Changes

First, I've decided that I'm terrible about  and at blogging.  A writer I am not...nor do I enjoy it.  This is more function than frill or fun for me ;)

Nick and I have decided to change our home study and immigration approval from ages 5-7 to ages 3-7 (still a boy).  We've set the wheels of change in motion and should have official immigration approval in a couple of weeks. 

We may have other more official news soon.  I HATE cryptic posts, but I can't say more until we know more.  Just sharing what we know...

Otherwise, our lives have been crazy busy.  After the earthquake last week and the hurricane this past weekend, I'm ready for summer break.  Oh, wait...that just ended :(  Today was our first day back at school after a false start yesterday due to loss of power.  We were without power at our house for 36 hours.  I realized there are many things I can live without, but the internet is not one of them.  I also missed music (more than tv).  T had a great first day in first grade.  I am very happy with his teacher and he seems happy so all is well!

Now for another cute T story.
We've talked a lot in our family about the fact that it's unlikely we will change our new son's name.  We feel that it is a part of his history and his culture and would only change it if we felt necessary.  A few weeks ago, we asked T what he would name his little brother if he got to pick.  He very quickly responded "LB".  Nick and I were both puzzled until T explained that it should be LB for little brother.  Such cuteness from a 6 year old.  I love that little nickname and it just may stick!

Hope to have more great news to share soon!

Been a while.....Still waiting.

I knew it had been a while since I last posted, but when I logged in to update, I was a bit surprised that it's been a month and a half. Wow! 

School got out near the end of June and we've been enjoying every minute.  We just returned from almost 2 weeks in Missouri.  As they say in the local newspaper there, "a good time was had by all."  We're back home now and I have 3 weeks before returning to work and Teagen has 4 weeks before first grade.  We finished school supply shopping today.  We bought all of Teagen's things and then all the items from the kindergarten list with hopes that Little Man will be home before the end of the school year. 

We've had many folks inquiring about the status of our adoption lately.  The short answer is there is no news.  We are still paper ready and just waiting.  The agency is actively searching for the newest member of our family.  It's been almost 2 weeks now since I heard from them, so I will be checking in with them soon regarding the status of our case.  We could be matched by tomorrow and it could be a couple of months.  Once we are matched, waiting Part 2 begins as we await a court date in Uganda. 

Hopefully we'll have post worthy news sooner than later!

Paper Ready!

Good news! I just received an e-mail from our agency that the paperwork for our dossier appears complete and we're ready to be matched. They said there is only one family in front of us also waiting. Praise God....both for finally being what is known as "paper ready" and for only having one other family in front of us. Our agency is leading a mission trip to the baby's home leaving later this week. A couple of months ago, I was secretly hopeful we would be matched by now so that I could send a personal care package to Little Rausch on that trip. That clearly wasn't in God's timing for us. The agency said that the oldest boy they have in their home right now is 3 1/2 so she will be exploring some other options while they are there (we're approved for ages 5-7).   It is a huge praise that our dossier is complete before she leaves so she can be purposefully seeking out little guy.

I've got a feeling the most difficult part of waiting is just beginning.....

I Love His Heart

One of the most common questions we get when people find out we are adopting is, "What does Teagen think about it?"  My short answer is that he's thrilled and can't wait for his brother to get here.  Time and time again he demonstrates a tender heart toward the situation. 

Today, our school had a cultural arts assembly that was led by a couple of guys from Ghana performing music, drama, and drums.  My heart was breaking for much of the show because all I could think about was our little guy halfway around the world.  I was happy to see the culture being shared and the students enjoying it so much, but it was a painful reminder of a family member yet to be named. 

Despite living in a very culturally diverse area, we are finding it more difficult than we initially thought it would be to find Ugandan cultural groups.  When I spoke with the performers after the show, however, they happily shared that one of their close friends that also does shows is Ugandan and would be able to plug us in locally.  This made my day!

After school, I was discussing the show with Teagen and how much we both enjoyed it.  I told him the nice gentlemen were going to help us meet some Ugandan people.  Teagen's attention turned to his brother and then said, "Mommy, maybe we can keep all the kids in Uganda safe after my brother comes home."  Wow.  Talk about thinking big!  May his heart for the orphan and those struggling never change. 

Dossier Away

 

This is what our dining room table has looked like several times this past week.  All of those documents there are part of what make up our dossier (Dos-yay).  That is the huge file that will go across the ocean and before the courts when we petition for legal guardianship of our Little Man.  

The nice stacks above are what those piles and piles of papers look like after they've each and every one been notarized and compiled in appropriate order.  As you can see on the top of the stack, we also had to include some photos of our home and our family.  I took these pictures as I rushed home to prep the documents and then off to the Jiffy Drop to send them on their way. 

 

The Jiffy Drop guy probably thought I was a little strange while I took a photo of the bulging envelope.  He assured me I'd get a tracking number with my receipt....I guess he thought I was paranoid about the package arriving.  I'd be lying if I didn't admit there were a few butterflies in my stomach as I handed over that precious envelope.  

The package is scheduled to arrive in South Carolina at our agency's office sometime on Monday.  Prayers that all the paperwork is in order and correct would be much appreciated.  As soon as they verify all is squared away, we officially go on THE LIST.

After dropping the package, I rushed back to school to pick Teague up from his after school karate.  I made it just in time to see him sparring with another little boy.  Too cute!!!

Just when....

Just when I was thinking I should come post so you'd know we hadn't dropped off the earth, I have something worth posting.....well, even better than that.

The envelope we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for.

On a very rare day,  Nick and I were home together at the mailbox at the same time.  If you know anything about our schedules, you can appreciate that.  As I've been doing for at least the past two weeks, I rifled through the envelopes before they're even out of the box to see if it's what we've been waiting for.  There is was....a letter from the Department of Homeland Security.  Through the address window, I could see the words "Notice of Favorable Determination".  I made him stop and let me take this picture before opening it.  Surprisingly (and for such an important document), the paper was very UNofficial looking.  However, it had the important phrase mentioned above and was labeled "Form 171" at the bottom.  That's all I needed to see.

What's next?  We have 5,000 papers to notarize (at least that's how it feels) and then the dossier is on its way.  We shouldn't have any problem having it on its way by Tuesday morning.  After that?  The waiting list to meet the newest Rausch.

Praise God for his faithfulness.

Not Much New to Report

Since we had our fingerprints done on April 15, there's not much new to report. I called to check on the status of our case on Thursday and was told our case is in the "queue" waiting to be assigned an officer. I'm okay with that because while we're waiting on the I-171, we're compiling our dossier (of which the I-171 is a part). We're told that the current wait time is 75 days, which would be around the middle of June. Many people are reporting getting theirs in about 6 weeks. We'll just wait to see which part of the statistics we are ;)

The dossier is a whole different story. Because of a slight miscommunication with paperwork being sent to us from our agency, we weren't aware of the dossier requirements until I requested them on March 31....we should have had them long before that. Insert the tiniest bit of frustration (which we are mostly over by now) because we have a ton of paperwork to compile for the dossier. We must have 6 notarized copies of many documents. I know that this is to set us up for the greatest likelihood of success when we go before the Ugandan courts so that helps when I stare at the long list of documents that must be compiled and start to feel a bit overwhelmed.

Now, how does this all fit together? Before we can go on the waiting list for Number Four, our dossier must be complete. We won't be finished with our part of the dossier until the end of May because of scheduling difficulties with various documents. This is one time I hope we're not on the quick end of the immigration paperwork because that will just make me more antsy for the other pieces to fall into place.

We're telling more and more people now about the adoption and it feels good.