So, as you all know, sometimes life just throws us some curve balls. And this one was a whopper! I'm posting it to our blog because I want to be able to look back and see how God decides to work in our current situation.
Our long-awaited letter arrived last week and I was so thrilled and excited to put our I800 paperwork in the mail to the address that was listed on our adoption agency's information form Thursday afternoon. I got up Friday morning and kept hitting the refresh button on the FedEx tracking website until I knew it had been delivered. I was thrilled to see that it arrived in Lees Summit, MO at 10:19 am!!!! The next step in the adoption process to bring our son home was completed. Or at least I thought.
A few minutes later I discovered that our instructions were incorrect. I e-mailed our agency to see if I had made a mistake with the address. Sure enough, after calling USCIS/Hague (Immigration) I realized the mistake. I told the officer on the phone about what had happened and asked what I should do to get the paperwork back. She took a deep breath, sighed, and said, "One of two things will happen...your documents will either be rejected, or if the person who handles it is feeling generous, they might forward your paperwork to the lock box address in Texas." It took me a few seconds to comprehend what I'd just been told....REJECTED??? How could somebody reject our documents? They were sent to the place where they would eventually end up being processed!!!! How could they reject them???
I spent the entire day beating myself up over the situation....trying to convince myself that I wasn't the type of person to be so careless with such important forms. I didn't have time to cry...I just needed to figure out what to do and how to fix it.
That evening around 8:30, I talked to the director of the China special needs program with our agency. He called to apologize for the mix up and tell me that it wasn't my fault. Which, at least, made me stop feeling quite so terrible. He instructed me to re-write the I800 documents and the re-fill out the supporting forms, make copies of everything, re-notarize the "True and Exact Copy" statements and send a second set of documents to the Lewisville, Texas lock box address (where the original documents should have gone). I crashed into bed that night...hum, I mean, the next morning around 1 am.
We stayed busy over the weekend. We celebrated Anna's 8th birthday on Saturday evening. I cleaned my house and fixed a meal for our church small group on Sunday.
Fast forward to Monday. Yesterday, while I was sitting in Brian's office picking up the notarized documents, I received an e-mail from our agency stating that I'd sent our I800 forms to the correct location. WHAT? No...I knew that I hadn't. I drove home, picked up the phone, called USCIS again and asked Officer Jones the question that I already knew the answer to. She confirmed that indeed it will end up at that address in Lees Summit, MO, but that it has to go to the lock box in Lewisville, TX first in order to be tracked properly. UGH!!! I asked her if I could talk to the agent who approved our previous paperwork (I800A). She gave me her name, Crystal Banks, and forwarded the call. I had to leave a voice mail explaining in about 20 seconds what had happened. I asked her to please call me so that I would know what happened to our documents...if they were rejected? or sent to the lock box? or set aside somewhere? Then I waited for the return call.....nothing.
Then, I got the bright idea to try to e-mail her. I made a plea on behalf of our family and our new son, for her NOT to reject our paperwork, but to go ahead and process it for us. I even thought it was worth a try to attach a picture of our adorable-looking son---just to melt or soften her heart a bit. I asked her if nothing else if she could locate our packet of paperwork to just let me know that it is safe.
Later that day, I was in contact with another adoptive momma who started the adoption process at the very same time we did. Her name is Kym. Because I'd heard wonderful things about how they flew through the USCIS/Hague process, and had a great agent, I got up the nerve to ask her if she would e-mail her agent and request help from her for us. I think her agent is the one I talked with on the phone yesterday (Officer Jones). Wouldn't that be interesting to have "Officer" as part of your name? So "official-sounding."
BTW....Kym is leaving next week to travel to China to adopt her precious daughter. I am so happy for her family!!!! What a wonderful blessing for all of them!
Okay...so fast forward again.
Waiting....waiting...and more waiting. I've never clicked the refresh button as many times on my computer as I did yesterday.
Another lady from our agency called me yesterday to see if we could figure out what else could be done. We compared notes about the officers at the USCIS/Hague office. We decided that I probably had talked with Kym's agent yesterday (she seemed nicer than the lady I talked with on Friday) and thought it was worth a call to Kym to see if we might get her agent on board to assist us in pursuit of our missing documents.
I waited as long as I could today....I didn't hear from USCIS/Hague this morning. A friend called and came to my house and prayed with me. She prayed for our son and for our adoption process and for our missing documents. At noon I took the new set of paperwork and overnight FedExed them to the lock box in Lewisville, TX. I sent our other documents to our agency in Texas.
It appears that this mishap has put us about a week behind in the process. But, you know what? I still feel very confident that God is completely in control. He will get the glory for this one! I feel so strongly about that! I just have to keep my eyes focused so that I can see God at work for us and on behalf of our family. If the enemy is making an attempt to distract us, he will fail. Why? Because the prayers of God's people are mighty! We have a lot of people praying all over and around this situation. Thank you all so much for lifting up this situation to our Heavenly Father. Please keep the prayers going.
So, that's my novel for today.
If anything new happens, I'll be back.
Blessings to you all,
Deb
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