Days 1 & 2

Friday morning we woke up at our airport hotel, eager to start of journey.  Our first hiccup came when we realized the winter coats we intended to leave in the car (which had departed the night before with DD#1) were still with us.  We set upon mailing them back home.   Hiccup #2 came when Miss M woke with a bloody nose.  Dry hotel room air didn't agree with her sensitive membranes.  It took awhile, but we eventually staunched the flow and got down to breakfast.  First purchase of the trip - nasal spray at the hotel gift shop.  Joy.  We'll be in hotels for two weeks - she'll need all the help she can get.  And since we were on a roll  dealing with the unexpected, hiccup #3.  As we walked away from the checkin counter three suitcases lighter Mr A announces "there's a little blood."  What?  Didn't we already deal with enough blood this morning?  I don't recall "deal with blood' on my to do list.  His been-loose-for-more-than-a-month tooth has chosen this very moment to let go and bleed.  Five minutes into the security line wait, the tooth is in my hand.  Did we really need to be managing teeth today?  (We are happy to report that the tooth fairy had no trouble finding him and his tooth in Hong Kong when we finally laid our head on pillows again.)

We had an uneventful flight to Vancouver (the very best kind), ate lunch, boarded our plane to Hong Kong, spent an interminable amount of time airborne, then arrived in Hong Kong 14 hours later.  We spent a lovely night at the SkyCity Marriott.  Great hotel, wonderful staff, convenient shuttle service.  We were all in bed with lights out at 9pm local time and quickly asleep.  The kids slept a full night.  Both had napped for just a couple of hours or so on the plane, so were really ready for some solid sleep.  Unfortuately, despite next to no sleep on the plane, I only managed to stay asleep until 3am.  So I'm dragging today.

This morning we took the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou.  We are filling up the passports with entry and exit stamps.  Mr A is showing signs of some anxiety and was a relentless pest as we navigated from the trian to our waiting guide.  No amount of calm (and not so calm) encouragement has dissuaded him from alleviating the stress by teasing his little sister.  During one of his calmer moments he asked what people in China would call him.  We had an interesting little discussion about how he could choose whether to use his American name or his Chinese name while we are in China.  He thought probably his Chinese name would be best.  It was interesting to watch the wheels turning in his 6 year old brain.

We are now settled at the Garden Hotel and, while still pretty bone weary (and worried about Mr A's choices for coping behaviors) eagerly await meeting Faith tomorrow afternoon.  Praising God for our safe journey to the other side of the world and continuing our prayers for His help with her transition.

On our way

We are off! 24 hours from now we'll be in Hong Kong. 48 hours after that we'll be with Faith.

Our itinerary looks something like this:

12/10: Arrive Hong Kong
12/11: Arrive Guangzhou via train from Hong Kong
12/12: Gotcha!
12/13: Finalization at provincial offices
12/14: TB test administered
12/15: Medical appointment
12/16: TB test read
12/17: Orphanage visit
12/18 - 12/21: Rest / Tour
12/22: Consulate appointment
12/23: Pick up visa
12/24: Train to Hong Kong, fly home

We are all super excited to be on our way. Please pray for our health and stamina (and that I will find unending supplies of patience throughout the trip). Thank you prayer warriors!

An update just before travel

We received an unexpected surprise via email today!  An update!  She is now 50 inches tall (2 inches taller than last time we got measurements) and 55 pounds (7 lbs heavier).  And pictures - oh my!  She's grown! 

See you Monday, sweetheart.  (I can't believe I can finally say exactly when we'll meet!!!)

Travel Approval !!

We have received the final piece of paperwork required to book our trip to China!  We will finally be bringing Faith home, after 13 long months of paperwork and waiting, we are finally going to meet our daughter!  We received our Travel Approval (TA) on Wednesday and our confirmed Consulate Appointment (CA) this morning.  "Gotcha" Day is Monday, December 12th.  Please join us in praying that God will guide us to do all that we can to ease the transition for FuDi.  Such a big change for such a little girl.

God's grace

God has been amazingly present in our lives lately. Two weeks ago M and I were in a car accident.  Traffic had slowed suddenly and the guy behind us didn't notice.  He rear ended us, pushing us into the car in front of us.  Our car was totaled.  His car was totaled.  The third car lost a bumper.  I ended up with some nasty burns from the airbag explosion (both front airbags deployed), but otherwise we were all unharmed, through the grace of God and a good and sturdy Volvo.  The emergency responders were all pretty amazed that we were ok.  Our insurance company was top notch and 10 days later we were buying our replacement.  I really wanted another Volvo, but we had also (for months) been talking about needing a larger car when Faith is finally home with us.  Our plan had been to just squeeze in until we our finances were a bit more secure.  We thought we needed to finish with the adoption expenditures before starting with a car expense.  So back and forth we'd talk about getting a mini-van.  I did some research back in the Spring and identified two candidate models.  Both had great reviews for safety and longevity.  And since we were planning and dreaming, I also announced that I wanted it to be navy blue.

