God story #5,783

Do you ever have moments or events where you could easily take for granted as coincidence or happenstance but when you REALLY think it through, you realize they are actually nothing short of miraculous? 

We've had a lot of those....when we actually stop and really remember through the details and I'm sure most of you do as well. 

Our arrival in Madagascar and getting Rovan RIGHT before Covid hit. 

(meeting Rovan for the first time)

Our exit out of the country and the grace of God to somehow get us on that plane. 

   (passport day!)

His provision of our Michigan house when we didn't know if we were foolish to be buying it....and having no idea we'd be stuck in the states a long time and needing a place to live. 

(the back of our house and our beautiful maple tree)

Sam able to work a job that is right up his alley, keeps him busy and is in high demand in today's current market. 

(when he isn't working a job, he's working on our basement)

Our recent excitement is that we just received Rovan's Certificate of Citizenship! 

Here's the story....

Upon our entry into the United States, after a Hague approved adoption, Rovan immediately becomes a US citizen. We report to immigration at the airport (for us, this was in Chicago O'hare) and they are supposed to send his entry packet to the USCIS (citizenship and immigration) office for processing. As with any human organization that I'm sure are processing hundreds of different cases a day, there's always the chance that things get lost or messed up. 

According to our research and the information given to us, typically they will receive the packet within a month or so and then send his citizenship certificate (or green card if that is for some reason how they process it...after which you have to repeal that and request his certificate). 

Well, knowing that Covid could prolong things and that we weren't getting any good news regarding our return to the field, we figured they were working on it and it would just take a little longer than normal.

We arrived in country on May 28th, 2020. It's now October. 

Finally we realized that we should call and ask for a status update. Sam had called several times and was out on hold only to get nowhere, with no promise of progress whatsoever. We ARE in America, right??!

Finally we got a hold of the Child Citizenship branch of USCIS who told us that our packet had not yet arrived!!! What?!? Immediately I decided that I (because Sam is working now so I should do some adulting too) would need to call the O'Hare immigration office and hope that Rovan's file didn't accidently fall behind someone's desk or conveniently shoved through a paper shredder. With much trepidation, I pressed the call button (trepidation definitely because it was an important call and definitely not because I just hate talking on the phone). I was expecting to be put on hold, as is quite normal with these things. A woman picked up (yay, not a robot). I explained why I was calling and she right away transfered me to the immigration office. A gentleman answered and I told him that we had arrived in May bringing back our adopted son, what Rovan's full name was, and that USCIS still hadn't received our packet. To which he replied, "oh yeah, I'm actually the one who processed him in that day." How he knew that off the top of his head, I still don't know. Could be a variety of reasons...or that he just has an excellent memory. He quickly did a check and said that Rovan's paperwork was "LOCKED" in their system which told them that it was definitely sent out. This was actually good news...everything on their end had happened as it should have.

But this also meant that it quite possibly got lost in transit somewhere. Now what? The immigration officer said they would not be able to access those files anymore once they're sent. So how do we get the right paperwork to get his citizenship?? We were nervous this was going to cause a significant delay. We emailed the CCA (Child Citizenship Act) and explained our situation, even left them the number of the officer I had called in case they needed certain confirmation. In their response to us after saying, "we're sorry, but we do not have his paperwork as it has not arrived at the office yet"....and with what sounded like little hope on their end...she follows this up with, ...."but we have a solution for you..."

Do you ever wish they would LEAD with the punch line?

Basically all we needed to do was EMAIL them copies of all of the paperwork we turned into O'Hare...including his entry stamp.

Done. 

The woman was very apologetic and said they would expedite his paperwork as soon as they received everything. 

Insert some more God stuff-----

[As of a couple years ago, there has been a new law instated that says that we, as expats have to pay $1100 for a Certificate of Citizenship. Makes no sense to us as we are US citizens and feel like we shouldn't be penalized for living overseas. But I'm not annoyed or anthing....

In addition to this, we had missed the fact that when we arrived, we were supposed to use the form N-600 to apply for his citizenship. We were under the assumption that all of that was what was included/part of those forms sent to USCIS and that we simply had to wait for them to send us the certificate. If this is all VERY confusing

... welcome to the world of adoption. When we asked our adoption case worker, she said that no, we were supposed to send in that form and there was no way around the $1100.]

So now we were sitting on two conflicting MAJOR pieces of information. The CCA is either going to process all of this paperwork we just sent them....with no mention of the N-600 OR the cost to apply for his citizenship as expats. OR Someone is going to make us do all of those things instead and we have to fork out an unexpected expense and wait even longer for this paperwork (that we really need to get his social security number and then passport).

Next email....

"Our records indicate, your child’s CCA case was approved on October 14, 2020, and is currently pending production of the Certificate of Citizenship (COC). Once completed, the COC will be mailed to the residential address on file."

Ummmm....

Next email, next day...

"Our records indicate that your child's Certificate of Citizenship (COC) was produced on October 15, 2020, and will be mailed to your residential address on file,..."

Is this for real??

3 days later...

A legit, Certificate of Citizenship for Rovan is now in our possession. Insert happy dance.

We are still in shock that somehow...hopefully legally, we obtained this document without jumping through the normal hoops. Was it because of Covid? Was it because they felt bad that this was so delayed? Totally confused but totally not going to question it 😅

When I get to heaven and get to have a conversation with God about the details that He wove into our story...the things that we don't even know about....I am betting that I will fall on my knees in awe and wonder at His grace and mercy and protection.

Thanking the Lord today for yet again showing us that He loves to give us good things, that He cares about the details, and that we can trust Him even when it seems like He is silent.

Hopefully this encouraged you today.

And here's a picture of our little cutie holding his cute little maki (lemur) that was gifted to him by some special friends we made in Madagascar. They were right....he IS our joyful little Maki and we are so blessed by him.