Adoption Update: I-600 Approval!

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”
-Brennan Manning

Y’all!!!! We ended up getting our I-600 approval email on Friday after all!!

Kevin and I were eating lunch at Zoe’s when I heard my phone ding in my purse. Normally, I would’ve waited until I was done eating to check it, but since we were hoping to receive this one especially important email, I set my silverware down and pulled out my phone. I gasped as soon as the message from USCIS popped up on the screen…

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Palmer,

USCIS in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is pleased to inform you that the I-600 petition, on behalf of Steevenson Chevalier, seeking to qualify him as your immediate relative has been approved. This completes all action by USCIS on the referenced petition. The Consular Section will soon contact you to follow-up on your case.

Regards,
Adoption Team Haiti

I sprang up out of my seat and marched in place next to our table while Kevin read through the email out loud. I kept my hands slammed over my mouth so that I wouldn’t let out a scream, and I remember feeling like I needed to cover my ears and nose so my squeals wouldn’t escape through those places, too. 😉 In the words of Raymond Carver, “I kept fidgeting…I felt like I could throw off sparks”.

I’ll never forget seeing Kevin’s face absolutely BLOOM in that moment. His eyes came ALIVE and I swear his smile stretched as wide as it could go. What a thrilling and once-in-a-lifetime lunch date God stitched into our story! Thinking about the enormity of that blessing nearly puddled me, y’all.

A few minutes later, a friend from church (Stefania) happened to walk through the door and, bless her heart, she didn’t have a clue what kind of lunch she was walking into that day! Kevin and I ambushed her with hugs and fired the news at her a hundred miles a minute. Stefania is one of the sunniest gals I know, so I’m tickled that God weaved her into that special day too. 🙂

So here’s where we’re at now:

Like the email from USCIS mentioned, we’ll be hearing from The Consular Section (via email) next. Their office will tell us what day and time Sonny’s visa appointment is and our in-country reps will make sure he goes on the right day at the right time. They will also take him to his (mandatory) medical exam with a US Embassy-approved doctor. (Prayers appreciated for speedy scheduling of that appointment, an easy exam, and safe travel to & from that location!) After that, we’ll wait for the final email telling us his visa is ready for pick up. Once we get that email (a week or two from now?) Kevin and I will be able to book our plane tickets so that we can go pick up his visa (TOGETHER!) and then bring our Sonny home! AAAAAHHHHH! 😀

Needless to say, I’ll be dropping my silverware whenever my phone dings again this week. 😉

PS- This month’s Pike Road Southern pre-order sale is up and runnin’ over at PikeRoadSouthern.com.

Our tees will be available through Thursday night, and we’ll send the order off to the print shop on Friday. We probably won’t get the shirts back from them til after we leave for Haiti (AAAHHH!) so we’re putting a delivery date range of August 29-September 2nd on this sale. Here’s a peek at some of this month’s designs:

Thanks in advance to anyone who is interested in placing an order! We’ll be using this month’s proceeds to book our plane tickets. ALL THREE OF THEM! AAAAAHHHHH! 😀