So when we found ourselves forced to start looking for a new car, we looked at both replacement Volvos and mini-vans of the make and models identified.  We test drove one Volvo, looked at a couple of others, then ran across a mini-van of the make & model desired, in our price range, and available locally.  For all those things to line up in our small town was all God.  But the biggest surprise was to get to the lot to see what I thought was the car we were meant to buy, only to find, sitting right next to it, the navy blue minivan I'd asked for. Only God.  So we are now driving a navy blue minivan which will fit the five of us with room to spare.  And somehow, He even made the money part work out so that this one, like the Volvo, is fully paid for.  Through the blessing of an unexpected car accident we have the car we need for our growing family.  Praise be to God, who makes all things possible for them that love the Lord! 

Our paperwork is nearing the end of the US immigration approval process, and will be delivered for final travel approval on November 15th.  Travel approval can come anytime after that, most often between two and four weeks.  We are still anxiously awaiting God's plan for our travel.  If the travel approval comes in early December and we can get a consulate appointment before Christmas, we'll travel right away.  If not, it will be January.  Something tells me there is someone we are to meet while we're in China picking up Faith (adoption #4?).  So whenever we finally go, I am confident it will be exactly when we are supposed to be there. 

Finally LOA

It's been a long summer and an even longer wait, but we have finally received the next piece of paperwork in this long adoption journey, our Letter of Acceptance from China, which is the official approval of our application to adopt FuDi.  Next we file more paperwork with USCIS to assure legal immigration status, then another approval from China and then we finally travel to bring her home.  It's usually no more than 3 months for these last steps of the paperwork process, but God has us guessing still - will we be home with her before 2011 is over or will we be traveling just after the new year?  I think about the only thing we can say with assurance she'll be home with us before the end of January.  So much longer than we anticipated....last January I thought we'd be traveling in August.  Ha!  I am just thrilled that we are at the end of the grueling LOA wait.  We were so sure we'd be on the shorter than average and ended up way beyond an average wait.  This last month has been hard.  I have prayed without ceasing, for peace and confidence in the knowledge that God's timing is perfect and everything works together for good for them that love the Lord.  And then immediately I'd be lacking in patience and feeling frustrated.  It's been an opportunity for deepening faith, that's for sure. 

Thanks be to God for His perfect timing in all things.

An update

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a month!  Our dossier went off to China in mid-June and we have an LID of 6/28/11.  We now wait for our LOA (letter of acceptance), which is the next step in the approval process.  The average wait time for this step is 60-90 days.  We're at day 21 and - of course! - hoping for a shorter than average wait.

In the meantime, we received an update on Faith from her SWI, which included answers to questions we'd sent last month.  (Favorite color: yellow and blue, current weight: 48 lbs, shoe size girls US1)  They also sent photos of her wearing the shirt we sent and holding the lamb.  So precious!

She looks a little frightened to me, which just breaks my heart.  I can only imagine how aware she is of how drastically her life will change in just a few short months.  Please pray with us that God wraps her in reassurance about this. 

Memorial Box Monday

It's been awhile since I've posted a MBM but over the weekend we had another God moment that needs to be shared. As I prepared the small box of gifts that we are sending to Faith for her birthday I decided it needed at least a note with her name on it and some birthday wishes. So I found the Chinese version of her medical file to get the Chinese characters for her name. Here are the characters for her first name.

福 娣

I started my letter by pasting in the Chinese characters of her name, Then, using Google translator I typed in a brief greeting, pasting the translated results into my letter. Then I pasted the translation into Google translator to see how it would be re-translated back into English. I wasn't saying anything too elaborate (Happy Birthday, we hope you have a nice day, we love you, from Mama and Baba) so it worked just fine.

Once I had completed that, I decided to see what it would do with the characters of her name. So I pasted the three characters of her name in and clicked translate. And the results? 

Only God!  

Her surname in Chinese is exactly the same as our surname in English! Our last name is a common English word, and the surname given her by the orphanage is the Chinese for that word. How cool is that? We'll adopt her, but her last name won't change.

God is so clever!

Care package

We're making slow progress on our adoption.  Our move slowed us down a bit, as we had to have a home study update done for our new residence.  We managed to get that done in just two weeks - which allowed us to receive our USCIS approval at our new address, saving us the hassle of filing an address change.  It worked out wonderfully, but meant we're a few weeks behind where I'd hoped we'd be.  That delay, and the extra five weeks the homestudy took with our California social worker have us very nearly using the entire six months we were given to get the dossier to China after our pre-approval.  But despite the various delays, our dossier (all the paperwork we've been gathering since early January) should finally be ready to go to China this week.  Praise the Lord!  So the rest of the process is a wait for approvals.  We'll wait for China to review the dossier and issue an LOA (Letter of Acceptance), which we sign and return.  Then we wait for China to issue a TA (Travel Approval), at which time we make airline reservations to travel to China for Gotcha Day.  Both of these steps can take up to 90 days...so we could be looking at yet another six months before we can go to China.  Sigh.  We've got lots going on as we settle in to our new community, so we are staying focused on that and trying not to get too anxious about the 'when'.

