Counting My Blessings Tonight

Tonight I am sitting here thinking of the birth place of my children and my heart aches, yet I feel so blessed at the same time. I can't help but be thankful for living in a country where I don't have to worry about militias taking my home and my body and my family. 

I live in a place where I can be educated and (hopefully) live well into my golden years. I am able to choose who I marry, and I will never experience poverty to the level of life or death. 

My heart aches because my girls are still there, still waiting for their mama. If anything escalates into Kinshasa I don't know what I will do. Today I have written senators, news agencies and friends about M23, and having the freedom to do that is amazing too.

As Thanksgiving comes and we watch the parades on TV while eating tons of food with those we love, let's not forget the Congolese. Let's all pray for the rebels to quiet down, for the thousands now homeless and for the fear in so many to be gone (and for us to get our kids out of there soon!).

I600, check

I finally have some good news, our I600 is in the hands of USCIS, yippee! For those of you not in the adoption world, this is a HUGE step. It really is almost the end.

There are two I600s in international adoption. The I600a approves parents to adopt any anonymous orphan as stipulated by their home study. The I600 approves those same parents to adopt specific children- Sara and Nalya. USCIS is the immigration people, technically the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Our I600a was approved back in February of this year.

Lately this approval has taken other families about 2-6 weeks. Knowing our timeline for this adoption, I am guessing we will be on the far side of that. Then the US embassy in Kinshasa has to interview Nalya's birth mom before their visas are issued and I can finally go get them. Now, my birthday is the 13th, that approval in the mail would be the best gift ever (you think God or USCIS gives gifts like that? Hmmm). 

Technically there is a chance we could all be celebrating Christmas together! As always in the adoption process though, nothing is set. Being November, I have to say I am so thankful to be one more step closer to bringing my girls home. Whew!