Hurry Up and Wait!

If you heard any hootin’ and hollerin’ from the Huxley way last week it was because we received the last of the documents that we needed from Kofi to send in our I-600 form!!!!! As of this past Monday afternoon it was all mailed off to await approval from the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services. Whew! I’ve been waiting for this moment for a LONG time. I double, triple and quadruple checked our forms as well as all the other supporting documents that had to go along with it. Then, I said a little prayer that it would make it to its destination as I packaged it all up and sealed the envelope….


What a beautiful sight! It felt so good to get this packet out of my hands and into the hands of the UPS gal. What a relief. Now, everything is done and filled out, and all we have to do is sit and wait some more. :) This packet is now on its way to a sorting/lockbox facility in Dallas, TX and then it will be routed to our local U.S.CIS. office in Des Moines. Per the explanation in the instructions, once the I-600 form has been accepted it is then checked for completeness including submission of all the required ‘evidences’ which are documents such as the adoption decree, Samuel’s birth certificate, death certificate for Samuel’s father, home study report, etc. The approval or non-approval of the I-600 is a determination of whether or not we have established eligibility for our request for the adoption of Samuel. Once the decision is made we will be notified in writing via good ‘ol snail mail. Processing time can take anywhere from 1-3 months.

I am going to be praying that I have everything filled out completely and accurately, and that they will not need to have us send more evidence as this will just delay processing (I submitted all evidences that were required but it does note that they may possibly request more information). I am also going to be praying that we will have our approval in 4 weeks or less. Once we have this approval we then schedule Samuel’s visa exit interview appointment with the Embassy in Ghana by e-mail and then we can book our flights accordingly to coincide with the exit interview! I cannot even possibly imagine how exciting this trip will be to bring Samuel home. I have to keep reminding myself…one step at a time….don’t want to jump too far ahead, but boy is it exciting to think about what those moments will feel like when we are finally off to bring our son home!

I wonder if he’s been practicing? :)