And it's off!

Our I-800a, that is. We sent it via FedEx on Saturday....and it was quite the process, too! We forgot to make copies of our marriage certificate and birth certificates, but thankfully we had them in the car that day for another "project", so it wasn't a problem. I think the 30+ minutes we spent getting everything ready to go to USCIS would have made for a great comedy! Normally Austin and I are both very prepared and on top of things, but yesterday it seemed like we both left our brains at home! But we were determined to get everything sent out so that we could cross off another BIG thing on our Adoption To Do List and be one step closer to bringing our daughter home!

So, you might be wondering, now what? Well, we have to wait to receive a letter from the local USCIS office to have fingerprinting done in Nashville, and we've heard this can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks, and then we wait for USCIS approval, which typically takes anywhere from 60-120 days. While we wait, we are finishing up our dossier to send to Carolina Adoption Services who will ultimately send it to Moldova for translation. We've been working like crazy to get it ready, and I think it will be ready next week. So that's also good! However, until we have approval from USCIS, we cannot receive a referral. Once the approval is in hand, we have to send it back to Nashville to be apostilled, then on to our agency who sends it to Moldova. So...once it makes it to Moldova, we could have a referral on our daughter anywhere from 1 to 9 months from that point. EXCITING!!!! 

Please pray for us and our daughter every day. Pray that the Lord will move us through this process as He sees best. Pray that we will wait on Him and His perfect timing. Pray that He prepares our hearts for the days, weeks, and months to come.