By far the biggest piece of news thus far is that our paperwork is at USCIS!! Praise God that they are willing to review the digital copies of the paperwork that we sent, with the help of the Joint Council, until they get the actual paperwork (which has been known to sit in their lockbox for a week or more). Time, as usual, is of the essence so this is a big deal. After they (hopefully) approve it all, we will be on the lookout for our fingerprint appointments in the mail. We need to pray that the fingerprinting office will allow us to get these done before that scheduled appointment and not give us a hassle. I have heard of many people doing this before, usually without complication, so I hope that will be the case in our situation.
The next exciting piece of news has to do with our fundraising. In the past week alone we have had one family-- friends from our church-- donate $300 to our chip-in, and then another woman whom we do not even know donate $1000 to our Sacred Selections fund!! Thank you God for the generosity of these people adding to our fund and bringing us that much closer to getting our son home!! I have said it before and I will continue to say it-- people's generosity towards us and this child has amazed me and continues to amaze me every day. It has been such a blessing to watch everything gradually falling into place as it has and I know it is the hand of God at work.
I would be lying however if I didn't also acknowledge my nervousness in all this as the time draws nearer. Although we have been making good progress, we are still far short of the money needed to get this child home. Most of the money we have collected so far is going to pay for our homestudy and the agency fees for this adoption. Very little, if any, has been able to be set aside for travel. Our agency tells us that we will need between $5000 and $7000 to pay for our tickets, facilitator, visas, etc and all that needs to be raised in about a month!
So to all those who have donated to us, we offer a huge THANK YOU!! And to those who have been considering it but have not yet done it, we ask a big PLEASE?? Every little bit adds up in a big way, as we have seen. Someone on the Yahoo group I belong to for people adopting from China offered up a $5 challenge to the group a month or so ago. She asked each person in that group to simply donate five dollars to our account, and that was what got our chip-in rolling. And look where it is at now!! And just think....just $5 from each person who has visited my blog so far could have pretty much funded our entire adoption!
I know that with the holidays quickly approaching it is difficult to find any extra funds for your own family, let alone ours. But if you can donate to our effort to bring Zou Lie home, even by just sparing $5, we would be so grateful. Also don't forget to check out my "31" fundraiser on the sidebar. All proceeds go towards our adoption and they have some wonderful products which would make great gifts! All orders are guaranteed to arrive by Christmas, and you can get your gifts monogrammed just for that special person.
So, at this point we just keep on moving forward, keep juggling those many "to-do" things in the air, and keep praying that it will all turn out well in the end. We are making good progress and hope to continue to do so in the next month. We just need to keep a positive attitude and remember that if it is God's will, all this paperchasing, fundraising and nail biting will be over in a little more than a month and a half. Until then, I will keep reminding myself of these words which I have posted before and which are a good summary of our experiences so far.....
Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.
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