Overwhelmed

Last week, we were overwhelmed in multiple ways.

We finally got a checklist of everything we need to do to submit our final adoption application to Jenny's country.  This is called the "dossier".  And let me tell you:  the requirements are staggering. Even for me, a certified type-A stage manager and self-professed administrative guru who thrives on deadlines, color-coding paperwork, and re-organizing her daughter's toy room on a Friday night...just for fun.

Previously I made a joke about how there's no morning sickness with adoption, but the paper cuts are horrible.  Well, it was a joke.  Now it's a reality.

Adoption Paperwork is Serious Business!

We showed you a checklist of our Home Study requirements (copies of tax returns, credit card statements, pet vaccinations, medical exam forms, and proofs of health, home, life, and car insurances just to name a few).  Our Home Study makes up just a fraction of our dossier!

Plus, when you're dealing with international governments, it's not good enough for official documents to be simply notarized.  In order for our dossier to be submitted to Jenny's country, we need to have everything in it apostilled.  Basically, all of our notaries have to be notarized.  The state has to verify that the notary, or seal in the case of our birth and marriage certificates, is actually legit.

We are currently in the process of obtaining original birth and marriage certificates and then we'll submit them to the state to be apostilled, or authenticated.  This process can take many weeks (after all, don't forget that we are dealing with government entities here).  We've also just sent our second (of three) sets of fingerprints off to the FBI so they can issue official letters saying neither of us have records, and then those letters will need to be sent back to Washington DC in order for them to be apostilled.   Are you following?

If you're praying for us, please pray that God's hand would be on each of these documents, through the mail, onto the desk and into the hands of the person authenticating them, and then back through the mail to us and into our dossier.

On the flip side, Justin and I were also overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support from our friends and family.  Ever since we made the announcement about Jenny, we have received nothing but encouragement.  We know people are praying over every aspect of this situation.  We feel your prayers.

Every year that we've been married, we have hosted a Memorial Day picnic.  It's only right to kick off summer by roasting marshmallows for s'mores out by the fire pit in our backyard.

This year, even though  the weather was on the dreary side, we had a packed house with 30+ aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends crammed into our modest house while Justin grilled hot dogs and hamburgers outside on the grill.

As I stood around our kitchen island with my aunts and uncles, I was overwhelmed with the questions and interest that everyone showed for Jenny and our journey.  I know they can't wait to meet her and I know she's joining a very large extended family that will love and cherish her as one of their own.

We do feel buried...under a giant mass of paperwork.  "Inundated" feels like an understatement right now.  But we are NOT completely defeated!  We've got this.  Why?

"God is able to make all grace abound to [us], so that having all sufficiency in everything, [we] may have an abundance in every good deed." (2 Corinthians 9:8 NASB)