Invitation to be Fingerprinted

Our invitation from the USCIS to go to Jacksonville (5 hours away!) to have our fingerprints taken has finally arrived in the mail! Yay! This is something we have been waiting for for a few weeks. We hope to drive out there mid-week next week to get them taken, which will allow the USCIS to finish processing our I-171H, the final piece of paper we need to be approved for international adoption. Again, baby steps, but forward progress all the same!

I had been feeling a little discouraged about timing last week, as it seemed our invitation from USCIS would never arrive, and as we learned about some changes in the way the CCAA, China's government agency in charge of adoptions, handles the "match" process for "waiting children." The "match" is when they look over your dossier and decide which orphan is best suited for your family. A "waiting child" is a child with special medical needs of some sort, which are harder to place for adoption. We are open to a waiting child--and had to submit a checklist indicating which medical needs we were open to considering. The new matching process could make it a longer wait time for our match, and, more importantly, it might mean that when we receive a child's profile for consideration, we'll have less than 24 hours to review it and make a decision.

I hate the thought of not accepting *any* child, but I am comfortable with the conditions we indicated we would be open to, and I am SO thankful for Tom's medical knowledge which will make it easier for us than for most to make such a hasty decision when the time comes.

I am still resting in God's sovereignty over the timing of this process. I'm realizing that, if we end up not going to China until later this year, it could mean the kids' Thanksgiving or Christmas breaks coincide with the trip, making it easier for them to come along. They REALLY want to come, and Tom and I are thinking through whether that is a good idea, or whether it would be better to leave them at home with--perhaps?--some willing grandparents? Or maybe, if we decide they should come, we might have some grandparents eager to take a trip to China as well? Praying for wisdom, and I've asked some families who recently returned from China for their thoughts on this issue. One family took their older daughter, and one family left their two older boys at home with grandparents.

I'm glad we're still making some forward progress, even if the steps seem so very small! And I'm still praying for our little girl, wherever she is and whoever she is, that she would be receiving good care as she waits, that she would have caregivers who are warm and loving.

We recently re-arranged Anna's closet a bit and moved some of our "little girl" toys into what is currently our "spare room," most likely soon to become the "baby's room." I hope to start painting and getting the room more ready...and want to enlist Anna's help in this process so she will feel a sense of pride and ownership for her new sister's room.