Approved!

I spoke with our agent at USCIS yesterday

and she said our I600 was

APPROVED

on July 12th!!!

YAY!

For those of you who aren't working on adoption

paperwork in your spare time,

an I600 gives us

permission to bring Tobias into the States!

We already had permission to bring an "orphan"

into America, now we have permission to bring our

son specifically!!

SO, all he needs is a Passport,

his Visa,

and he's ready!

Sounds simple right???

Not quite.

It sounds so so simple in our minds as well.

Here is what the next few months will

hopefully look like.

Things can change very quickly though!

Didier will go back to Congo and

schedule a trip to Kinshasa.

He will bring Tobi to a place called

"Love Beyond Borders"

transition home.

We are now working with them to complete the adoption.

They have a home there to take care of the

children while they work on getting his

passport and visa.

They will get the passport, get an appointment for

The Embassy, then the Embassy will start what is called a 

"field investigation."

 This is where we really need to be in prayer.

They physically travel to Lubumbashi where the orphanage

is and do an investigation.

They make sure that documents and a bunch

of other stuff is correct and legitimate.

They do a group of investigations all at once

and I've HEARD that they

will be traveling to Lubumbashi in

AUGUST!!!

This. Would. Be. AWESOME.

With all the delays that we've had,

we really have stopped counting on a specific

time period.

BUT.

If they did Tobi's interviews and investigations

in August....

that would mean he'd have his visa soon after that!

SO,

please pray with us that it happens that way!

Once they are done with the investigation,

and stamp his passport with his

approved Visa...

we get to go to Africa

and pick up our son!!!!

The bittersweet part of all this is that

it looks like we will NOT be traveling

to Lubumbashi where he has lived

for over a year.

We won't get to see Didier's family and those

that have helped care for Tobi while he

was there.

We won't see the church and participate

in worship with them on Sunday.

But.

This is about Tobias right now.

And we get to meet him,

hold him,

and keep him!

It will probably also be a better situation

for our children back home.

I believe we will be able to communicate with them

more in Kinshasa.

We'll see if that's true!

So we're excited and anxious as ever to meet Tobias.

And let me share something real quick.

I think about our son's beautiful

dark skin all the time.

Ever since I was young, I have just LOVED

African American's skin!

As a young, immature teenager,

my best friend and I would always talk about how

we would one day adopt

a black child because they were so 

darn cute.

Well, we watched "42" last night.

It's the story of Jackie Robinson.

I confessed to my husband that I honestly

try to forget about the past of our country and the

other countries that treated

their people with dark skin like they were animals.

Then, when things started to change,

they would recognize African Americans as

"human",

but FAR from equal.

I was thinking about how we would one day

explain to Tobias how people that looked like

him used to be treated in such a

terrible, inhumane way.

THEN, I thought of how it must have been

for parents back then.

How do you explain to your child that

God created all of us equal,

but the majority of the world doesn't see

it that way???

Ugh.

I'm so thankful to not have lived through those days.

And I weep for those that had to.

Gosh, could Jackie Robinson's grandparents even

COMPREHEND white people

WILLINGLY adopting black children???

I'm so glad that we've made it that far

as a country.

But the CHURCH should have been there

LONG ago!

Anyway.

That's just a little of what has been on my heart.

All children, regardless of their

ethnicity or skin color,

need parents.

There are millions that need rescuing.

But I really look forward to the stares.

I look forward to people glancing twice as they see

our 3 kids with light skin,

walking with our son who stands out with

his chocolate brown face and wide white eyes.

 Every stare and every question is an

opportunity to share WHY we adopt.

Now.

If we could only get him home....