Thanksgiving is here!!

How is it possible that Thanksgiving is already here!!  This year has been full of preschool, football, paperwork and LOTS of praying!!!  When we started the adoption paperwork in March I thought for sure we would be logged in by the end of the year and I am sure now that we would have been had the government not shut down :(.  We submitted our I800A Oct 10, and it is usually a 2 week turn around.  However, with the government shut down they are just simply too far behind to make that happen!!  It is also policy that the people needing immigration approval who have already received their referral get their paperwork put in front of ours, (this is a bummer now but when we have our referral and are submitting this paperwork we will be very happy about this!!!!).  So yesterday I called for an update since it had been about 6 weeks since we submitted immigration and the officer said that it will probably be another 3 weeks.  Well there goes my hope to be logged in by the end of the year.  This isn't a HUGE deal as I am hoping to still be logged in by January but still a bummer!!! 

Once we get the immigration approval, which I am hoping will be the week of Christmas, I will have to send it for authentication which seems to take a couple of weeks.  However, with the holidays  we will have to really have divine intervention to be logged in by January but I am still confident that it could happen!!!  The only other issue is that the end of January is Chinese New Year which will shut down the government in Ch*na and probably means no referrals going out in January.  The real question is how long do they shut the government down and that I don't know. 

I have no question that God is in control and that this wait is needed to get us to Mabry....it's not fun and getting more difficult the closer we get.  The good news is that we are almost there!!!!!  Once we are logged in we immediately become eligible for a referral.  I do know that it will take them about 3 months to translate our dossier so I would be ok waiting those 3 months before we get a referral because I know that the longer we have to wait to see her face the quicker we will travel once we see her.....and that will be a blessing.  This is the crazy thoughts of an adopting mom.....don't want to wait now, want to wait then, don't want to wait then......sorry for the ramble. 

Anyway, specific things to pray for are of course Mabry, her health and that she has someone loving her.  For Mabry's birth mom that so bravely chose life for this sweet child even though it probably was the hardest thing she ever did.  Timeline, pray that we get immigration approval before Christmas (just because I am seriously struggling with this wait).  And then for me because I am struggling a bit with patience.  However, I know that with Thanksgiving here, Chesney's birth day next week, my birthday, Christmas parties and Christmas the rest of this wait will move right along!!!!!!! 

Thanks for following this blog....I am thinking about setting up a full family webpage where I would keep my blog on and also be able to post a lot of pictures.  I know that it would be an easier way to keep everything in one place and I would be able to blog about more than just the adoption.  I will let you all know if that happens or now!!!!  God's blessings to you and your family and hope you have as much to be thankful for this year as I do!!!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!