Travel Dates - small change

We have had a slight change in our travel dates due to the obscene arrival time at the Atlanta airport (4am which means we would have to leave our house at 2am). We will now be flying to Newark, NJ from Atl on Thursday, January 7. We will spend the night in NJ and catch our flight straight to Beijing on Friday. We will arrive in Beijing at 3:00pm on Saturday - that whole loosing a day thing is still odd to me :) We will meet our son for the first time on Sunday. We are nervous, excited, and a little frightened but we know God has brought us together for a reason and will continue to be our light on this journey.

Our final A!!!

CA - we got it!!! Official travel dates are January 8, 2010 - January 23, 2010. Gotcha day should be January 10th or 11th - not sure yet. Now the frantic planning begins. God is good because He has brought us through this entire process with an amazing family - the Christiansens and with Godly support from our church family and workplaces. We are so looking forward to the day we can look our son in the eye and let him know he never has to worry any more about having a mom and dad or being apart of a family. His brother is so excited, I think sleep may be elusive this evening :) Please continue to pray as we have never been overseas before. Let the adventure begin!!

Give me a "T"....

Give me an "A"....

Got it!!! Whoo hooo!!!! No news on specific travel dates yet...should know by tomorrow!

Thank you all for your prayers and faith!

Still waiting

Day 20 of the TA wait...hoping to hear something soon. Pray, pray, pray...please :)

Thankful Thursday

Several times today, I felt down regarding the TA wait, but God knew what I needed. When I went to pick up our son from school today, his teacher from last year was there. I stopped in just to say "hi", or so I thought, but God had other plans. After a few moments of teary eyes (which ended up being 30 minutes:), I found myself feeling renewed by her spirit, faith, and confidence in this process. She understood my struggle as a mom with giving this fully to God at times. My CHILD is thousands of miles away and sometimes it feels impossible not to worry about him or worry that I may not ever get there. She provided me with an affirmation that moms in general struggle with giving our children to God. I needed to know I wasn't alone in this. This adoption has allowed us to grow in our faith in ways we could not imagine, yet we are still saddled with the same barriers to God that plague the everyday person. At times it is difficult to remember that. I see the beautiful miracle we are in the middle of, but, sometimes, the paperwork and paper chase can cloud the picture. God always gives up people who can reflect our world back to us from a better perspective, HIS perspective. In his time, we will have our son. Part of me still wishes he would hurry though ;)

God, bless the people you put in our lives and the small miracles that we miss every day. Let them have peace that today, and everyday, they make some one's life better - even when they don't know it.

News!!

We received an email today that our Article 5 was overnighted to CCAA last Wednesday! Yippee!! So, only two steps left - the TA (travel approval) and the CA (consulate appointment). We are incredibly excited and blessed. Our friends also received the same news so we are still on track to travel together! Kimberly (How We Found Joy) and I have formed a wonderful friendship and I cannot imagine this journey without her!

Happy Birthday!!

It's Saturday morning in Beijing and our little boy is waking up to his 7th birthday. How it breaks my heart that we can't be there with him or even talk to him on this very special day. I think it is even harder because everything seems to be moving slowing in China right now - almost as if quicksand has taken over. We had hoped to travel before Christmas but that dream seems less likely to happen. So, we continue to wait. We have purchased Simon a few presents - still unsure of all of his likes and dislikes. I am baking a cake and will decorate it with the appropriate number of candles - fully lit of course. We will be sending pictures and a letter through Red Thread in hopes that BCWI is in a receiving mood :)

I still haven't bought a new tooth brush holder yet - waiting for just the right one...maybe I should shoot for one that holds 5 just in case we decide, or God does, to go through this insanity again? Hugs and prayers to my friends who are waiting with me.

Wordless Wednesday

Orphan Sunday

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs on our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act." - Proverbs 24:12

Glory to our Father who takes us at any age and in any condition.

Best Friends

Ok, really, I now have the official best friend in the entire world. As I have previously mentioned, our son's birthday is the 21st and it is very unlikely that we will be joining him by this time. I don't think I have mentioned this previously, but I LOVE horses - really...I sometimes don't buy things for myself if my horses need something and I have taken in horses that no one in their right mind would choose - stories for another day :) I have been blessed to have a best friend who is exactly the same in this respect. She is also a wonderful prayer warrior during this adoption. She knew I had been stressed and would continue to be so because, despite my faith which has grown by leaps and bounds, I still worry way to much. So, what does she do? She buys tickets (really good tickets) to the most wonderful show on Earth - no, not the circus. She bought us tickets for the 21st to Cavalia - think horses, Cirque de Sole, artistry, magic, etc. all rolled in to one and this is Cavalia. The videos are absolutely breathtaking. And....we get to go backstage!!! How cool is that!! After many years of friendship and a few disagreements - she still knows be better than anyone and is willing to make some sacrifices, just to help me deal. So, Beth, here is your public thank you! I love you and appreciate you more than you know. God gave me a wonderful gift when he gave me your friendship that day during Lamaze :)

