Walk-Ins Welcome

Well, we are in the final stages of our paperwork.  We are waiting on one more form from immigration before our dossier can be sent off to China.  We have talked and emailed the USCIS offices this week trying to get this form expedited.  To get the form, it required us to be fingerprinted in the USCIS office inside the Federal Building in downtown St Louis and they had scheduled our fingerprinting appointment for July 6.  Ugh - we have a deadline of July 22 to get everything to China and this is cutting it really close.  Wednesday, our case worker said we could try just walking in and telling them we needed to get this done, even though the policy clearly states they DO NOT accept walk-ins.    Wednesday night at church - we asked our church family to pray that God would open the doors for us to just walk right in and get this done - that even though this was against their usual policy - that we would be able to tell them we needed to get this done and they would say ok.  Early this morning around 6:15 - we headed up to St Louis.  We arrived about 8:30 and after clearing security - were welcomed right in.  The lady even chuckled and said she had heard of us (exactly what does that mean!!).  Apparently, our phone calls and emails this week helped and they had been alerted that we were going to attempt a Walk-In.  We are getting quite a reputation!  By 9:00 - we were back in the car with completed paperwork in hand and headed back home.  Our final form should arrive in 12-48 hours, that gets sent back to the Secretary of State's Office in St Louis for State Certification, then the entire packet of info (a full 3-ring binder full) goes to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for Authentication.   Finally, once authenticated - it all goes to an office in Oregon where it is translated into Chinese and then forwarded to China.  I think we just may make the deadline.  We are standing amazed today at how God so graciously paved the way this morning.  He shaved almost 2 weeks off the waiting and is proving to see this through.  Hallelujah!  We have so much to be thankful for and it is so cool to see Him work out even the smallest details of life.  Thanks for praying.