God is still Good ALL the Time..............

Well, this week has been full. We worked on Isabelle's paperwork and her room (clearing out the "storage" area....lol) until Friday. On Friday, we took the church van on "Adventure Friday" for the kids, to Plano. While there, I called Levahna and talked to her about costs, the possibility of not getting Isabelle when we got there, and a bunch of other stuff.

She said she'd send me the "rest" of the paperwork, but she forgot.............as far as "losing" Isabelle, it's only possible if a Russian family wants to adopt her. As soon as we've completed our 1st trip, even that won't stop us from getting her. There isn't any way for another international family to take her while we are doing this, so that's a relief.

Hiccup???? This week, I'd gotten most of the paperwork finished for the dossier, but I didn't have Gary's employment letter. I figured I'd wait until he got a job. But Levahna reminded me that the Home Study said he was a substitute teacher and gave an earning. Our employment letter needed to match that. So, when we got home at 4 pm, I told him about this and he rushed (I've never seen him have such an urgency about things) over to the administration building. Instead of making us wait, they helped him immediately. When he got home at 4:30, I called and barely caught Jaclyn (Texas office) because they were supposed to get the "final" copy of our homestudy update that day. She hadn't gotten the update yet, but was sure she'd get it on Monday. She knew that we wanted to take it with us to the USCIS appointment on Tuesday morning, so I told her that we'd head to Houston on Monday after finishing in Austin. She told me that she'd have to ask someone and get back to me. In the mean time, I called the social worker, Kim S. and left a message that I needed to change our numbers and if she'd get back to me asap. She has a bad habit of not calling back very quickly. Well, Jaclyn called me back and turned me over to Kim C...........apparently she's the one that works with the homestudies when they come in. While I was talking to Kim C., Kim S. CALLED ME BACK!!!!! So, I did a 3 way with them and we figured it all out. Kim S. had everything emailed to Kim C. before I got off the phone. Kim C. told me not to bother going to the Dallas USCIS on Tuesday, but rather to go on to the OKC office............so I'd have time to get the Home Study in the mail rather than travel to Houston on Monday.
All that and then I contacted the OKC office online and found out that they don't do "appointments" there. However, they have an email specifically for adoption related questions. This email person is supposed to contact us back within 2 working days........so I should still hear from them by Tuesday!!!! Then I'll Fed-Ex our 171 application and homestudy to them (all at once) and let them get on with things!!!!

At that point I'll be waiting on the USCIS to return my 171, the FBI to return my fingerprint info, and to return home from the 1st trip so I can get the dr. information done.............and there are others out there that have been working on this stuff since December..........I'm much farther than that!!! I want to be gone TOMORROW!!!!! :):):)

As if that wasn't enough, I worked at the food bank last month and met a woman that worked for an airline. She offered to let me use 2 of her 4 free roundtrip tickets on our adoption to China.........I thought it was wonderful, but kind of blew it off because our trip is so far away and I thought we'd probably raise enough money inbetween time to not really need it. Well, now that we are going to Russia so quickly, we REALLY need it. I went back to the food bank today and the same woman came in. She remembered what she had told me and we talked about it. I told her that I was now going to Russia, IMMEDIATELY, and she was all on board for trying to help us out with flights for 1 of our trips............I CAN'T believe this!!!! I'm still not sure it's going to happen. She has to go to work on Wednesday and figure it all out. She was kind of concerned that I may need the information sooner, but I told her that basically I was out of town until Wednesday anyway (Austin Monday, USCIS, Dr., and Waiting Families Meeting on Tuesday).......so Wednesday is the best for me anyway!!!! Coincidence???? I THINK NOT!!!!! Even if this doesn't end up working out, it's so encouraging to know that God is working out all the fine little details when I don't even know what's going on..........I couldn't have planned meeting this woman last month, before I was even thinking of Russia!!!!

We're coming Isabelle!!!! I wish we could be there this week!!! I hope we're there at least by the middle of July, but for this to happen God is going to have to (and WILL) work some miracles financially!!!! This little one needs your prayers, as do our finances.........we thought we'd have a lot more time to raise money before the adoption, but we were wrong........lol Good thing that God is NEVER wrong!!!!!

Terri for the Casebier's