In my last post I let you know that the embassy had requested an interview in order to complete their investigation and man were we discouraged. We woke up to an email on June 8th letting us know that the embassy had officially requested an interview. These usually require a bit of time to set up as communication has to happen several times to set the date. However, by June 9th we had a court date set for less than a week later, June 15th.
If that date sounds familiar it is because I had asked you guys to unashamedly storm the throne on Nati's behalf that day. It was his 4th birthday and we were so heartbroken to be missing it. Isn't it amazing how God orchestrates things to happen in perfect timing. We woke up on the 16th to another email from the embassy. This time it said that our I-604 investigation was completed and that our documents were being sent back to our immigration officer at USCIS for a determination on our case. We were told it could take 20 business days to receive any response from our officer on our case. However, we had our PAIR letter in hand just 3 days later on June 19th. We were able to overnight it to DC, for federal authentication, on June 22nd. Just 2 weeks after our request for an interview.
If you are reading this in total shock then you are reading it right!
Scheduling the interview alone could have taken a month. Receiving approval/denial from our immigration officer could have cost us another month. What could have taken 2 months only took 2 WEEKS!!! We know that this was only accomplished by God's power and His moving mountains on behalf of Nati and we are so thankful for every prayer that has been lifted on our family's behalf.
So, our PAIR letter was held up in DC a little bit longer then expected but it did arrive in Ethiopia this morning. By this afternoon we learned that we had been given a FFIC date of July 24th. Our FFIC date is actually more of a deadline for MOWA to give us a positive or negative recommendation. Let me be clear it is usually negative. Sometimes it is negative many times before it is positive but we are so thankful to be starting this last step before we can finally hold our boy in our arms. We need you to pray fervently that God would place favor on Nati's case and those it comes before. That they would not pick our dossier apart or request information that is hard to obtain, but that they would pass Nati's case through with an approval very, very soon. The courts will close exactly 2 weeks after this date, on August 7th, for rainy season and it will be mid to late October before they are open for us to try again.
Pray, Pray, Pray Friends!!!
We also received 2 updates this week through our agency that included 14 pictures of our boy! As always we have looked at them a million times over soaking up every smile and report of growth. One update showed him receiving his birthday bag we sent last month. He was even wearing the outfit we sent even though it was a little big. I wish we could share them all with you. He is absolutely precious.
And because I do not want it to sound like I am that annoying mom who thinks her son is the greatest (I do) I want to share this list of attributes that was given by other people who have spent time with our boy over the last month.
-smiley
-cuddly
-loveable
-peace keeping
-good friend
-happy
-special
-sweet
-ticklish
-really good at giving hugs
-good at sharing
-beautiful
-observant
-calm
-active
-picky eater (Yes, this is a good thing to us.)
I mean, seriously, who wouldn't feel super blessed to be this little guys mom. ;)
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