National Visa Center

Ok, we have confirmed that NVC wired our packet to Guangzhou yesterday. Our agency had already sent everything over so, hopefully, Article 5 and then TA are not far behind. In the meantime, I have bought a few things to helping with the nesting. I ordered new stockings for the entire family, complete with embroidered names. I am still hoping we will be able to use them this year. I have bought the boys matching jackets, and I have bought a blue jean jacket so he can match my other "boys" (husband and son). I don't know why that matters to me but it does. I think it is extremely important that he know I consider my sons, MY sons - one is not better or replaceable. His birthday is the 21st. We are buying gifts right now. I plan to take pictures complete with a birthday cake to send to China - just so he knows that we know and we are still thinking of him. Too much? Any other ideas I should consider? I was looking the other day and noticed our tooth brush holder only holds three tooth brushes. It was very surreal to realize, oh my gosh, I need to buy a new tooth brush holder!! :) I am sure I am missing some other things, so please feel free to make suggestions. I know everything will not be perfect - but I want him to feel at home. Thanks for all the kind words. It is always refreshing and renewing to know we are not alone!

Great News!!

We received our "official" I800 approval today and emailed it to our agency. Now we wait for the Article 5 and then TA!!! So, inch by inch we are moving closer. Thank you to everyone who has been so uplifting during this process. Although, at times, our faith is challenged, our purpose never waivers and we know we are truly in the hands of God.

Stuck

I am disheartened, depressed, disenchanted and just plan down. Due to the new changes with the I800 filings, i.e. moving Chicago processing to Texas where they process much more than I800s, we still have not received our approval and cannot even begin to wait for TA even though we received our LOA almost 1 month ago. I am deeply searching for meaning, understanding, and the ability to give this fully to God. I would truly like to experience some peace in all of this but it is difficult to know all we have to look forward to is waiting and that our son may not get to join our family this year. I keep trying to remember that this is truly a God thing from start to finish and I don't have to understand all of the details, but it is nonetheless very heartbreaking. I wish I had more to say or news to share but that's all I have....

Give-a-way

I am posting this give-a-way a little late but I love the blog. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon it, but Kym is full of little stories and lovely pictures which make my day. Her children always make me smile as I am waiting to welcome mine home. She is giving away one of the cutest dresses from http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5585996 . Although we are adopting a boy - a dear friend is adopting a girl so I think this would make a great welcome home gift!

http://celebratingeverydaylife.blogspot.com/

LOA!!

Our LOA was received yesterday by our agency and sent to us today!! Praise the Lord! This means we SHOULD be able to bring our son home before the end of the year. DS is running around singing "I get to get my brother". I alternate between screaming and crying and poor DH is just trying to keep me from passing out and get everything together for our yardsale Saturday. Thank you for all the prayers and keep 'em coming :)

Faith

I just read a great book which I highly recommend "Same Kind of Different as Me". It is a wonderful story which truly illustrates the power of God. During the last couple of weeks we have been truly disheartened with the process of international adoption. An increase in wait times, no news or limited information, and just downright impatience has caused us great difficulty. I started reading the book to try to take my mind off of everything. Little did I know, God would have life lessons for me to learn. There is a line in the book which says "Our limitations are God's opportunties". When first reading it you may go hmmm...interesting. After you trully consider the ramifications of this statement, you are more likely to say "Wow".
Most of us have difficulty turning to God during the mundane times of our lives. The ho-hum, everyday stuff usually becomes routine; requiring little thought, much less faith. But, when we are smacked in the face or knocked to our knees, we are able to see how weak we are and how fragile LIFE as we know it can be. Through all of this, we have tried to stay strong and have faith, but when control is truly taken away from us, as it has been once we sent our dossier to China, we felt helpless and out of control. George Michael's line of "gotta have faith" is correct, but so much more difficult when you have no control. Ironic or awkward as it may seem, you cannot be in control and have faith in God.
So, we wait. Prayers have been answered in that we have verified our checks have cleared and our dossier is still being processed so thank you to all of those who were Prayer Warriors for us. We appreciate our family and friends who are willing to take up the torch for us when we are so unsure and just plain tired. We will see our son...soon, which of course is relative and totally in God's hands.

New Pictures!

Although this is our first adoption, I can't imagine having a better adoption case worker than Ming! Those of you who know me, know that I am not a patient person but Ming is very patient and understanding. She also goes out of her way in my opinion to provide us with updates - hence the title! We have new pictures of our son, just received today! In one he is holding the Gecko we sent over in a care package - you can see the typical boy pose - Great...a stuffed animal :) We love him so much!! Thanks for following our journey!

Abbreviations, who knew?

