On October 11th, RaeAn was granted her U.S. Certificate of Citizenship (COC) and her immigration to the United States was complete! We thank God for this answered prayer and are so thankful that this immigration journey finally came to a wonderful close! After her certificate was presented to us I was able to ask the USCIS agent about the upcoming changes that we had been hearing about for so long (the ones that caused us so much anxiety!) She said that there were going to be changes and in fact we were one of the last families to be able to process their N600K (application for Certificate of Citizenship for a citizen living abroad) at their office in Honolulu! That month, October, was going to be the last month that they would be allowed to accept and process applications. When I think about the providential timing and answered prayers to so many specific dates, I’m continually amazed at the way in which the Lord brought together all of these events AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME!
After receiving her COC, we immediately applied for RaeAn’s U.S. Passport across the street. Since we weren’t flying “overseas” again within two weeks, they weren’t able to give it to us in 2 days but they were able to process it in 2 days and send it express mail to our home address. Sweet! Check, check…
We arrived in the States that following Friday and the next Friday we went before the District Court of Tarrant County, Texas to “Readopt” RaeAn. After the ceremony (pictured above with the Judge) our lawyer (Don Ferrill, thank you so much!) told us another amazing story of providential timing. It seems that the judge we were assigned to requires adoptive families to wait six months before they can finalize their adoption (or in our case ‘readoption’). The only exception that she makes is on “Adoption Day” where we could be transferred to another judge. The next adoptioin day just happen to be the first Friday after we returned to the States! So, one week after our arrival, we were able to finalize RaeAn’s readoption and THUS CAME TO THE END OF 6 YEARS OF ADOPTION PAPERWORK!!!!!!!!!!! Even now (writing this six months after the fact) we are praising God for guiding us so faithfully!!!!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for faithfully praying for this entire, awesome, amazing journey!
Here’s a final update on the paperwork we mentioned in our last China Adoption update.
- Certificate of Citizenship: GRANTED ON OCTOBER 11, 2011
- 1st Post Adoption Report (PAR) for China: COMPLETED OCTOBER 31
- IMG Health Insurance: GRANTED AND BACKDATED TO THE DAY WE ADOPTED RAEAN
- Re-Adoption in the US: FINALIZED ON OCTOBER 21, 2011
Thankful godly parents wanted a daughter to love on and steward in the ways of God. Thankful for older brothers to love her and protect her. You are uniquely prepared for this venture and God blessed the entire process. Grateful to a loving God who loved us and adopted us. May God bless you in this way your whole life long.
Still praying for you all…Dottie
Hi Dottie! Yes, we are super thankful for older brothers to help us out! She loves them and they are loving having a baby sister (Well, most of the time:) ) You’re prayers are much appreciated!
Wonderful, wonderful news! Praise God for the timing of everything that’s finally come together. You guys must be so relieved. May life for RaeAn just keep getting better and better. He is good!
Lanny
Thanks Lanny! RaeAn is such a joy and delight! We are so thankful to God for the blessing of her life:) We were reminded again at how God works things out in His perfect timing! We waited and waited and waited for so long and then in two months time, voila!, everything came together. The day that they put her in our arms just happened to be Matthew’s birthday! How amazing is that!
Love the picture with the Judge. WOW the fulfillment of so many desires, dreams, prayers, intense labors of love.
Well lets see if this one works.
Love you,
Dad
Thanks Dad! Your comment worked this time!
Yes, many years of prayers answered for sure!