Off We go....

We will be leaving tomorrow for Lithuania! It is so hard to believe that the time has finally come. We can't tell you how excited we are to finally get to meet Justina. We will be posting at some point more information on our blog, but it may not be till we return home. We were advised not to post too much personal information about the adoption trip till it is final. Hopefully, we will be able to post some pictures of our site seeing.

Wish us luck, and check back for more updates!

April and Sean

Reservations

Our trip is set! We have our flights and hotels booked. We are very excited to finally know we are set to head out to Lithuania soon. Make sure to check our blog throughout the summer. We will be telling more about our trip and posting pictures as well. It could prove to be a very educational trip.

April

Finally, Finally!

As the title states FINALLY we have a court date! I'm not sure if we should actually post the date on our blog. So, should you like to know our date ...please, feel free to contact Sean or myself. I am happy to know that the end is near, yet the reality of the trip and all the unknown that goes along with it is setting in. I suppose that now I will really be a nervous wreck!

Anyway, just as an added note...anyone interested in donating to Justina through our Reeces Rainbow site should do so soon. The account will be closed and all money will be sent to Bethany Christian Services for Justina's fees once we have our airfare booked. We hope to have our flights booked within the next 2 weeks for sure. We appreciate everyones donations so far and it has been so helpful in our adoption process. We also appreciate all the thoughts and prayers along the way...there have been days where the toughts and prayers were all that seemed to help get me through the day.

I will update again soon! Hopefully, with better information than what was written tonight.

April

www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorduffy.htm

Can't believe it is May!

Okay, just wanted to give a quick update.

We finally received the documents we needed to finish Justina's INS paperwork on April 29th. So, I spent the afternoon at Kinko's making copies and mailing out everything to USCIS. I sent everything over night and it was delivered at 9:30 am on April 30th. With any luck next week we will have Justina's approval to come to the US.

As of today we still haven't received word on our court date...ughhhhhhhhhh. This wait game is killing me.

Last Sunday (April 26th) a friend of ours from school/church hosted a shower for us. It was such a nice day. We couldn't believe how many people arrived for the shower! It was truely a group effort...between the food, drinks, and sending out invitations...everything was perfect. Sean and I didn't know what to do with ourselves since it had been over 13 years since we had a shower. We are all truely blessed to have such wonderful friends in our school/church community. Justina will be so lucky to meet everyone.

Finally, some news!!

Okay, I know that I haven't reported anything since we received our official referral. We did mail in our court documents on March 27th. Since that time frame, we have basically been waiting in a few documents in order to finish Justina's INS Paperwork. It has been a long wait and we haven't quiet figured out what had been taking the orphanage so long to send out the needed documents.

Finally, today we get the call that we still are waiting on the documents for immigration! Yuck...is all that I can think as I hear this from Maureen our Bethany social worker. Then she continues to tell me that we have been assigned a judge and the court date will be with in the next 2-4 weeks! This of course is great news...except that we are really down to the wire with getting the immigration paperwork approved.

So, as of today the phone calls have been made to Lithuania and everyone isscrambling to get us the document we need for immigration today or tomorrow. Now Sean and I have to scramble to get ourselves ready for the upcoming trip that maybe as soon as 2 weeks away...help!!!! Of course this is exciting...I guess I do work better under pressure.

Say prayers and keep your fingers crossed!

April :)

Looking Forward To Spring

Well, I am able to finally report that we received the official referral for Justina March 19, 2009. The first copy was in Lithuanian...so, we had not clue what it said. We did however receive the translated copy in English the next day.



We have already sent our acceptance letter to Bethany Christian Services to be forwarded to Lithuania. Now we can finish filing the INS papers for Justina and wait for travel dates. Hopefully, the travel dates will come sooner than later. Keep your fingers crossed!

My head is spinning...

As I said in my post on Thursday...we have been making good progress in Lithuania. We just received a letter (yesterday) from the Adoption Services stating that they commit/consent to giving us a referral to adopt Justina!!! I had to send our letter of intent to them yesterday, and now the next thing we will get from Lithuania will be the referral paperwork.
Again, my head is spinning...I can't believe how close we really are to traveling to see Justina. Even with some bumps in the road we are so close to her. Keep your fingers crossed and the prayers coming that the last leg of the process will go smooth. We shall keep you posted.

Good Progress

Well, since receiving our INS approval we have made some progress in Lithuania. They were able to translate the INS approval very quickly. From there our information was forwarded to Adoption Services to be registered. It is my understanding that once we receive our registration confirmation the next step should be the official referral of Justina. We will have 30 days to respond back with our decision. Of course, I don't plan on taking 30 days to make that decision! After we settle all the referral details our attorney will be able to get a court date scheduled for us. At that point we should be told as to when Sean and I need to arrive in Lithuania. I can't believe that we are so close to traveling. I truely hope to make a trip to Lithuania with in 2-3 months. Keep saying prayers that the last leg of this process will go quick and smooth! I hope to have even more updates to report soon.

Happy Day!

Finally!!! I can now report that we have received our approval from USCIS! It just arrived in the mail today. I have to say that we were very patient up to a point. Then finally I did give in and started making phone calls to various public officials. At this point, I don't care what or who started the fire under USCIS...I am just glad that it is finished. Justina has waited too long for our approval. Now hopefully Lithuania will be able to make progress happen there. Stay tuned.

The Wait Game

I know it's been a while. I REALLY was hoping to have more to report by now.

As of now, we are still waiting on our INS approval. That is the only thing holding us up. Once we get that approval, the adoption process will be able to continue onward in Lithuania. I have been making phone calls today hoping to get a move on the approval. I guess immigration has a history of not moving very fast, adoption or otherwise. So, we will see if any of my calls help to speed up the process. The longer INS takes, the longer we wait to travel to Lithuania, and the longer Justina has to stay at the orphanage.

I also have been checking up on some leads for grants or donations from various sources. Keep your fingers crossed. We still have a ways to go towards Justina's adoption fees. If anyone has any leads or suggestions for grants, please feel free to let us know. On that note, feel free to pass along our Reece's Rainbow listing as well to your family and friends. We appreciate all the help.

www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorduffy.htm

Have a great week!

April