Dossier- Complete!

Drumroll please!!!

...our dossier is COMPLETE!!

It took 4 months of gathering, calling, cutting through red tape, signing, resigning, notarizing, renotarizing, apostilling, waiting, waiting, and waiting...checking and rechecking...faxing, mailing, and countless trips to and from Bryan's bank in a file folder...

but we DID it!!

I'll be FedExing our entire dossier to Eastern Europe today. Then we sit and wait, while praying for Danil's safety, health, and comfort.

Oh, and we start trying to figure out exactly how we'll arrange care for our already-home sons while we are traveling abroad!!!!  :)

Facebook Auction!!

Hey all you loyal followers!!

We have one more auction fundraiser starting today.  We had kind of an overflow of auction items last time, so we decided to have a 2nd auction.  Everything will be posted on our Facebook page (Adding to the Maddness) in an album creatively titled "Auction Items".

We'll be adding more items all week, with something for everyone.  BUT you definitely don't want to miss out on the:

 NASCAR tickets for the race this SATURDAY

$200 gift certificate to Tiffany and Co.

Nook Color

Autographed T-Shirt by Mariska Hargitay

(In real life, you can turn this t-shirt whichever way you choose.  Online, however, it stays sideways.  !!@&**!)

The auction is open NOW and will run until SATURDAY MAY 28th at 8PM (except for the race tickets, which will be closed on THURSDAY at 8PM).  It's a quick one, so get your bids in soon!

We only have about $2000 left to raise before we meet our goal and are fully funded.  Every little bit helps, and we are getting so very close to traveling!!!  Please share our link and our story with others!

Fantastic Friday!

So...have you heard that we are waiting on our I-171H?  Have I mentioned that?

Well, on Wednesday we got word from Kay Hagan's office that there were so many appeals to expedite that they weren't even looking at cases unless there was an immediate medical need.  We are kind of stuck because we can't get medical records for him because we aren't officially matched yet, but we can't be matched because we can't get his medical records.  So very Catch-22ish.

But, we heard news that the delay in the change of processing in EE would be minimal, so we resigned to the fact that it would probably be August-September and we would just be okay with that and enjoy the time with our little family here.

Until I got this email this afternoon:

Good afternoon, I was asked to expedite your case. Your approval packet was e-mailed to the National Visa Center an hour ago. Please let me know if you have any questions or opening this winziped document. The password will follow this e-mail.

Um.  Wha..WHAAAA??

Attached was a scanned copy of our I-171H document.

Holy expediting, Batman!

What happened was a friend from our small group at church who works in DC shared our story with a bunch of people, who in turn, passed it up the chain of command.  It helps that she is persistent in an incredibly charming way, and it went high enough and landed on the right person's desk, while they were in the right state of mind.

And now, we can send in our dossier next week after we get it apostilled and snatch up Danil and bring him home safely 7 weeks ahead of what we thought our timeline would be.  This also means that very very shortly, he and his birth mother and his grandparents will actually know that he has a family climbing mountains to get to him!

Target Card Giveaway Results:

Remember forever ago when we promised a $50 gift card to Target for some lucky person who helped us spread the word about our iPad 2?  Well, I finally got around to putting the entries into our list randomizer, and the winner is......

Becky DaMore (of Always Happy Life fame!!!!!)
Congrats, Beck!

FBI Apostille

We waited so long to get our FBI Background checks (remember when we couldn't get our home study finalized until they came back?!?), and when they finally got here, I had to send them away again to get them apostilled by the State Dept.

How nerve racking is that?!

So I bundled them all up and sent them away, wondering if I'd see them again.  That was like 3 weeks ago, and I  was starting to wonder where they were.  I couldn't check on them- what would I do?  Call the State Dept and ask if anyone remembers seeing a package from me?

So.  Good news:  They came back yesterday, aspostilled and everything.

Next up:  sending our CSPs and POAs to Eastern Europe, getting the final documents for our dossier apostilled in Raleigh, and waiting for our I-171H.

Quick Update

Just wanted to let you all know that we just got word that probably, as far as we know, there will only be about a two week delay in the submission-appointment process on Danil's country's part during the transition to the new processing office.

Or whatever they are doing over there.

So, yay.  Our fear was that there would be a much longer delay in our process if we couldn't get submitted before June 12th, but it seems that all is going to be well.

If we get our I-171H form back mid-July, which would be the normal processing time, we could be submitted by August.  Which means we may be traveling Augustish-Septemberish.  Of course, if we get that form back sooner because of the sweet talking we've been doing with the fine folks in immigration, we may get it back in June, which means we'd have a chance at a Julyish travel date.  These are all very calculated dates, as you can see.

Whew.  At least we don't have to be wishy-washy on when we need to have to ask people to help watch our kids while we are gone!  Then it would be REALLY frustrating.

Fingerprinting and The Daniel Fast

1- Bryan got his USCIS fingerprints DONE today!  This is incredible because out appointments for it aren't until the 16th, and all over the appointment paperwork it says that if you need to reschedule, you have to send the paperwork back in and wait to be assigned a different date...blah blah blah...and when I called inquiring about an earlier appointment, the only response I got was that we could walk in and reschedule and get on a "standby" list.  So, Bryan walked into the office today, asked about getting it done sooner, and they did his prints right there!!

I'm going tomorrow :)

2.  This second point I struggle with a little.  Some background:  we have been fasting once a month for 4 days focusing our prayers for Danil's health, comfort, and safety until we can get over that and ensure it ourselves.  Basically, we've seen really huge things happen each time we've fasted and been intentional with our prayers.

So, at the end of the last 4-day Fast, I felt like we should do something more, as we are coming into the homestretch with our dossier preparation, and hopefully we will be looking at traveling soon, court dates, and traveling back with Danil.

The more we decided on is the Daniel Fast (or the Danil Fast, if you will!).  We are committing to the Daniel Fast- eating right and being intentional and focused on our prayers for bringing Danil home to us as soon as possible- until we actually get him home.  I don't really know how long that will be.  I know how long I want it to be, though :)

I'm not blogging about our fasting as a means to show you how faithful we are...but to share our testimony and our journey, and also to ask you to join us.  Matthew 18:19-20 says 19“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”  So we ask you to gather with us, not for the whole time, but maybe for a few days...but to gather with us in fasting and in prayer to lift up our asks to God.


If you are interested in learning more about the Daniel Fast, you can check these sites for an explanation and some great recipes:
The Daniel Fast
The Ultimate Daniel Fast

As always, thank you all for following us.  Thank you for thinking about us, thank you for donating to us, thank you for spreading our story.  Your support means so much.