(Not Much of an) Update

We have been twiddling our thumbs since our case was submitted to the South African Central Authority. It's been a little over three weeks, so we expect to hear something shortly. We attended a training event last week and ran into our caseworker. She said that she has been asked to do a few things related to our account over the past couple of weeks, so I guess something is happening behind the scenes.

One of the items she needed to address was our homestudy. In the homestudy process, we were asked to comb through a long list of medical conditions and indicate which ones we were willing to consider or accept in a potential child. Our list was quite long and each condition was then included in the body of our home study. However, "Sebastian's" medical history includes a couple things that were not on our original list. Therefore, our caseworker had to amend it and charge us $250. We now have to submit a supplemental form to our previously approved immigration application and pay another $360 to Homeland Security. It was un-avoidable (I checked). Without the home study addendum, we wouldn't get Visa approval for the little guy and we would also risk not being approved in South African court.

Meanwhile, our fundraising efforts continue. I have been making and selling bracelets and we have a few fundraising items now listed in an Etsy shop. We are having a yard sale on Memorial Day and are contemplating a fundraising dinner as well. We got our first grant denial this week. Hopefully, we will have better luck with the others we applied for. We still need to raise about $7,000 more in agency and country fees, in addition to the staggering travel expenses (estimated $14k or so).

We are growing weary. Pray for renewed strength and patience, as well as God's financial provision. We are so grateful for your support and prayers. Love, Sarah

Jewelry Fundraiser

These are the handmade bracelets I have "in stock" right now. There is an album in my Facebook page as well.

$7

$15

$15

$15

$7

$30

$30

$30

$15

$15

$15

$15

$7

$7

$7

$7

$7

$7

$12

$12

$12

$12

$7

$12

$12

$7

Moving Right Along

As I mentioned in the last post, our dossier is being mailed to South Africa today. I also received word that our case was actually submitted to the Central Authority today! I was expecting that our partner in SA would have to wait until they actually had the dossier in their hands, but apparently that is not the case. No complaints here!

The Central Authority takes about 4 weeks to review and approve the match between a child and a family. Then we will receive the official referral about 1-2 weeks after that. We have been told that we should expect to travel 8-12 weeks after the referral acceptance and expect to be in South Africa for 5-6 weeks.

Dossier Update...Last One, I Promise

Our dossier arrived safely in Michigan today, into the hands of the South Africa team of BCS. And as it turns out, it does not need to be authenticated, because South Africa is part of the Hague Convention (Google it). Which means the dossier will make the trip to South Africa on Friday! The partner adoption agency in SA should be able to submit our match to the Central Authority almost right away :) Keep praying; Things are going to get pretty crazy before too long!