Keep praying

Well, I finally received a notice in the mail today to be in Jacksonville for my fingerprinting appointment on May 13th. I also got access to the email address of the officer in charge at the USCIS office in Atlanta. I emailed her to see if there was any way she might help me. She was not able to move my appointment time up, but did tell me that if I would email her 2 days after I was fingerprinted, she would personally walk through and approve my I600A form I have been waiting for all this time. This means that as of right now, it would be possible to get all my info to Vietnam by the July 1st deadline. That is the first hurdle. The second hurdle is hoping and praying to get matched with a child in the 2 months before September 1st. "All things are possible" as the scripture goes. I am trying very hard to have faith, but, whether it is good or bad, I am a realist as well. The anxiety that I am feeling is unlike anything I have ever experienced. It causes the other issues in life right now to be magnified by 1000%. So much time, energy, emotion, and work have gone into this process. I truly pray for God's will, but more than that, I pray for acceptance of His will. That is the most difficult part. To say this is an emotional roller coaster in an understatement. If things do not work out, I know I will be ok. But it will most assuredly be one of the hardest blows I have had in life thus far. I also hope and pray that if I am blessed with a child, that I remain forever grateful for what I went through to get him. I ask that all who read this to please keep this in your prayers.

Honestly

Since the news Friday of things becoming more difficult in this adoption process, I have read some more material, emailed some other people to get their take on it, and feel very powerless right now. This is Sunday night around 11 p.m. and I am planning on being in my congressman's office tomorrow morning. I have only ever emailed with them and never spoken face to face with the person I communicate with. I hope that by showing up in person, the emotional aspect will become more real for them. 

Since reading the news Friday, my feelings have gone up and down the scale. One minute I am positive and feel that I can push forward and that it is possible for things to work out in the time frame I have been given. In another minute, I am in a panic as if someone is trying to smother me and I cannot get any air. Sadness, hope, excitement, disappointment, I am feeling all of them right now. I am learning so much about so many things during this process and know that it will benefit me somehow at some point. This is not a goal, or a dream, or a hope, it is a life. A life that I, my family, and my friends have already started to accept and look forward to. 

As I titled this post "honestly", I will tell you that my gut feeling is that there is not enough time for this to work out for me. I tend in stressful situations to expect the worst, that way, it usually comes out better. I pray this is true here..... 

More pressure

The Vietnamese government has decided that all dossiers must be logged in to them by July 1st. The previous date for this was September 1st. Also, only those dossiers matched with a child by September 1st will be able to bring the child home. It can all still come together. It is still possible for this to happen. But it has just become more difficult than it already is. Hope is not lost, faith is still here, just looks like I need to invest in some knee pads for all the praying I will be doing ;-)  

Good news!!!

Over the past few days I have been in contact with my congressman's office and some action is being taken by the USCIS office about my I600A form that I have been waiting on FOREVER now. And even better news, my agency (VORF) posted on their site that what they are hearing from their sources is that everyone that sends in a dossier by the 1st of September, will be matched with a child. I am actually not too far away from having the dossier ready to go other than the I600A form. I am almost afraid to say that this means the odds of all this working out, and me being able to adopt this child, have just increased BIG time. Unless something horrible happens, I will have my dossier to Vietnam in just a few months, probably less. Things are looking pretty good from where I stand now. 

Maybe a little progress

Thanks to some dear people, Don and Mary Dale Kea, I made a contact with some people in Congressman Sanford Bishop's office. It is funny, how as a taxpayer, I am unable to reach anyone in the United States Citizens and Immigration Services(USCIS) for over 12 weeks, and when my Congressman's office gets involved, they have contact that very day. Anyhow, my form is there and they have not put some paperwork that was sent at different times, together. I know both are there because I sent them all overnight and have receipts. The Congressman's office has a liaison that will go tomorrow and make sure the forms are matched up and maybe then we will see some action. This is so ridiculous. There is no other state in this country that has a USCIS office that takes this long. You can't tell me that there are more people in the state of Georgia trying to adopt internationally than any other state in the U.S., Georgia is not that forward thinking yet. More to come when I find it out.....