One of our mentors and long-time friends encouraged us to focus on what “we know” and not let our minds wonder and speculate about what we don’t know. This encouragement has been very helpful and increased our confidence that this is going to work out and that God’s timing is going to be just perfect!

So, here’s what we know:

• God has blessed our paperwork processing for over five years now. Beginning with the initial home study all the way through our last I-171h renewal. He has opened doors, providing us with contacts, brought people to our aide, given us wisdom and provided all the funds that we needed every step of the way.
• We have been approved by the USCIS to adopt three times already (2006, 2008 and 2009).
• We have been approved by the China Government to adopt.
• Our FBI fingerprints have been taken and processed successfully four times.
• God miraculously returned all of our adoption paperwork when it was left in a taxi in 2006.
• The Kigali Embassy, USCIS Accra and Nairobi staff have been helpful and kind all along the way.
• God has given us the patience and strength to wait for over five years.
• We are within 2-3 months of receiving a referral from China and could possibly travel to China this fall.
• China has referred children to families with LIDs through June 30, 2006. We are just 12 LID days away from receiving a referral. See our adoption page for an explanation of LIDs
• In May of this year China referred 10 day’s worth of LIDs (June 21-30). This many LIDs have not been processed in over five years! If they continue this trend and refer another 10 days of LIDs in June then that would put them through July 10th. Again, our LID is July 12th which means we could possibly have a referal from China in July!
• God has brought us this far and will carry us the rest of the way! We are so close!

Here’s the current situation:

• Our third I-171h (approval from the USCIS to adopt a foreign born orphan) is expiring and we need to renew it. (We submit an I-600A application and if it’s approved then we receive an I-171h.)
• When our 2nd I-171h expired we had moved to Rwanda and fell under the jurisdiction of the USCIS Nairobi Office (We were under the jurisdiction of the Accra, Ghana office while we were living in Togo.)
• In 2009, when we asked the Nairobi office about our application to renew our paperwork, they told us that we had to submit our application with the office that initially processed our file. So, we mailed our updated police reports, home study, etc. to Accra, Ghana and they processed and renewed our I-171h.
• In 2011, as our 3rd I-171h was about to expire, we sent our application back to the USCIS office in Accra.
• After reviewing our paper work (they received it on March 15) they determined that we needed to file this application with the USCIS office in Nairobi and that they were sending our paperwork back to us. It arrived this past Monday, May 30th (2 1/2 months after they received it). I do not know why it took so long to make this determination, but it did. They did apologize for the omission and forwarded the email explanation on to the USCIS office in Nairobi.
• After receiving the paperwork Monday (May 30), we quickly wrote new cover letters and reorganized the updated application documents and sent them to the USCIS Nairobi (Kenya) office yesterday (May 31st, Stephen’s Birthday) via FedEx. We took the picture above after we prayed over the paperwork and just before we headed to the FedEx office.
• Now we must wait for the Nairobi office to process our paperwork. We have not had any contact with them by phone or email thus far. The Accra office was very good about communicating with us via email. We hope and pray that this will be the same for us with the Nairobi office.

Specific Prayer Requests:

• That the person in charge at the USCIS Nairobi office would have our paperwork on his/her desk by this Friday June 3rd.
• That the USCIS Nairobi office would communicate with us promptly via email or phone.
• That God would grant us favor with the USCIS officials and staff so that our I-600A adoption application can be processed with expediency without complication.
• That the officials would review our 4th I-600A application and updated paperwork by June 15th.
• That the USCIS would approve our application, granting us a 4th and final I-171h.
• That we would receive our I-171h before we receive a referral from China (This would be icing on the cake!).
• That God would bless mine and Christine’s “nerves” as this is mentally and emotionally stressful!

We made double, triple, quadruple sure that all of our paperwork was in order. We had our FBI fingerprints taken and submitted months ago so they should have been cleared by now. We have paid all of our fees. Now, we just need the grace from the USCIS Nairobi office to process the application and grant us another I-171h! Pray that it is done in time so that we have approval in hand before our referral comes from China!!!

God has been and will continue to be faithful in answering our prayers. Let us remain steadfast on our knees until the very end. As Stephen put it last night in his prayer, “God, we can’t do this without You!”