Fingerprinting With a Blessing!

Today we returned to the US Embassy in Beijing to get our fingerprinting done.  All I have to say is, we were really glad we printed the guy's email that gave us the appointment!  When we arrived to get in, we were told the offices were all closed up for this afternoon. Of course, we were confused and not real pleased thinking--not another long wasted trip to Beijing!  We told him we had a 2pm appointment!  He told us "Are you sure it was today as they were all closed!"  He then proceeded to show me his list that did NOT have our names on it.  The email told us we didn't need anything else to get in as our names would be on a list at the front gate.  I then told Randy, "Pull out that email we printed before we left!"  After letting them look at it and verifying the correct date and time (today), they (cause by this time someone else came over to help out) found another list with OUR names on it!  Hooray! We were then allowed in for our appointment.

After some waiting time, our names were called and we got fingerprinted!  Then we waited some more and he brought out our sealed envelope to send in with our I-800A application form.  We thanked him and asked where do we pay?  He said with a smile, "It's free. There's no charge."  We were elated and thanked him several times over!  I doubt he knew just how much of a blessing that was for us!  In case you don't know, the cost was supposed to be $80 per person so he basically just gave us a $160 free ride!!  Needless to say, we were oh soooo blessed by his generosity!! We have been blessed so many times and by so many people while traveling down the road on this adoption journey!!  We are so grateful and thank the One who has gone before us preparing the way. While we have a long way to go before our child is home, we continue to trust and believe for His provision during this journey.

I also have to tell you about another blessing I should have posted, but just didn't get around to.  I feel it important to testify to His goodness!  Remember when we'd said that our adoption might end up costing more than what we originally thought?  Well, we found out that there were extra costs involved with all the foreign documents we had due to the fact that we live in China.  In fact, the cost is quite high!!  $250 PER DOCUMENT!!!  Now, we had at least 6-8 documents that right away came to mind and I have to say, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when I learned this. That meant that our adoption would probably likely cost about $2,000 more than originally thought or than most people's adoption!  It's rather ironic that so many people thought it would be cheaper (us included in the very beginning) due to the fact that we lived here. It was believed that we'd save all this money on airfare and such.  Sounds reasonable, but then we found out we still had to make the trip to the US and go through immigration to finalize it all.  So now, we're thinking, okay our adoption is gonna cost the same as everyone else's!  Then we find out that there are all these extra fees for foreign documents. Not to mention the fact that we were trying to figure out just how all this would work since we lived here and trying to get all these things notarized, certified and authenticated!!  Then we wondered how that would even work with our foreign documents and how all that was possible!  At the same time, we also realized that people adopt who live in foreign countries so we knew it wasn't impossible. We'd been told it was much more difficult and costly though.  I have to tell you, however, our wonderful agency has blessed us by saying they will cover all the costs of sealing our documents as part of the agency fee!! This is not a normal thing, folks!  They have really blessed us by doing this in several ways.  Not only do we have the hassle of trying to get this done from China, but they will do all our foreign documents too!  This will also save us probably a couple of thousand dollars!! This is HUGE!!  At least now we don't have to be concerned about the extra costs over and above the regular adoption fees!  We are elated that they would bless us in this way!  He continues to show Himself and provide in soooo many unexpected ways!!

In case you're wondering why we haven't updated the thermometer for some time now, it's simply due to the fact that we haven't received any new donations.  As soon as this auction is over, we'll get it updated with the new totals.  If you are interested in bidding on something, please be sure to read down a post into the auction and go to "older  posts for 4-5 pages to see all the items.

Thank you so much for ALL you've done and continue to do to bless (whether through donations, prayer, or encouragement) us through this adoption!  We are eternally grateful!!