Home Study

True to our social worker's word, the turn around time on our home study was timely. We received our home study draft on Feb 4th. Stan worked hard last weekend and got it corrected and back to our social worker by the 8th.
We've also heard back from our facilitator in Ukraine. The information he's giving us is pretty encouraging about the wait to submit the dossier. The last time we turned in our paperwork to the facilitator, the wait time was a matter of months. It looks like this time it will be a matter of weeks.
That wait doesn't start, however until after we get the paperwork sent to Ukraine. Once the home study document is finished, it will go to Indy for the USCIS department to issue an updated "permission to adopt." We are also waiting on our final copies of our physical forms (Ukraine changed the forms again and we'll have to get them filled out a second time!). There are another 12+ forms that we'll need to round up, some in duplicate, some in triplicate, but none of these will take as much time as the first few.
Paperwork is never fun, but we are glad to be moving forward once again.

A Fresh Start

It has been more than a year since my last post. Our motto for the last year could have been "We didn't see THAT coming!"
At the end of last January Stan was laid off from his job in Morocco. By the beginning of March we were back in the U.S. looking for work during the worst of the economic crisis for our area of the country. It wasn't until September that we were both working. Stan's now working at a small technical company where his dad is employed and I'm working in a clinic in Middlebury, Indiana. We are now living in Syracuse, Indiana, the small town where Stan's company is located. It's half-way between where Stan's parents live and my parents' house.
Shortly before Stan was laid off in Morocco we met with our lawyer who seemingly had run out of options for obtaining that one last letter from the government of Morocco. It seemed to confirm the leading we felt to leave Morocco for a season and pick up our adoption process in the U.S.

So here's what's happened since our last post:
We again have an income and a home
We petitioned to extend our I-171H (US permission to adopt)
Repeated our fingerprinting
Completed our interviews for our new home study
Repeated our physical

We are waiting for our home study to be written up and submitted to USCIS in Indy. Once we have a new I-171H we'll start re-assembling our dossier.
Now that we are back in the U.S. lots of people have been asking us about whether we would consider adopting domestically or from somewhere other than Ukraine. Our response to this question is simply that we don't feel any release from God to pursue adoption through a different pathway. We trust that God is unfolding his plan for our family in his perfect timing.

Perspective

Every time I glance at our seemingly obsolete blog site, I rehearse what I would potentially write in an update. Are we still waiting for the same paper from the Moroccan authorities? Yes. Has it been a crazy long time that we've been stuck on this one step? Yes. Are we out of hope? NO! Instead we've been learning contentment in this waiting place.
Once we are parents we know our lives will change drastically. We are so thankful for all that God's putting into our lives in this chapter before the kids come.
We have a Moroccan lawyer who is now working on getting this required letter. We are so thankful for someone who is taking initiative on our behalf. We get updates from him once or twice a week, letting us know what steps he's working on. He's made the rounds through the national ministry of foreign affairs and is working locally again.
Rumors are circulating again about the Ukraine opening to accept dossiers at the beginning of February. Pray that God would continue to unfold his perfect timing.

Still Making the Rounds

No word from any in Ukraine this week about paperwork submission. We are still focusing on getting that last letter from the Moroccan authorities.
This week Stan went to the equivalent of the state level government offices on Tuesday. He spoke with people in a few different offices. They were all very kind and listened attentively to the problem. Unfortunately, none of them were able to help us. They redirected Stan back to the foreigner's department in the local police station (where I started out in June).
Stan went there on Thursday, hoping to talk to a higher ranking official than the guys that normally staff the front desk. Their boss wasn't available this week because the king is in town and that keeps the whole police force busy with the logistics.
We are by no means at the end of our list of possible people, places, and angles to try. The quest, however, is taking considerable time and energy during a season that's already been tough. Please pray for endurance and creative problem solving.

Twists and Turns

Thanks so much for your prayers regarding our paperwork. The police records came through as well as our physical forms! We are also expecting that our facilitator in Ukraine may be able to either submit our paperwork or get an appointment to submit it this coming week. We are still trying to figure out how to get the letter we need from the Moroccan authorities regarding our residence and the residence of our children. The right wording and the right signatures or ratifications are crucial if we are going to be able to continue on this adoption journey.

Last week when we received an email from our agency suggesting that we consider switching to a program in another country and start over from scratch, we were stunned. It took a couple of days before we could get a phone conference with our agency and clarify that the only obstacle we know of at this point is getting this letter. Although we have talked to many people who have not been able to help us, we are not out of ideas yet.

We have sent all of our paperwork to Ukraine in order to get in line for submission next week. We are hoping that a letter signed by the American Stan works for will stand in for the letter from the Moroccan authorities that we are still working to obtain.

We hope to have news one way or the other within the week. Please do not stop praying now!

Royal Holiday!

Happy Birthday to Mohamed VI, king of Morocco, aka the "cool king." His birthday is one of the four national holidays that fall in the month of August. If that didn't slow down our paperwork enough, August is the vacation month in Morocco as it is in many European countries and many people take a few weeks off at this time of the year.
We think that's why we are still waiting on some of our Moroccan paperwork for this second dossier. We are still trying to get the statement about our residency. We are finally in touch with a lawyer that should be able to write it, but "not yet." He's wanting to consult with a judge who we think might be on vacation.
On the Indiana side of things, Stan's fingerprints failed to pass for our second Indiana background clearance. They've been repeated in Spain and sent by DHL to Indiana and we're waiting on the results. There have been a few hiccups on getting our physical forms filled out again, too.
The most exciting news is that our agency sent us an email saying that we may be able to get a submission date in September. That revives our hopes that we might still adopt this year. Pray that our paperwork will come together in a timely way so that we will be ready if we get a submission date next month.

Results

While we were in Casablanca, other paperwork was going on in Rabat. Si Mohamed had tried to get our police background checks on Friday only to find that the office wanted more documents than they had listed on the phone. We were able to get these ready and hand them off to him at an autoroute exit as we passed it on Monday evening, and the next day he successfully requested the background checks. We took advantage of being in Rabat to get an authentic American feast at the TGIFridays (the first restaurant in Morocco to offer free refills).

We had a surprise blessing when we sent our documents to the U.S. yesterday for international legalization: DHL offered us free shipping! The other excitement this week was that on Wednesday a package full of child safety equipment arrived later than expected; the first one that was sent was lost in the mail. The expatriate life is a rich one, with lots of frustrating challenges and lots of wonderful opportunities and surprises. You've got to make the most of the good things, and this week we had things to celebrate all week!