Accepted!!!

 

Step One: Done! (Look at those precious smiles!! Clean kiddos in pjs are the best!)

On December 31st we mailed in our initial application to Nightlight Christian Adoptions along with our $500.  There are the boys with the envelope the night before we mailed it out.  They began accepting applications on January 1st which was actually on the weekend so they wouldn't actually be open until January 3rd so just to be safe I mailed it out on Dec. 31st...we were a little excited!!

We received an email back from Nightlight on January 5th that we were accepted!!  That really just means that we can now enter the next phase for adopting from their Uganda program.  We actually received three emails from Nightlight that day with 22 attachments.  We have quite a bit of work ahead of us:)

Lots of reading and paperwork to fill out, lots of paper trails and questions to be answered.  Lots of research to do and stuff to learn!!  Along with all the applications, financial forms and paperwork we are required to do 10 hours of adoption related education.  They say that this will actually take about 20 hours.  For me that means the joy of buying some cool new books.  For Mark that means we are looking for lots of online resources and audio books we can download.  Yes, we have very different learning styles:)

We have also started some work around the house.  Mom helped me paint the upstairs hallway.  We still need to finish the trimwork and then work on painting the upstairs bedroom.  So we have lots going on.  Of course we had a big Christmas with lots of family coming to Florence which was great.  And then Eli's birthday was right before Christmas and Haig's is right after Christmas....and then of course we were out of school for 3 days because of the Great Snowpocalypse of 2011...so we've been busy!!

Our next goal is to have our homestudy application and the check for $1400 in the mail to Nightlight by the end of January.  We are almost ready with that portion of paperwork.   We are also working on getting current birth certificates for all of us, a current marriage license as well as lots of medical paperwork and financial paperwork.  Apparently they need long form birth certificates and most of these certificates must be issued within 6 months of the adoption dossier being submitted.  Whew!  This is definitely testing my ability at multi-tasking and staying organized:)  

Thank you for your prayers for us as we forge ahead and for our little girl somewhere in Uganda:)  We will try to keep you updated.  We are soooooo thankful for all of your prayer support and thank you to so many of you that already have surrounded us with financial and emotional support.  Daily Christ reminds us that this is indeed the way we are supposed to walk:)  Thanks for walking with us!