I think it's going to be a longer trip than I thought

Oh Lord.  I love, love, love the journey.  I love adoption journeys.  I adore the wait.  Just thinking back to our wait for Katie Mei and how much I loved the anticipation makes me enjoy taking my time.  But now that I've seen his face, I just want to hold him and love on him.

We are still so far from being anywhere near that, though.  Our last home study visit will be this Friday, so the following week we should have that report complete and will be able to apply for the USCIS approval.  But we still haven't gotten our FBI fingerprint clearance back, so that adds another uncontrollable dimension to the process.  Jay is notorious for having rejected fingerprints, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has to get them done over again.  It would have been nice to get everything done and the USCIS paperwork sent in by Nov. 23 before the fees go up, but if we don't I won't be too discouraged.

We got most of our child protective services clearances back.  Tennessee and Georgia are the only outstanding ones at this time.  We are ready to start sending dossier documents off for certification and should be able to pull the rest of the dossier together fairly quickly.

But aside from the formal paperwork, we have to have a doctor review his file.  It doesn't have much information in it.  He has a form of spina bifida called meningocele, according to his file, and his bulge or sac is stated as being in the sacral area of his lower back and only about 1 X 2 cm.  But China is known for inaccurate or incomplete spina bifida diagnoses in their orphan referrals.  So we're going to proceed with asking our agency to get some more information.

But right now we are of the mind to continue with his adoption, unless God gives us a very good indication that we are heading in the wrong direction.  As I told a friend today, we trust Him.  He has been faithful so far with our family, and He won't forsake us this time.  God is good all the time!  Whether this child's medical condition is as mild as it appears, or more complicated than we presently see, God will walk us through it.  He is God, afterall!

And for the record, the agency has listed him as "Joshua".  I kind of like that name.  It might stick.