Time.. there is never enough

We have exactly 1 week left for our giveaway. I will be ending it at 11:59p on Saturday May 7th. I will be drawing the winners on Tuesday May 10th. It will allow me time to gather the names from those who purchased prints, donated and shared. Please Please consider buying a print or donating and sharing. I really want a final push in this last week.. well more like need a final push. There are some cool items you can win and you would be bringing my family one step closer to traveling. I know times are tough and gas prices soaring but if you could spare something to help my family out we would be forever grateful to you.

On Friday we have not yet received a caseworker. I drafted a letter for my pediatrician to look over and see if he would sign it for expediting. Our facilitators are just waiting on word of our approval and would like to submit our CSP's or Child Specific Petitions on Thursday. That step basically sets Joshua's file aside for us and we will at that time make sure he is still available. It basically gives them a heads up on our adoption which up until then the government does not even really know of us or our desire to adopt him. If we can at least get word to them by Thursday of an approval we can get that step out of the way. Then as soon as the actual letter comes we can ship that to his country and our dossier will get submitted.

Please pray that our pediatrician will sign our letter and that even if he signs it we still have to hope that the USCIS considers it necessary to expedite. So pray for that as well. So many families are waiting on this approval before the deadline. It is so hard to imagine being this close and yet wondering if we will make it in time. We of course do not know for how long any shutdown will occur but it is very possible till September. This country usually has a shut down for a month in August so it makes sense that there would be stopping from June until September. While this would not stop our adoption all together it does set us back requiring new sets of documents and that is not the worse thing. The worst is that our son would be stuck for 3 more months longer than he should be. Another 3 months of not getting the nutrition or therapy that he should have. 3 more months that he will be getting sub par medical treatment and more chance he could become sick in a land that is not able to properly treat many illnesses. It means that if he should have a heart condition it puts him at more risk. We can't be sure he even had an echocardiogram which is normal practice here for children with Ds. There has already been one child in this orphanage that passed away in the last few months. Her records did not indicate a heart condition or health issue and yet she passed away. Do we know why? No and we probably won't ever know but until I get him to this country and completely checked out, I will not rely on what limited medical info that is out there for him. So time is of the essence.

Tomorrow Ryan will be getting confirmed from our Lutheran Church. It really does amaze me how fast these years have gone. Trevor serving in the Navy, Cody graduating High School, Ryan getting confirmed, and Jacob will be starting preschool. YIKES where has the time gone?? It just makes me realize how important it is to get to Joshua. We have lost so much precious time with him and I do not want to miss any more than is necessary. I mean from the time we committed to the new picture look at what a fine little guy he is turning into... I want to be part of it... SOON!