In the meantime, we've received permission to write a letter and send a little something for her birthday.  I am so excited!!

Faith turns 9 on July 2nd.  I saw this shirt and just had to buy it for her.  The little lamb is wearing a shirt that says 'You are loved' with a small embroidered cross beside that.  We'll add some candy for the other children at the orphanage before we seal up the box.  I am so excited to be sending this to her!

This week we also sent her a letter of introduction.  If she didn't yet know a family was working to adopt her, she will soon. Our agency's facilitator in China will translate it and deliver it to Faith, who might, we are told, write back to us!  We can only hope.  I am so excited to be able to send her the letter and gifts, to know that she finally will know that she has a family working to bring her home.  I wonder if she is excited or simply scared.  I am praying for her well-being during this transition - such a humungous change for her.

What's new

I'm still here!  The adoption process has been slowly moving forward, though it might be hard to tell from the posting I've been doing lately.  We are now in the 'wait for approval' stage.  Which means we send paperwork to some entity. And wait for them to send us back an approval.  Then we send more paperwork to a different entity. And wait for them to send us back an approval.  From here forward, there is not much more for us to do but wait for permission to fly to China and pick up our new daughter.  That could still be six months out, so in the meantime we wait.

While we wait, we have moved house, leaving California in late April and moving to the beautiful state of Oregon.  We are settling into our new house and already have furnished a bedroom just for Faith.  The move necessitated a home study update and we were fortunate to find an agency nearby that was able to provide the update very quickly for us.  With that and additional clearances from the state of Oregon, we are very close to having our dossier ready to send to China.  Good thing, too, as our six month deadline for getting it there is in June!

Early in the process our agency discouraged us from sending a care package to Faith, and to be honest I don't think she yet knows she's got a family waiting for her.  I am hoping that once the dossier is sent we will get permission to send her at least a letter and photos, so that she has some time to 'get to know us' before we arrive.  At least it would give me something to do!

Prayer, Fasting and Hearing God Speak

Linny over at A Place Called Simplicity invited readers to join in a day of prayer and fasting last Wednesday.  Luckily she provided a link to a "How to" guide on fasting, since this is an area I know nearly nothing about.  After reading and reading the Guide to Prayer and Fasting, I felt sufficiently educated to join her and the many others who were praying for the heart of a judge in Russia.  I am so glad I did!   It was an amazing day.  Part of it was just knowing I was a part of something bigger than myself.  But I also found it's true - fasting brought me closer to God.  But that was just the beginning of a wonderful week.

The following day Linny did a post that ended with links to a series called How to Hear God Speak.  Step one: clean your heart.  As I went to bed that night, I asked God to show me where my heart needed cleaning.  Honestly, I struggle with humility.  I think I'm doing a pretty darn good job of loving God and living cleanly.  I prayed to be humbler.  And then I prayed for God to show me where I was falling short (in addition to that pride issue).

He didn't disappoint!  During my time with Him early the next morning, I read Luke 6.  As I read, various parts of that chapter just LEPT off the page and hit me up the side of the head.

6:2  But some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is against the law on the Sabbath."

6:5-6a Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath. On another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching.

You're right God, I have not honored the Sabbath.  Yes, I worship regularly with a body of believers.  But then I come home and work my fanny off getting stuff done before the work week starts.  My Sabbath is pretty much like my Saturday.  Oops.

6:30 Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away.

Right again.  Too many times I say no when someone asks me for something.  Sometimes I say no without even thinking about it.  Why is 'no' my knee-jerk response?  Sorry God, I'll start saying giving when asked - to everyone who asks.

6:37 Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven.

Ah, there's that pride thing again and measuring myself against everyone else.  Yup, I could do a little - ok, a lot - less judging.

6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.

Got it.  You, God, have been so so generous with me.  May I be more generous with others. 


And finally came Luke 6:49: But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice is like a may who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

I read this verse and it was like underscoring everything I'd read up to there.  Put into practice God's word.
Quite a list of things I need to work at.  Gulp.  Thank you God for showing me. 

 

I800A submitted

Our adoption took another baby step forward this week!  Our homestudy  was completed and sent to our placement agency late last week.  So this week our application to the USCIS for permission to bring a child into the country could be submitted.  Next we'll receive an appointment for finger printing, which must be done before they will approve our application.  We're a month behind where I thought we'd be right now, but I am reminding myself that God's timing is perfect. 

