JUST ONE ANSWER TO PRAYER!

We have prayed for God to push through the paperwork. One example of His answer is this:

when the home study and documents are sent to Montgomery it usually it takes 2-4 weeks before it gets approval and sent on Atlanta.............................

*****4 DAYS*****is how long the home study was in Montgomery!!

The home study is now in Ukraine and in Atlanta!!

Keep up the prayers :)

Leslie

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS....YOU ARE A BOUT TO GET BLOWN AWAY!!!!

We have just been fast tracked!! The 4 points below is how it usually happens:

1. Usually the home study is sent in for approval from the state, in Montgomery, and then travels to Atlanta. It meets up in a file marked Edwards that already has our application, fingerprints, FBI dossier, etc. We wait for approval.
2. Upon approval from CIS, Citizenship and Immigration Services, we start compiling the documents for the dossier to be submitted to Ukraine. After gathering all of documents, making sure nothing is dated later than 6 months old, the dossier is sent to Ukraine to our case worker in Kiev, Sasha.
3. Sasha has the dossier translated and the asks for a date to submit our request. The date arrives, Sasha submits our dossier, we wait.
4. Then we receive a date to come to Ukraine and begin our month long legal submissions and interview and finally court date for adoption. If approved we wait 10 days and then kids are ours.
5. We fly to Kiev, apply for visa and temporary passport for both kids, have medical exams required by US, get turned down because of HIV positive, submit a waiver, docs sent to CIS in US and equivalent office in Moscow for approval. When accepted, we leave for home.

***OK, things have now been fast tracked!!!!!! Upon completion of the home study it was sent to Montgomery and ALSO to Ukraine along with documents giving the exact names and birthdates of our kids. We are already to the point of Sasha requesting a submission date. This will put pressure on the CIS knowing that we will know next week what the submission date will be. All docs have to be in Sasha’s hands by that appointment. So items 1 and 2 are being done at the same time.

The last couple of people going over to adopt in Ukraine received the date to travel the week after the submission date. And the travel date was 1 month after the submission date. SOooooooo this means that we could be in Ukraine as early as the end of November or the first of December!!!!!

WOW!! Even though this is what we were praying for all along, logically looking at past cases the Spring would have been the earliest we could have hoped. God is answering our prayer even as we had such little faith as we prayed it….Before Winter, Before Christmas….it might come true!!

Please continue to pray:
1. That the kids will want to be adopted
2. That God will push the paperwork from desk to desk in His timing
3. That He will bring in the last monies needed: we have $24,000 of the $40,000 needed! - WOW! How Great Is That!!!

Thanks, Dan and Leslie

Everything goes very quickly and then stops and is sssssoooooo sloooooow! Then it speeds up again.

The 12 page essay that is our home study is now completed by our case worker. We were sent a copy for our approval along with some requests for more documents. So now our home study is complete as of this week. We finished all of our requirements at the first of August. Did not realize that it would be over a month before it was sent off. This week it is to be sent to Montgomery and then to the CIS in Atlanta. The good news is that the home study is also being sent to Lifeline’s representative in Kiev to get a date for the submitting of the dossier and getting a date to come. USUALLY the home study is sent along with the dossier after acceptance from CIS in Atlanta. We hope that this will speed up the process. We have been praying for “Before Winter” and now it might be a reality to be in Ukraine in Dec or Jan. We will have to wait and see what God brings about for us.

We have been praying that God would push the documents through quickly and truthfully have been disappointed that the home study was still in the case worker's hand. However God's plan is best for now it can be sent to Ukraine as well as CIS.

Please continue to pray for the kids, their safety, that they would desire to be adopted and that God will continue to provide the funds to complete this task.

Thanks, Leslie

Over Half Way!

We are so thankful to the many for have responded to our need of funds in order to adopt Christina and Kolya. Several people have mentioned that we do not have an address to send the donations on our blog so here it is: We are using Pathway Orphan Ministries, a 501c3 corporation, so you will receive a tax deduction for this donation. The check should be made out to Pathway Orphan Ministries, write in memo Edwards adoption, and send to:

Pathway Orphan Ministries
3509 Branch Mill Road
Birmingham, AL 35223

We are just over halfway to our need of $40,000. Please continue to join us as we ask God to fulfill this need. Again we are so thankful for the many for have supported us in this adoption process through encouragements, donations and prayers.

WAITING, WAITING, WAITING!!

There is an old saying in the military "Hurry up and wait". This is also true of the adoption process. I did not realize that the home study once we were finished with all our paperwork still had a lot to be added to it before it was sent off.

SOoooooooo as of today September 1st it is still in the hands of our case worker as she finishes all her paperwork (a friend said it was as if the caseworker had to write a biography of our family after all our work was turned in).

ALL OF THIS IS IN GOD'S HANDS... say it again, Leslie, this time like you mean it....ALL OF THIS IS IN GOD'S HANDS!!!!! Our prayer is that God would move the paperwork along quickly so that we might get the kids before winter. Our prayer is also that whatever God plans, it is the best for us and for the kids!

SOoooooooooo we wait and pray patiently:)

Leslie