Tag: god

News

Crunch Time

LS

An adoption without stress, excitement, and many things happening in an unideal fashion simply wouldn’t be the full experience! We should know not to expect anything less at this stage!

After the news on Wednesday about the appointment date of September 1st, we began moving as quickly as possible to get things into place given the extremely tight turn around. We immediately ran into an issue with securing a tourist visa for Brazil. In the first place, we discovered that the online application required a notarized document for Elijah’s application, giving him authorization from both parents to have a visa. This proved problematic since notaries in Germany are only available on appointment basis and Friday was a public holiday (which meant Monday would be the first chance to ask for one). Thankfully the Lord provided a solution to this via Lifeline and we were able to submit the application near midnight on Thursday in Germany (which thankfully fell within the working hours in both the USA and Brazil).

We are still not out of the clear. Though the applications and documents have all been submitted, the listed approval time is 10 business days, which would be the day after we are scheduled to fly out. Furthermore, we have already had a request for further documentation for Elijah’s birth certificate. One of the added challenges of adoption is that paperwork is often not in standard formats. We have often run into issues with Elijah’s birth certificate as it only lists his birth name, not his adopted name. This often means producing other documents such as the adoption certificate which lists both the birth name and the adoption name and then talking the official into using the two together as the birth certificate. Because this is an online system, there is no ability to talk or even write an explanation. But, all possible additional documents have now been uploaded. Please pray for grace that whoever is looking at these will accept them and give us a speedy response. We really need everything to fall into place and very rapidly.

Plane tickets have been booked for August 27th and we are working to secure accommodations. It is a bit nerve wracking to do this without visas already on hand and we are praying and trusting that the Lord will bring everything in place in sufficient time. Just when we thought we had learned plenty of lessons about patience, trust, and the Lord’s faithful provisions, we are given more opportunities to relearn these things!

We appreciate your prayers and will continue to keep you updated! The clock is ticking, which is both exciting and throwing everything into a frantic whirlwind of activity!

News

Leaping the Hurdle

LS

We know it has been a while since our last adoption update. That is in part because we have been in a period of waiting and in part because our lives have been very busy with other things.

However, we are very excited to announce that last week our I-800 application was approved! This was one of the last major hurdles and periods of uncertainty for us. Lately the wait time has bee between 2-4 months for this approval and so we were quite surprised to receive this notification last week after under 2 months! We praise the Lord for this and thank you for praying for a speedy response – God graciously granted this request!

So what is next? We are still working with our agency to get the latest update on travel estimates, but likely we are looking to travel about 4-6 weeks from now. The approval announcement is currently being mailed to us, our adoption agency, and the NSV (another government branch). Once this letter is received, the NSV will notify the American embassy in Brazil that we are approved to adopt Pietro, Vinicius, Angel, and Agatha. They will then issue what is know as an Article 5 letter which is the formal request from the USA government to the Brazilian government to allow the adoption to be finalized. Once the Article 5 letter is received, Brazil will be able to issue us travel approval with dates of invitation. At that stage things will move quickly toward booking flights and setting up all the travel. Most realistically we are looking at the end of August (on the faster side) or almost assuredly early September.

We are so thankful for your ongoing support and prayers! Please continue to pray for our kids, for us, and for the upcoming transition! Contrary to how many of us might tend to think of the process, travel, although a monumental stage, is not the conclusion of the process. In many ways it is actually the beginning. All the work and effort to get to this step, though not insignificant, really pales in comparison to what follows. All adoption stories include in them tremendous loss (family, culture, familiarity, friends, etc). While much joy does await, for adopted children everything they have ever known is about to disappear and beyond trying to adjust to a new family, patterns, norms, etc., this loss is an additional significant factor. This is one reason why the first several years after the paperwork is all officially signed can be some of the most difficult and formative. We very much appreciate your prayers for us during this time as we will need more support and much more supplication. There are so many parallels here to our spiritual adoption – the struggle between new life and new creation all the while dealing with a former life and former creature which had such an enormous influence on us and yet is no longer our new identity. The feelings of joy and yet struggle to walk in accordance with Scripture and in step with the Spirit.

Thank you so much for walking this journey alongside us! We are excited to see what the Lord has in store!