Almost past Immigration!

I know many of you are beginning to realize how slow this process can feel.  I've had a few people ask, "Are you still adopting?"  As if to say, "We haven't heard anything for quite a while... did you change your mind?"  Well, of course, we are still hard at work!  I can't believe our last post was in January.  So, here's the latest:  Having completed our home study, we sent our info off to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS" or, more commonly "CIS" or even just "Immigration").  Then we received our appointment for biometrics with CIS.  If you miss your appointment, you get to submit the application all over again!  We realized that making our appointment was going to take a lot of rearranging, so we gambled and went a day early.  We begged and pleaded for them to fit us in, and amazingly, it worked!  Less than a half-hour later we were fingerprinted and on our way!  According to our social worker, it should only be about a month before we get our approval from CIS.  This will mean that we are approved to bring a child into the US as our son.  At that point we will send our dossier off to China.  So.... hopefully sometime around July we will be ready to get matched to a child.  Now, what is truly amazing about that timeline is regarding a new development at Lifeline, our adoption agency.  Here's an except from their announcement:

"Lifeline Children’s Services’s China Team is very excited to announce our partnership with three new orphanages in China beginning June 2012. Our medical teams will be visiting the Chong Qing Orphanage of Chong Qing City, Sui Xi Orphanage of Guangdong Province, and Zhu Hai Orphanage of Guangdong Province during the month of April. While at the orphanages, pediatricians and therapists associated with the International Adoption Clinic of Birmingham, Alabama as well as other doctors and medical professionals will be evaluating the children and providing reports for their referral files. Many of our staff will also be on the ground with the teams to photograph and video each child to provide potential adoptive families with glimpses into the lives and faces of these children."


This is great news, and the timing is truly amazing.  The doctors and therapists from the IAC here in Birmingham will be evaluating the children personally, and the partnership with these orphanages will begin just as we are ready to be matched.  It makes us realize that although we try so hard to control things, this is all really in God's hands.  It is His timing that actually matters.  Even though we have felt "behind" through so much of this process, it may be that we are right on time after all!  We are so excited as the IAC specialists travel to meet the children!  In the next few months this process should finally begin to reveal who our little boy is!


As we celebrate Easter, let us pray for Lifeline's China team.  Let us put our trust in God as we walk with them on the journey to meet our son!  


"The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9


Joyfully,

Zander & Zoe riding "Daisy", Birmingham Zoo

Zuri and Ken riding "Big Joe"