August is off to a good start!

Yesterday was a great way to start the month! We had SO much great movement on the adoption front!
First, we got to do the Waking Up prize giveaway! It was fantastic to research the winner a bit and find out that the winners were another Reece's Rainbow family that are in the process of adopting a little girl whose sweet little face reminds me SO much of a friend's daughter that it gave me chills! She is about as adorable as they come!
Then came the phone call that reassured me I did not in fact mess up one of our documents and need to spend another $30 and an hour in the waiting room to get them re-done. We'd gotten our background checks/state police clearance done last Thursday but then realized we may have skipped a step! Every document that we attain for our dossier needs to be notarized and then apostilled by the state. We realized when we were home that this one didn't get notarized and it would have had to been done at the office and possibly redone altogether. Well yesterday we got a hold of the Secretary of State's office and got the okay to send it without the notary! One more document on it's way to the Capitol! That is definitely something that makes us REALLY happy!

Then, my great friend Brooke messaged me on Facebook that she had gotten a giveaway going with Roberts Arts & Crafts! She was able to secure a $50 gift card/gift code to use as a giveaway prize. It is a fun store and so awesome that they allowed the option of an online code so the giveaway is not limited to locals and everyone can get it on this super prize. (Be sure to visit her blog and get all 14 of your entries in! Including the ones for following this blog, liking our Facebook page and donating to help bring Melissa home)

Last and certainly not least, we got a wonderful email that we hope will be a big catalyst for our paperwork! When we received word that our I600-A immigration paperwork had reached the USCIS lock-box in Texas last Thursday we got very excited. After the excitement came the worry. Other families were being quoted waiting periods of 75-90 days. ~Gulp~ Because of her age and CP, Melissa could very well be transferred to a mental institution at any time. She does not deserve to be malnourished, neglected and worse, for any amount of time so we are in an extreme rush to go get her! We decided not to sit idly by and follow the lead of some other families who had enlisted help. On Thursday night we sent an email to the office of our Congressman and Monday afternoon received a response that we just needed to fax in an information release so he could speak to the USCIS and intercede on our behalf! We faxed it in this morning, so hopefully we will hear back on some movement soon!!!
That is a day that makes me as happy as a flower in the sunshine!