Brown Family Update

Check out these handsome boys! A friend was just in Ethiopia picking up his beautiful little girl and snapped this pic for us. He was able to tell the boys we loved them and would come get them as soon as we could. He said they were doing great.

We have had a little bit of a set back in our process. We found out a couple weeks ago that our home study(a document that summarizes our lives and approves us to adopt in the US) had ran out. I got confused, thinking it ran out in 24 months(which was the old standard), but it was actually 18 months. Our home study agency did not catch this either. Along with our home study running out, we also had to update since Zoey is home. All of this means that our home study had to basically be done completely over again. Thankfully, we have finished that part. Next, we have to be approved again by USCIS(United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). I spoke to someone yesterday who explained that we had to start over with this process as well. There is no real way to expidite the process, but she asked that I send the application to her attention. She said she would fit it in her current cases and try to get it done as fast as possible. In a normal circumstance, our application would sit on a shelf and wait for an officer to have an opening. I am very grateful for her willingness to help. I was very worried since friends have not had the best experience when asking USCIS for a speedy process. I sent everything yesterday and it should get there by Monday morning. I don't know why, but you send everything to Texas and it then has to be sent to another location. I have no idea how long it will take to get to the officer I spoke to. We are hoping for March, although we have no real idea how long it will actually take.
Its been such a long process to bring the boys home. Every step of the way has been full of unexpected bumps. Adoption requires so much faith and trust in God. Everytime we get discouraged, we try to remind ourselves that there is a reason for everything. It is of course still hard, but the fact that God is in control gives us hope.