I-171H is here!

We received our USCIS approval in the mail today! By now, most families have all the paperwork ready to mail off but we kind of got behind during this week of Thanksgiving. The pressure it on to get this finished and we are beyond excited! This form (the I-171H ) came just a little over 2 weeks after we did our biometrics appointment. That is super fast!

There isn't anything I wouldn't do for "Opi" these days. I was actually getting really emotional about it while driving to my biometric (fingerprinting) appointment with USCIS a couple weeks ago. My dad had come down to watch the kids and I was explaining to him how this is our 4th time being fingerprinted and for the mere cost of 836.00. My dad seemed taken back by the high cost of this fingerprinting process and I was amazed how my feelings have changed over these past months. $836 seems like nothing now! I feel like I could give up a lot more to be able to go and get our son and become a family to him. I already have a love growing inside me that is indescribable. Other adoptive families have written about it on their blogs and I would read it and think,'Oh thats so nice" but now it is happening to us! How can we love someone we have never met? How can we give up all our savings for this dear little person? Easy, he will be our son. Just as I would do anything for Maddie and Hudson, I would do it for Opi. If Maddie or Hudson were starving and in a dire situation, what else would I do to bring them back home?

Thanks for checking in! Please pray for us to get our paperwork finished- that we can work with fervor and joy as we wrap this up!

Update from the little FIshers:
One of Maddie's latest favorite words, "Ah Ka Ka" (Africa) and "Opi-Opia" for Ethiopia. Then, Hudson just repeats exactly what Maddie says. She is teaching him a lot of interesting words these days. Maddie can recognize the silhouette of the continent of Africa and will point it out and talk about Opi. Today she told me he is growing in her tummy. We talked the other day how Opi will have grown in another mommy's tummy. Maybe Maddie thought I was talking about her....