This is what you could call "red tape." One of the MANY barriers that we have to knock down to get our boys HOME.
Government Agency #1 - Secretary of State's office from The State of Texas
The document on the left is from the State of Texas and is a "notice of deficiency" on one of our documents that we had to send to them for authentication. It's a copy of our doctor's medical license that we had notarized in front of the doctor (i.e., a notary traveled to our doctor's office with us to notarize it). What our Secretary of State is saying is that the phrase we used on it is off by a few words so we have to re-do the entire thing.
Translation: make another appointment with our doctor, get calendars coordinated with a notary for that appointment date/time, re-do the signatures, make more copies, send it again to Austin, and wait for them to authenticate it and send it back.
Bottom line: more money...but worst of all, more TIME
Government Agency #2 - USCIS office from the US Dept of Homeland Security
The document on the right is from the USCIS and is a "request for evidence" on our home study that we had to send them as part of our I-600A application (to be able to adopt). They said that our homestudy failed to have the exact words stating that our social worker asked us if we had previously been rejected as a prospective adoptive parent or been the subject of an unfavorable home study. This is ridiculous on so many levels, including the fact that the home study did specifically state that we previously were approved and adopted Eden in 2011. Oh, and the other thing they said they needed is something that's actually already included in our home study. Seriously.
Translation: email our social worker and ask her to add this phrase to our home study, print several more copies and have them notarized, send 1 of those notarized copies to the USCIS to fulfill this request, send 2 of those notarized copies to the State of Texas for authentication (which we had already done with our now "outdated" homestudy), wait for them to authenticate it and send it back, and wait for the USCIS to process this new homestudy and (hopefully) approve it.
Bottom line: more money...but worst of all, more TIME
I'm not gonna lie--Ben and I were in a funk all night after receiving these requests in the mail. We feel like we're in the "dance" of 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. It's SO hard to not have all of your lovies under one roof!
Then I read this during my brief quiet time this morning...
This is what it says... (emphasis mine)
"Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God. If we pray because we want answers, we will get huffed with God. The answers come every time, but not always in the way we expect, and our spiritual huff shows a refusal to identify ourselves with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God's grace.
Ben and I have to remind ourselves that we went through many hurdles and a ton of hard times during our adoption of Eden. However, now that we look back, we can see His PERFECT timing of bringing her home (like, seriously--PERFECT).
Bottom line: We have to remember that it's not about us. It's not even about our boys. It's about God. We want HIM to be glorified through us. No matter what.
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