Hello friends!

It’s been a while since an update, and very sorry for that! Life has been crazy, things have been moving, and we do make some updates on our social media here and there. But lots to catch up on here!

UPDATE: While trying to get this all written out, more advancements have come along which have delayed completion of this letter!  But it’s all good!  So…let’s continue.

Since our last update:

• Drew a winner for the Jeep Raffle
• Had a rummage sale
• Our amazing church gave us an offering
• Received approval from USCIS to adopt internationally
• Received approval & official match from CAC for adoption
• Sent off USCIS / Immigration paperwork for our girl to be approved to be a US Citizen upon adoption and landing in the US
• USCIS / Immigration approval and paperwork has arrived! Still waiting on an email that is required saying this was approved – crazy how a mailed letter can make it here before an email – much less from the time of this posting the application was approved 8 days ago, the online status page was updated with the approval stamp was 6 days ago – yet, no email yet!

So yeah, a lot has been happening and we won’t go into great detail on all of those items…we will be here all day! But a quick recap of where we currently are on fundraising, what fundraisers are still going on, and what’s coming up!

First off, in regard to fundraising and where we stand…we have secured what is needed to cover final fees and travel. While we don’t have those funds in hand, they are there for us when we get to the point that we can request them. What is left in fundraising is to cover the initial loans taken out to get started and to cover any unforeseen expenses and things that get sister settled – clothes and other needs that she will have when we pick her up as well as when we get home. We do know she will needs LOTS of therapies so anything above and beyond will get us started on this as well. This is great news!

As far as what fundraising we still have going on…the t-shirt and merchandise fundraiser, Gobena Coffee fundraiser, clothing donations, and the Lifesong and Both Hands donations fundraisers are all still going on.

Gobena Coffee – https://my.gobena.org/stories/sullivan-adoption-fundraiser/?id=968

T-shirt & Merch – https://plus4creations.com/pages/sullivan-family-adoption

Both Hands – https://bothhands.org/sullivan-1565

LifeSong for Orphans – https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/love-knows-no-borders-jeremiah-2911-story/

As of today, we’ve had 6 pickups from Phill The Box with clothing donations totaling 19,444 pounds and bringing in $3,888.80 for sister! We are still collecting donations through the end of the year, so if you have any old clothes, shoes, hats, bags, towels, bedding or other textile items that you’d like to donate – bag them up, put them in a box, and get with us to pickup or deliver them to our house.

So where are we on our adoption journey? As noted above, we’ve received our official match from CAC (Catholic Adoption Center). We’ve now submitted the paperwork for citizenship for sister to USCIS and awaiting that approval to come through – we expect (and HOPE) to have it in the next 1-3 weeks but no guarantees on when we will get it. Once we have received that, we will notify our adoption agency who sends it to our legal counsel for country approval. Somewhere in there, we have two other documents to do, that will go overseas as well. But, once we have the Ministry approval, then pretty much all that is left is to wait on a court date so that we know when we will need to travel.

UPDATE: As mentioned in the list at beginning of this post, we have received the approval from immigration.  We’ve sent off the mailed letter with the notary cover letter to Secretary of State to get apostilled (authenticating the notary – required for international legal process).  We should have that back Friday or Saturday and we will then send a picture to our agency to send on, but we do still need that email to go with it as well, so hoping we see that before we get this back from Secretary of State.  Once send that off, we will then start the Article 5 process for our child’s visa and await final country approval and a court date!  Yes, getting really close!

Things we need your prayers for:

• Continue to pray for sister and for her comfort as she eventually gets prepared to leave everything she’s known and meet some strangers! We do not expect to get to have any video calls with her as the folks in the orphanage are not yet telling her about us or anything until we get the final approval – they are able to do that now but choosing to wait so it means less of a chance we get anything.
• Continue to pray that paperwork and governments continue to move efficiently.
• Pray for the landscape of the world – with conflicts in Middle East and Ukraine still going on, it’s still close to “home.” We don’t want any delays or issues traveling or paperwork moving.
• Pray for our family to prepare our hearts and minds for the journey and that we are able to connect quickly with our daughter for a smoother transition.
• Pray that we find a way to make it work for F to be able to travel with us and not have to fly in the day of court 2 weeks later. To us, he should be included in the family bonding time and we are going to do everything we can to have him there. He has lots of plans for things to do with sister and we want to help him make all those work out!

We ask that you continue to share our story, reaching out to others who may be willing to donate, buy some coffee, or buy a t-shirt or other merchandise to help us further reach our fundraising goal…every little bit helps!

We thank you all for your support, love, and prayers!