I can't explain it, but for some reason 2018 has been the fasted, and the slowest moving year ever. February was the longest month of my life, followed by march that I think was only one week long. We still still feel like we spend most of our days in flux. Trying not to make too many permanent plans for later in the year and being cautious about getting our hopes up and setting time lines, and wanting to make every plan and buy everything that we could for our future family.
This past week, we finally got the news we have been waiting for. The Pinal county courts have approved our home study! We have spent months waiting for that little stamp on a piece of paper from a judge. No kidding, it's just a stamp that said "Juvenile courts." We've had a completed home study since January, but now we have a home study that we can actually do something with! The state has approved us to be adoptive parent's. Our chance of finding our family will now be put in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security, and the children ministry of Hungary.
On Wednesday we drove into Phoenix to meet with our social worker and pick up our official notarized copies. She told us that the courts actually kicked back our home study twice before they even reviewed it. She has been so great to work with, and even she didn't understands why every government agency has been against us in getting this finished. From there, the first thing we did was google "Fedex" and went strait to send copies to to our placement agency so they can send them to be translated, and another copy to USCIS with our I-800a application to get that approval.
In typical google fashion it took us to the most random Fedex ever. It was actually attached to the airport. You drove all thew ay around to the shipping side of the airport, and were convinced we were in the wrong place. we timidly walked in, expected to be yelled at by someone official (it shared the same building with boarder patrol, it seemed so official.) only to find the nicest lady ever, and a mostly normal looking Fedex store. We got everything packaged up, used the Delta shipping discount, and they were both overnighted. It was the perfect location, because it saved us the travel time from a normal Fedex store to the airport, meaning we were able o overnight for even cheaper! I've never been more excited to hold sealed envelopes.
Both of our packages have already been received. All of our documents should be getting scanned and sent to Hungary today to be translated, and we're waiting USCIS to generate our fingerprint appointments (for the 3rd time). We are realistically 6 weeks away from being able to accept a referral for our child or children! We know there is no guarantee of when one will come, but just knowing we're ready for it when the time is right is a huge relief!
