It Is Finished...Almost

Here it is. THIS is our dossier (pronounced doss E ay).

 This is the paperwork that we have spent the last 2 months gathering, notarizing, and getting apostilled. I remember opening that first email from our stateside parent facilitator that contained the list of documents to complete this. By the time I opened the three attachments full of instructions and documents we would need, I was in shock. Truly, I closed the email and sat there stunned. We were sure that God had called us to do this. We were NOT sure that we could pull it off. I fell back on God's promise to give us the grace and peace that we need when we needed it. I will not lie, there were times I wanted to scream and cry and pull my hair out. But, even then, God was faithful. We did one thing at a time. Not long after we really dug our feet in, determined to get it done, we realized that it was not as bad as it looked. We were glad that our initial fears did not turn us away from our calling. I am so thankful that we had Tobi to work toward. God gave me a fierce love for our little boy almost immediately. I did not expect it nor did I understand it. Looking back, I think that love is what drove us on. So, this is it. The majority of it is headed to another family that will be traveling to Tobi's country to meet their own little one. A few pages had to be corrected but are ready to go to the next family that travels. So, what comes next? We are waiting for USCIS to issue an appointment for fingerprinting. As soon as the fingerprints clear, we should have our approval within 48 hours. That is all that we are waiting on at this point. It will be apostilled and will be on its way to Tobi's country as soon as we have it. Once the team there has the complete dossier, they will submit our request to adopt to Tobi's government. We will then wait to be given an appointment to meet with them ourselves. At that appointment, we will learn about our boy. His birth name, true birthdate, his birth story, his family history, his medical files. At that time, we will accept his file and be given permission to meet him in person. Once we meet him, we can officially accept him and begin the process of his adoption. We will stay in his country usually about 10 days (sometimes a bit longer) until we are granted a court date. He will remain in his orphanage during this process, but we will be given visitation. Typically 1 hour morning and night, although it is left to the director to set those times. We will be granted custody at the court date, but there is a 10 day wait before it takes effect. During that time, we will probably come home. We will take that time to get things ready for him and get ready to bring him home. One or both of us will go back at the end of the mandatory wait to chase paper. It will then FINALLY be gottcha day. We will get him out of there once and for all. It will take a few more days to gather what we need to bring him into the US, but he will remain with us during that time.