Final Home Study Visit on Saturday!!!

We have our final home study visit this Saturday at 1:00. I will be so excited to get this completed and sent off to USCIS along with our application! Our social worker, with the home study agency, sent me an e-mail telling me that she received our state background check today. That's an answered prayer because we won't be waiting around on it to have the home study completed!!

Rick received his passport in the mail this week, but I am still waiting on mine. We applied the same day so mine should be here soon. He got his in less than three weeks (without expedited service). That's another answered prayer!! Let's just pray that everything else goes this quickly and smoothly (particularly USCIS)!

i600a Submitted

We mailed our i600a (orphan petition) today to the USCIS (US Immigration). We decided to send it ahead without our home study so that we can get our fingerprinting appointment earlier. This way the home study will be going on at the same time as the i600a. This will save us at least one month of waiting time. Hopefully, they will process it quickly and notify us soon of our fingerprinting appointment. We will have to go to Philadelphia, PA to have our fingerprints done. I've never been there before so that will be something different.

Once our home study is sent to USCIS to accompany our i600a, we will start getting our documents ready for our dossier to be sent to the SDA. I actually have them filled out now, but need to wait to have them notarized. We have our medical physicals scheduled for February 7th.

I guess that's about it for now. We are just waiting for Feb. 2nd for our next home study visit and to hear something back from USCIS about our fingerprinting appointment. I've been told that it usually takes about 4 weeks to be notified.

We are really anxious to get everything going because Nadia is scheduled for transfer in July. We are really praying that we will get to her before she is transferred. We will still be able to adopt her if she is transferred, but it would be best if she never has to step a foot in an institution!

Ultimately, it's all in God's hands and on His time table and He knows what is best. But please keep the girls and us in your prayers. Pray for God's intervention and a quick and smooth adoption process.

Thanks so much!

Love,

Kristy

Home Study Started

Our home study began last Saturday and it went great. Our social worker was really nice and resourceful. She is going to come back out for one more visit on Feb. 2nd. After that we just have to wait for our background checks and child abuse clearances to come back. Then we will be ready to submit our i600a application to immigration. I'm anxious to get that submitted because it can take a while.

Keep us in your prayers as we travel this journey. Thanks!

Introduction

Most of you know us, but for those that don't, we are the Newbold family. Right now, it's just me and Rick. Our sweet angel Chloe went to be with Jesus in August after losing her battle with Leukemia. Chloe was such a beautiful, special child. She had Down Syndrome and was full of life and light, an absolute joy to be around. She loved everyone she met and was such a little miracle to us! You can read more about Chloe and see more pictures of her at www.chloesmiracle.com.

It was our special little miracle, Chloe that led us to want to adopt. We felt like from the beginning that we were blessed that God gave us such a special little baby girl. Sometimes I still can't believe that God gave us such a beautiful child. God also chose to take her back home to be with Him. I believe it was because she was just too good for this earth and God wanted her there with Him. We can't wait to get to Heaven to see her sweet face again. But until that day, we have to carry on with our lives and do the most good that we can while we are here. Chloe taught us how fragile life is and she left a tremendous impact on literally thousands of people. She did this in 2 short years. She was definitely a life force and so loved by all. I hope that at the end of my journey here on this earth, the same can be said for me.

Losing Chloe made us search ourselves and think about what was really important in life. To us, love is most important. Death itself can not separate us from love. Romans 8:38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. With that being said, love is the most important thing that there is. Christ's love for us is what gives us the promise of spending eternity with Chloe.

We had previously discussed adoption, but after stumbling across Reese's Rainbow, we prayerfully decided to adopt. It was after becoming aware of how international orphans with DS often suffer, that we knew we had to adopt. We are beginning the process to adopt two little girls internationally with Down Syndrome. One is four years old and the other is one. After all Chloe gave us, how could we not want more of these special children? They truly are God's little miracles and we just LOVE them so much.

This blog has been set up for you to be able to follow along with us through out our journey of adoption. Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this. Pray that everything will go quickly and smoothly for us.