Fundraiser - Monkey Joes!!!

The Millsap's will be having a fundraiser for our adoption this Thursday night (April 7th) from 5:00-8:00 at Monkey Joe's in CoolSprings. Twenty percent of admissions and concessions will go towards our adoption fund. We would love to see you and your kids for a fun night. Please feel free to pass this along!!! Here is additional information: Place - Monkey Joe's http://monkeyjoes.com/Cool-Springs Date - Thursday, April 7th Time - 5:00-8:00 Admission - $10.00/child Concessions include - pizza, hotdogs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, soft pretzels, nachos, chips, candy, applesauce, juice boxes, water, soft drinks Address - 1656 Westgate Circle Brentwood, TN 37027 (377-5900) See you then!!!!

We Got It!!

The best call in the process so far came this afternoon around 4:15. I have been carrying my cell phone around ALL day!! I heard it ring and just had a feeling this was it. Sure enough...it was our case worker and she called to say our paperwork was approved and we have officially moved to the waitlist. Number 86!! I literally screamed out loud. What an amazing feeling!!! She could not tell me how long the wait will be at this point, but she did explain a little of the process. So, for now we will continue to fundraise and just get ready for THE CALL telling us about a precious little girl in Ethiopia.

Attempt #2

Well, our dossier arrived at our agency on Monday, February 28th just as we planned. I received a call from our case worker that the documents were safe and sound and she would review them on Friday. What a long week!! She called on Friday to let me know that several documents had to be re-done. We had to get some documents re-notarized and some things re-written. I was bummed!!!
So, David and I spent all this week running around town on our lunch hour to get this stuff taken care of. I overnighted the documents today. Hopefully, if everything goes well, she will get them tomorrow around 10:30 and we will hear something tomorrow afternoon. This process is a rollercoaster for sure!!

Please also be in prayer for the entire adoption process in Ethiopia. There is a possibility that the adoption process will be reduced and could extend the wait time significantly.

Dossier - Mailed!

It is done. We received our USCIS approval on Tuesday, February 22nd. That is just two weeks since our fingerprints were taken. That turnaround time is CRAZY!!! I realized on Wednesday, that is wasn't crazy - it was just God letting us know he is in the details. I received an email from my case worker at our agency to say congratulations on getting the approval, but also reminding me that our 6 month period to complete our dossier was up in ONE week. Oh.My.Goodness!!! At this point we were still waiting on our tax refund in order to mail the dossier with the next round of funds. So the remainder of that week, things jumped in overdrive. You see, if we didn't get our dossier to the agency in that six month timeframe, we could be facing termination or additional fees.

Then, on Friday morning, David called me on my way to work to let me know our tax refund had been deposited into our account, so we were good to go!! Another confirmation that He has it ALL under control.

So, Saturday morning we made our way to the UPS store to mail our dossier with an arrival date of Monday, February 28th. To say it was a huge weigh lifted would be a drastic understatement. I could not contain my emotions. I started crying as soon as we walked out of the door and headed to the car. I prayed so hard over those documents. One more step...DONE.

USCIS Fingerprinting

We received our USCIS appointment card in the mail at the end of January and today we went to get our fingerprints made. There were only a couple of people in front of us, so it didn't take long at all. The people were extremely nice and said there had already been two couples in that morning that were adopting also.

Now, we wait some more. We have no idea how long it will take to get our letter of clearance. Once we receive that letter, we can mail off our dossier and THEN we will officially be on the waitlist. Once we are on the waitlist...you guessed it...we wait some more :).

Here's to a fast turnaround...

Good News and Well, News

The good news first...We received our FBI clearence and our homestudy is complete and was approved by our agency!! In return, our USCIS paperwork and money are on their way and now we wait for our fingerprint appointment for this process. A big step...DONE.

The other news...we found out last week that we can no longer submit our dossier without the clearance from the USCIS. So, we are in a wait mode once again. The bummer in all of this is we can not get on the wait list until our dossier has been approved by our agency. So, that is the prayer request for now...a quick turnaround to get our USCIS approval.

One thing I have learned through the process is you have to be willing to go with the flow. Luckily, that is pretty much my personality anyway. However, when you know there is a child on the other end of this wait - going with the flow gets a little harder.

We will continue to raise money while we wait so hopefully when the time comes we will be all ready to go.

Happy 2011!! I am expecting and believing for BIG things!

A Quick Update

Just wanted to give a quick update on our status. We are still waiting on our FBI clearance. Hopefully, just a couple more weeks. Things have been busy around our house so that has helped the time go by.

Once we get that letter from the FBI, our homestudy will be complete and we will be well on our way to sending in our dossier and applying for our USCIS. Which, will be another wait for that piece of paper.

We appreciate your continued prayers!! We are gearing up for the holiday season in hopes that next year we will be celebrating with another little girl in our household!!!

Blessings!