God goes ahead - another Memorial Box Monday

Into the Memorial Box today goes a house.
 

Or many houses.  We have moved many times in our married life.  Many of those moves have been God-led.  We opened our hearts to His will and we found ourselves headed to another state.  Time and again we have been blessed with gifts from God in each new place we have lived.  He's at it again.

In the midst of this adoption, we find ourselves led to another move.  You may recall the story of God's provision after months of job hunting, here.  That new job is taking us to yet another new state.  In the middle of an adoption.  But we know this is where God wants us to be next, so we are not afraid.  We thought we'd start looking for housing in our new town in the Spring and move after the school year ended in June.  But God had other plans.  We had our first home study meeting with our social worker in late January.  She expressed a great amount of concern about us adding a third child in the small house where we currently reside.  It was frustrating at the time and I fussed more than I should have about the  'very American attitude about individual bedrooms for every family member'.  But following that meeting, DH decided to just 'look and see.'  We weren't in any hurry.  We wanted to get the home study and dossier done before we made any big changes.  But that very week there was an advertisement for a large house right in the neighborhood with the elementary school we'd seen great things about.  So he inquired.  You can probably guess where this is going.  Without any effort, we found ourselves with a new home to rent in our new town.  Fully furnished.  And I mean fully.  Not only furniture, but linens, cleaning supplies, dishes, and food in the cubboard.  Crazy furnished.  I've been shaking my head in disbelief for three weeks now. 

And then today, I opened my Bible to Deuteronomy and was reminded twice again how God prepares the way for us.  Deut. 1:30, "all through this you did not have confidence in the Lord your God, the one who is constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp."   (Boy He has outdone Himself for us this time!)  Then again in Deut. 2:7, "All along the way , I, the Lord your God, have blessed your every effort.  I have been attentive to your travels through this great wasteland.  These forty years I have been with you.  You have lacked for nothing." 

So true!  We surely lack for nothing.  Praises to God for all these years of going before us.  Praises for showing us again this time how He goes before us to find places for us to set up camp. 

.





 

Bumps in the road

Our home study process is taking longer than originally projected.  We have another meeting with our social worker this week.  This was a surprise to us, since we're alum's at our agency and were told we'd need just one visit with the SW.  But we are trusting in God's plan.  We know that God's timing is perfect and there's a reason that our paperwork is still not complete.  It's hard to be patient, but we're learning.

God is in the details

For this Memorial Box Monday post, I am almost embarrassed to share this little selfish story of God's abiding care and love, but perhaps someone needs to hear again how even the smallest things matter to our God and even in them he hears and answers prayer.

A couple of weeks ago the littles were playing games - or watching YouTube videos of trains and Caillou, their current obsession - on our iTouch when it got to be bedtime. The next day we looked for the Touch in all the places it is normally left and it was no where to be found. I looked again and again, on and off that whole day and it had just vanished. I wondered if it had accidentally been put in the trashcan. It was that lost.

The following morning, two days after we'd last seen it, I was feeling sick about having lost such an expensive gadget. I felt guilty for not being more mindful of it. I should have taken more care. It had been a gift and I felt like I wouldn't have been quite so cavalier with letting the littles cart it around if it had been my money that bought it.

So at the end of my time with God that morning, I prayed, "God, I know you know where that Touch is, please show me." Then I got up from my chair, took my journal back to it's place on top of the fridge and while thinking about something else (don't know what) for no apparent reason at all I opened the pantry door and looked down. Well, actually God had a reason. There on the floor of the pantry, leaning against a bottle of apple juice, was the Touch.

Our awesome God had immediately led me right to it. I had no reason to be going into the pantry, except as an answer to prayer. Even this little thing, caused by my own negligence, our God cared about. How can we not trust him to care about the big stuff too? All glory to God!

Making progress

We are making progress.  The paper chase is complete.  The homestudy is nearly finished.  Next we submit our application to the USCIS for permission to bring a foreign born child into the United States.  So we are on to the "waiting for permission" portion of the adoption journey.  First permission from our government, then permission from China.

I am starting to think about the process of integrating a new child into our daily life.  We will likely not enroll Faith in school immediately and instead will give her as much time as she needs at home with family to learn English and learn what having parents and siblings is all about.  We are big fans of the Montessori method and have incorporated Montessori philosophy at home.  Plates, bowls and glasses are all on shelves that are accessible to even our smallest family member.  I rarely crack an egg anymore - I have eager helpers who are expert egg crackers.  They also help with lots of other things at home and take pride in their abilities.  It's been a tremendous validation of the Montessori method to see how they thrive when offered the responsibility.   I've been exploring options for Montessori with Faith and ran across a new program for homeschooling with Montessori-based materials:  NAMC Homeschool Program.  It looks fantastic!