As an educator, I am fairly well versed in the variety of abbreviations and acronyms in the world - we are surrounded by them. I have to admit, however, that the world of adoption is inundated with them. In an attempt to make this blog easier, I am going to list the ones we have figured out in case we use them. First we were PA - preliminary approval, then we were DTC - dossier to China for which we had to provide a LOI - letter of intent. Now we are waiting on our LOA - letter of acceptance so that we can get our TA - travel approval which all starts from our LID - log in date. Make sense? :)
And that's just the ones we have figured out.

The worst day ever...and how quickly things can change

First - the home study. It was actually a fairly easy process. We met with Elizabeth three times, once here and twice in Atlanta. It was very laid back and I had cleaned feverishly for nothing - really, you don't understand, I cleaned the top of the cabinets - you can't even SEE the top of the cabinets. It rained horribly the day she came to the house and she got lost. We were really concerned that the Atlanta city girl would have issues with the farm, animals, and essentially living in the middle of nowhere, but she LOVED it! Thought it was great for raising kids and felt Samuel was a great kid - of course :) So, the interviews/visits were not bad. What was bad was the PAPERWORK!! Copies of this, that, and the other and clearences to make sure we are not mass murderers or child molesters. Speaking of...the reason I entitled this entry the worst day ever is for that last portion - child molester. Not that we are, but you have to get clearance checks to prove it. Walker county was not very helpful so when we received a call from Ming on April 30th we thought our world was crashing.

Simon was an agency referral based on a camp AAI hosted in October of 2008. Only AAI could handle his adoption. The bad thing is that this is time sensitive and on April 30th Ming called to advise us that China had begun to pull back the referrals and we had to get everything in by Friday or we would loose him. WHAT!!?? Our homestudy wasn't complete because Elizabeth had not received our clearance from Walker Co. yet - they had had it for 6 wks. We began racing to make phone calls and beg and plead for it to be completed. Elizabeth was wonderful trying to help us get everything together. We had to have pictures made - mine are LOVELY because I had been crying to much. We also had to write a letter of intent (LOI) to adopt Simon explaining to the Chinese government why we wanted to adopt and how we would preserve his heritage. Done...still nothing from Walker County, so, on Friday, after having a nervous breakdown, my Asst Principal comes in with one of our teachers who used to work for DFCS. She makes a few calls and provides me with a number of a supervisor for the whole area. Called - they were out until Monday, so I have another nervous breakdown with his secretary. God LOVE this woman. She made it her personal crusade to get this taken care of and within 2 hours, Elizabeth had the letter and we were good to go. God is good!!

So, after we averted that catastrophy, our paperwork was sent to China. Now we were just waiting for a prelimary approval so that we could proceed with the adoption. On May 14th we received the best email ever. Not only were we approved, we received updated pictures and measurements of our son. We were so pleased and proud to see how much he has grown in just a few short months. Now, if we could just bring him home!!

Funny...

It's funny how life unfolds some times. Really. Who would have thought we would be embarking on this journey at this time in our lives? We have been married for 13 years and have one beautifully, talented, and intelligent son. We have struggled and overcome so many obstacles in our life together and have been able to maintain our family at times through sheer strength of will (His will, not ours). And so, it stands to reason that when we prayed and God directed us to adopt a child, that we would end up in the process of adopting the total opposite of where we started. I often say God keeps me around for comic relief. He is always watching to see what plan, long or short term, that I am going to come up with and then makes sure to let me know that the plan is His and may have nothing to do with my grand design.
On February 16th, we met with a local agency to discuss the possibility of adopting. We had decided to adopt a child up to the age of three, preferably a boy, non-special needs. After meeting with the adoption agency, we decided to consider special needs but maintain our age limit. On February 17th, while doing a web search to try to find pictures of different special needs...I found my son. It's the same feeling as holding your newborn in your arms for the first time, but your heart aches because you know you have just begun a journey with no time-frame or defined time-line. When reading his information, I found that he was a waiting child due to his age only and he was six years old...none of that mattered. That was my son! After showing the picture to Scott and Samuel - our fate was sealed. We all agreed this was the missing member of our family.
On February 19th, I placed the call to the agency with our son's picture. I was cautioned by the operator that several people had called and he was most likely already in the process of being adopted. She then transferred me to Laura, who admitted several calls had been placed, but Simon was still available. My heart stopped! Were we interested? Are you kidding!?! Laura gave us Lisa's number who handled the China Waiting Child program. I called Lisa and received first-hand information about our son as Lisa had met him and spent two weeks at the orphanage conducting a camp. She was thrilled so speak to us about Simon as she advised just the day before she had been praying for a family for this child as his wait with the agency had been longer than expected. She advised our first step would be to place him "on hold" so that no one else could begin paperwork on him. She emailed me medical documentation and additional pictures which we forwarded on to our pediatrician. It took a while to have the documents reviewed, but by the end of February we had given an affirmative YES and had our interview with the agency. Now...on to the homestudy.