Best mail ever!!

Yesterday I had a post ready to go about our frustration with waiting for our answer from USCIS, but I never got a chance to post it. Probably because God knew what was going to be waiting in our mailbox!

We got our approval notice in the mail from USCIS today!!

We are excited beyond belief. Those of you who have been following our journey know how much of a miracle this is. Now I am driving our social worker and agency crazy trying to get the last few documents we need from them so that we can send our dossier to Bulgaria. We need to have our Texas background checks redone this week and have our doctor resign our medical clearance forms (because both of these documents have to be done within 6 months of the dossier) and then we will pay an exorbitant amount of money to mail this HUGE package of documents. We are praying that we will be able to get everything signed and apostilled so that we can mail it on Friday.

So now what??
- Dossier submitted to Bulgarian agency
- Dossier translated, authenticated and submitted to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ)
-We are registered as an adoptive family
- Verbal referral issued
- Written referral issued
- Travel dates!!! (It will probably be about 2 months before we find out what our travel dates will be)

After our first trip
- Submit I-800 to the National Visa Center
- Visa sent to the US Embassy in Bulgaria
- Provisional visa filed
- Article 5 letter issued
- Visa/Article 5 letter translated and authenticated
- All documents sent to the MOJ
- Case submitted to the court system
- Court date!!
- 7 day wait for court to become final
- New birth certificate issued
- 10 day wait for birth certificate to become final
- Travel to Bulgaria to bring AJ home!! (Not sure how long the second stage of the process will take)

I am still amazed at how many steps are in each stage of the process and how much time, effort, and love has to go into  preparing everything. At the beginning of our adoption were were told that we would have to make the decision to adopt over and over again throughout the process and now I understand why. There have been many times when it would have been easy to throw in the towel. We had to consciously decide to continue to fight to bring our little guy home. I think the hardest part of the paperwork process is done now.

Keep praying for AJ to stay healthy and for us to have the funds we need at exactly the right time.