Caleb's Immigration Application

Yesterday we filed our petition for Caleb to become a U.S. citizen.  The Department of Homeland Security made an exception for us, and we were able to file through the U.S. Embassy in Maseru rather than the very long process of mailing it to a lock box in America.  The consular officer who processed the application said if my police background check comes through clear, she believes our file will be in order and Caleb will get a visa.  She will be sending the file to the Embassy in Johannesburg for a final decision once those results are in.  Once Johannesburg has the file, we understand it will still take 3-6 months.  We have no idea why it should take that long, but governments are pretty much the same the world over!

Thank you so much to all the people who have helped us get our file ready.  A few names immediately come to my mind:

• Bryan and Anita Geurink from Beautiful Gate.  Thank you for sharing the information you had on immigration.  It was a big help to point us in the right direction on what to include in Caleb's file!  
• Ms. Masealimo from the Ministry of Social Development. From start to finish, we have been very impressed with the way Ms. Ntebo and Ms. Masealimo and the Ministry of Social Development handled our adoption.  Special thanks to Ms. Masealimo for getting a letter written and signed for us when your department was VERY busy hosting an international workshop!  The adoption (which involved the Government of Lesotho) was DEFINITELY easier than the immigration phase which involved the U.S. Government!  
• Ms. Malefa from Small World Adoption Agency  Thank you so much for getting information for us and staying in touch even though you had no obligation to help us!  We're impressed!
• Everyone who has and is praying for us!