Yesterday we got word from our case worker that Jude’s passport has been approved and sent for printing! This is great news.
Now we await our own USCIS (immigration) approval of Jude’s I600. Please pray about this. This is what we need in order for the US Consulate in Haiti to do what they need to do before Jude can come home. If we get the I600, we could be looking at about a month before we travel. However, our I600 has been at USCIS for longer than usual – approximately nine weeks. Monday I’ll be placing a call to the National Visa center to try to learn whether or not it’s made it that far from the Detroit USCIS office. Our case worker, Belinda, has been emailing the Detroit office to try to get status updates and has yet to get details on our case.
With this little glitch and even with all the time we’ve spent pursuing this adoption, we have to say still that we love adoption! We are passionate about this. It seems to be the very heartbeat of God in our lives. Some of you have seen Chariots of Fire in which Eric Liddell testifies that God made him fast and when he runs, “…I feel His pleasure.” Well, that’s how we feel about adoption. Never in either of our lives have we felt God’s will more strongly. Through this process God has taken things we’ve known and believed, and He’s written them on our hearts as deep enduring convictions…things like: God is good; miracles are real; God is at work in the world; He knows what we need; He is pleased to reveal Himself to us.
Over and again we thought we’d have Jude home by a certain date. The latest prayer has been that God would allow him to come home by his second birthday, which is July 24. But we’ve been so ready to let that go like every other date we’ve hoped for, and the thought that we might no have to is just amazing!
Passport printing takes 1 – 2 weeks; the I600 goes to the US Consulate in Haiti at which point they initiate Jude’s Visa and his orphan investigation (during which they interview his birth mother, etc.). This also takes 1 – 2 weeks. Then we get travel dates. As you can see, we need that I600.
We don’t take your prayers for granted – they are so appreciated! Pray about the I600, and stay tuned!
Also, please pray for the family of our caseworker, Belinda. They live in Iowa; her brother is a farmer and his fields have washed out three times this year. It’s going to be a rough season.
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