July 29, 2009

Name change saga continues... bummer!

So, had our hearing and the judge told us we were going about things the wrong way... ugh! He didn't sign off on our name change because it would have legally changed Rica's name back to Hoffmann (maiden name). Now working with an attorney on an AKA affidavit in hopes China will accept this and allow us to continue moving forward, hoping to have our dossier to China within a few months. Please join us in prayer for God's will to prevail. We have another court date on Aug. 27th to either close the name change case or change Rica's name... only to have to change it again back to Allen. This will ultimately be an additional $1400.00 on top of our already outrageous adoption fees of nearly $30,000.00 and could be another 6 months to a year in the already painfully long 3 year wait. So, feeling a bit frustrated, but still trusting the Lord and looking forward to seeing Him work in this situation. Thanks everyone!

July 15, 2009

Court date for name change

Hey friends... it's been a bit since our last posting. So, next week on July 23rd, the name change issue should be resolved. We have our court date that morning and prayerfully all will go well and we can move on from this little snag we ran into. Our homestudy should be complete once we have the legal documentation explaining why our birth names differed from our married names... a confusing mess to get this one worked out, but praise the Lord, we are almost there. We will also be busy this week with another mound of paperwork... this time for immigration. We are thrilled that within a few weeks (once our homestudy has a complete stamp of approval), we can begin applying for grants from several different granting organizations, please join us in prayer for God's perfect provision. We are very thankful for the numerous ministries and organizations out there eager to help fund adoptions! That's it for now, thanks for your interest everyone!