If you have visited here before, you can probably see that I have changed the name of the blog again. I started blogging at 4URuthie to tell the story of our journey to adopt our 1st daughter. I changed it to Mountains for Maggie when we were praying for God to move mountains on behalf of our 2nd daughter. Well now it is no longer just Ruthie’s or Maggie’s stories. It is now our family's story, and the stories of those we share life with, as we Conquer Mountains together. Both ConqueringMountains.net and 4URuthie.blogspot will lead here.

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I am a pastor's wife, mother of 4 kids (2 adopted and 3 with special needs), physical therapist, and photography junky. This is where it all comes together for me. Feel free to join along as I process life out loud.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Mountains for Maggie: Part 4 Our Dossier- That Mountain of Paperwork

A dossier is the stack of paperwork that you send to a foreign country to adopt a child.  When we adopted Ruthie, it took us close to 6 months to put together our dossier.  The process involves a lot of documents that have to be taken through several steps and some of them take a while to collect like your home study and immigration approval.   We knew if we were going to do this, it was imperative that we beat her paperwork arriving to the States and we had no idea when that was going to be.  Having seen God move, we trusted He would take care of that detail and we just needed to do our part.

I contacted my social worker from Ruthie's adoption and asked if she would be willing to do this home study.  When I told her our situation, her words were "As a social worker, I need to tell you that what you are pursuing is impossible.  As a fellow Christian, I am telling you all things are possible through Christ."   She expedited our home study and we did our part to have everything ready before it even arrived to us officially.  My fellow adoptive moms were amazing about forwarding paperwork  to me ahead of time so when I received emails from our agency, I immediately replied with the completed tasks.  I think they were a bit stunned and were quick to tell us that we were breaking records.

Then came immigration.  That step can take months and the government shut down was threatening to slow it even more.  We prayed.  Begged. Sent a few extra emails and made a few extra phone calls. We even showed up for fingerprints weeks before our appointment and received favor.   Finally, it was expedited and we received another completion faster than expected.

Trent's mom jumped in to help us with authentication steps by hand delivering materials.  Church members notarized documents again and again.  Friends prayed and sent their example forms.
All said and done, we completed in 2 1/2 months what should have taken us 6 months and we were dossier to China in record time and before her paperwork arrived.

Mountain of paperwork moved- Check.

2 comments:

Lara said...

Mrs. Henderson! I have been getting goosebumps as I read EACH ENTRY of this sweet story. How fun and how powerful is the Lord? Love this story as it unfolds for one of my favorite Woods families :)

Sending prayers and love to you, Mr. Henderson (could never convince me to call him Trent, even in the Forge), Jack, Sam, Ruthie, your foster kiddo, and now Maggie Mei!

-Lara "Stalka-Doodle-Do" Grantham

Kelly said...

I am loving this story, I just have to say!!!! God is amazing!!!

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