Even Closer...

So today we checked the mail and...

Our USCIS fingerprint appointment information was in there!!!

The appointment is scheduled for August 23 at 10 am. When I was told the appointment date over the phone I told her that this is the second day of school. She encouraged us to walk in as soon as we got our paperwork...so, we will be walking in for our fingerprints on Monday. Hopefully we can get and they are processed quickly and we can get an email copy of our I171H by Friday...not sure if this is reasonable but we can hope!!

Let me explain what is left in the process so those of you not in the process can understand exactly HOW CLOSE we are to meeting our son!

1) We get our notarized copies of our agency license on Monday. This is last piece of our paperwork outside of our immigration approval.
2) We will walk in for our fingerprints on Monday afternoon at the local USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration) office.
3) Prints will be submitted electronically to be processed and results sent to our officer.
4) Our officer will approve (we hope) our application for orphan petition and will fax or email a copy of our I171H to us.
5) We send our ENTIRE dossier to Tallahassee to be apostilled and it will be returned.
6) Once return we send it to Europe to our facilitators. They will translate it and prepare it for submission to the European Government we are adopting from.
7) Our dossier will be submitted to the government.
8) We will receive an appointment date to meet with the State Department of Adoptions to receive our referral to go meet with and begin the adoption of Sterling.
9) Once we get this date - we know our timeline!!!

It looks like A LOT of stuff, but HOPEFULLY we can get steps 1-6 done by August 19th. And hopefully we get submitted by the beginning of September. If so, we could get a travel date by late September and have Sterling home by late October or early November!!! Talk about Thanksgiving!!! :)

We have a few outstanding donations (people who have committed to donate certain amounts but have not been able to just yet. Taking those into account we are only $1200 from being FULLY FUNDED!!! PRAISE GOD!!! We started with only $11,350 and have saved/fundraised almost $8,500 with the help of family, friends and strangers. THANK YOU!

Please continue to pray for our process and the process of all other adopting families...It really is a roller coaster and the closer we all get the further it feels away...BUT IT IS SO EXCITING....In about two and half months Brian and I will be parents!