list by then (but there is a good chance that we wouldn't by January anyway) But who knows... It is totally in God's timing anyway!

For the I800A, we are still waiting for approval. We did receive our fingerprint appointment which is scheduled for June 9th at 2pm in Atlanta! So once we have this done hopefully it won't take too much longer for approval. I did ask Holt if this would delay us from getting on the waiting list and she said no. It is common that families get the dossier submitted before I800A approval. I was relieved because I thought this would hold us up!
Everything is moving forward and we are so, so excited and feel very blessed to be this far along! Thank you for all of your prayers! We will be keeping you updated!

Dossier Certification!

BIG NEWS! So, last post I was discouraged because of paperwork confusion. On Wednesday morning I woke up to my doorbell ringing. It was the FedEx guy! He delivered the last 2 documents we needed! So I got up and got ready really fast and called my friend Christine. She agreed to come with me to Montgomery to get the dossier certified (I didn't want to go by myself). So we went to the Lee County Courthouse first for the county certification and then we drove to downtown Montgomery for the state certification! and I will just let you know after waiting for these 2 documents for what seemed like forever neither places even looked at any of the documents. It literally took less than 5 minutes in the Secretary of State (Montgomery office) I was like..REALLY?! When we were leaving I asked Christine why they didn't actually look at any of the documents and she said it was probably because I had everything tabbed and super organized and if I had been fumbling around in a pile of paperwork they would have probably looked at every single thing I had.. Anyway it was such a relief to have this part complete! So when I got home I had to get ready for work really fast! The next day on Thursday I gathered everything I needed to take my dossier to FedEx to send to the US Pack which is the courier service that will actually walk my dossier through certification at the Dept of State and then the Thai Embassy. I overnighted the package on Thursday before work and it was delivered to US Pack on Friday afternoon! YAY! I spoke with the lady there and she said it will be about a 10 days process. We feel so relieved and blessed to be through this big step!!

On Saturday we had our International Adopting Clinic seminar at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. It was a really great seminar that told us about what to expect when traveling and once we get home with our baby! We met a few families there who are adopting from Moldova (eastern Europe) and China. For one family they were on their 8th adoption from China! It was really cool to meet other families in the adoption process across Alabama!

Anyway it was a great Mother's Day weekend and we are truly very blessed! We cannot wait to be on the waiting list! We will keep you updated!