On the Move! {Adoption Progress}

I've been waiting to share about some happening around here until they actually were happening...

...and now is that time!

A couple of weeks ago, I started to really feel convicted about how little I have been praying for Olivia to be home quickly.  The truth is, I was scared to pray for that because I knew that God could do it!  And I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with the idea of four.  Total selfishness, I know.  So I let things float along at whatever pace they went, not being too pushy, just kind of going with the flow.

Anyway, I was listening to a message from a women's conference and in it the speaker, Leslie Ludy, shared about their adoption and how they prayed it would go so quickly and then it did.  I was reminded of our own stories, of times when I know that God stepped in and allowed our process to go more quickly than it would have otherwise.  I knew I had not been doing all I could to get Olivia home.  So I prayed that day and asked God to step in, speed things up, and bring her home.  She needs to be home - she has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition and even though we hope it is not what has been diagnosed, we need to have her evaluated so that we can treat whatever is going on.

Not three hours later, my phone rang.  It was our adoption agency calling.  I had sent in our home study the day before so I expected that it was confirmation about that.  Instead, it was a conversation about the possibility of expediting Olivia's adoption because of her serious medical diagnosis.

Wow.

Ok then.  I was not prepared for that!  We learned about what we needed to do next, and we started to work on getting a letter from a doctor supporting our request to expedite.  We had filed our I800a with US immigration and thankfully when I called and explained that we were hoping to expedite, they bumped up our fingerprint date and we had that done earlier this week.  Finally, just yesterday, everything came together and I sent off all our documentation to USCIS along with a request to expedite in an email.

Less than two hours later, I had a reply: our expedite request has been APPROVED!

Wow again.

USCIS quotes I800a approval time as 90 days, so we have significantly reduced the time we will need to wait to bring Olivia home.  It has taken me a couple of weeks to get my head around the fact that it won't be next summer like I thought.  There have been a lot of sleepless nights - I find myself waking up at 3am and not being able to get back to sleep for hours.  There are just so many unknowns ahead and so many changes.  YES we chose this and YES I very much want her home!!!  But now that I have experience with this a little bit I know that it may or may not be an easy transition, and there could very well be challenges ahead.  I'm okay with that but if I am honest I still struggle with fear.  I know this to be true: whatever lies ahead, whatever medical challenges or attachment issues or sibling rivalry or lack of sleep may come, we will be okay because we are held safe in the hands of Almighty God.  We will not walk this journey alone.  I cling to that in the middle of the night when waves of fear wash over me and threaten to overwhelm me.  We will not walk this journey alone.

There is one other aspect to this change that could cause us to fear or freak out: money.  When we started this journey we made a plan for how to pay for the adoption.  That plan included having time to get our taxes back and many more months to save.  Its now looking like we will have a different timeline (although I still don't know how much longer we really have).  It is tempting to fear and worry about where we will get the money.  I am choosing instead to trust that God's hands are all over this, and He can and will provide what we need, when we need it.  I am excited to see how He works.  We have applied for several adoption grants but have yet to hear back.  We have set up a fundraiser website as family and friends had inquired about donating to our adoption fund.  We are so grateful for every donation that will help bring Olivia home!!  If you are interested in donating, here is the link:

Bring Olivia Home - Hunt Family Adoption

We are hoping our dossier will go to China very soon so that things keep on progressing with the adoption.  I'll keep you posted!  We thank the Lord for this special little girl who is soon going to be OURS!