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! 

Faith

We received our first update today, along with current photos!!  So I think it's time to post a photo or two! She is 8 years old and is waiting for us in Guangdong Province.  Can't wait to see a smile on that sweet face.

Ready for the New Year

Merry Christmas! We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with four of our six blessings. Some year I hope we'll have them all together in one place, but that has been elusive these last few years. Daughter #2 has a new baby this year, so wasn't up for traveling across the country (sadly they live far far away from us). Daughter #3 was here for a visit two weeks ago, so spent Christmas in Wyoming with her boyfriend's family. We enjoyed the weekend at Daughter #1's home, with her, her husband, Son #1 & #2, and Daughter #4. It was a houseful - full of joy and good cheer as we celebrated God's gift of Christ Jesus.

PA

We received our pre-approval (PA) from China for the adoption of Faith! Now we must gather all the documents that are needed for the dossier. We have two months to do this and get a new homestudy done. The next step is "DTC" - documents to China. Aiming to have this done by the middle of March.

Memorial Box Monday

Some weeks ago I was moved to participate in the 'Generous Life 90-day challenge' - to tithe for 90 days and see if God doesn't heap more blessings upon you than what you have given away. Payday was Friday. On Sunday I put my first tithe in the church offering plate.

Here you need a little background...
My husband has been a stay at home dad to our two young children since early 2009. Earlier this year, after a year of being home with her Dad, our youngest started pre-school and hubby started looking for a new job. He's been looking without success for 7 months. Money has been really tight for us with just one income. We sold our house and moved to a tiny duplex so we could live on just my salary. We cut back and cut out to stay within our smaller means. Adding a tithe to the monthly expenses was really a leap of faith. But felt God nudging me to trust Him. And so, back to the story....

So on Sunday I put my tithe in the offering plate. On Tuesday my husband received a job offer. God multiplied my tithe more than I can even calculate! I gave God my meager tithe and God gave us a 100% new salary where there had been zero. How incredible is that?! In just TWO DAYS God poured out generosity upon us. Our God is an awesome God!

Letter of Intent

Our letter of intent (LOI) was sent to the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) last Tuesday. Now we wait for China to send back preliminary approval (PA). Once we have that we will officially start the paper chase, including updating our home study and gathering all the documents that are required for the dossier and USCIS. Last time we were able to get everything together in about 10 weeks, which would put us DTC (documents to China) in late February. Here's hoping!

Wow

Open doors

Less than a month ago we took a deep breath and started forward, following the urging in our hearts toward another adoption, believing that God was nudging us in this direction. We trust that if this is God's will, doors will open. In the last few weeks, doors have swung wide wide open.

I submitted an inquiry late on a Friday night. Before noon on the following Monday, the agency had sent me the full file. Less than two days later both our pediatrician and a specialist had reviewed the file - reassuring us that the medical issues were easily addressed and going so far as to suggest a future for her that is 'functional and happy'. Two days - for two busy doctors to take the time to review a lengthy medical file. Two days! And how amazing to see that little word in a medical opinion. Happy. She'll be happy. Another little sign from our great God. It makes me smile just to think of it.

Required in the first set of paperwork we sent back to the agency was a form, signed by a physician, that we had indeed consulted a doctor about the special needs in the medical file. All accomplished before the first week was out! Open doors.

And so now we have submitted the first of the paperwork. This will be translated and sent off to China, asking that we will be allowed to apply to adopt Faith. Now we wait for China's response. Meanwhile, DH's biggest worry is the money. It takes alot of $$ to complete an international adoption. I am trusting there will be a way. And as if to show just how faithful God will be, already help has come from many directions. We thank everyone who has sent support already - thank you thank you!! We still have a long long way to go to raise the full funds that will be necessary, but we're headed in the right direction.

In addition to generous donations, last week I discovered that my Flexible Benefits accounts for 2010 were carrying balances. I thought I'd submitted claims for the full amount that was being withheld way back in May. But last week I noticed (on an old paycheck - and I have no idea why I came across a pay stub from September) that I hadn't received the dependent care reimbursement that had been in every check since the first of January. So I investigated and discovered a claim that had been denied due to lack of documentation (my receipt stuck to the back of the claim page when it was faxed and they never saw it). I also discovered I'd submitted claims only through May 31st. So I sent in claims for June, July, August, September and October. This week those claims were paid, resulting in an unexpected $1300 in our bank account this week - and the promise of another $600 in the remaining pay periods of 2010. Just what is needed for our homestudy update! Our first big expense - covered. God is so good.

Memorial Box Monday

A few weeks ago I followed a link from a link from a blog I read regularly and discovered A Place Called Simplicity. Since then, Linny has been such an inspiration. At the same time that I was discovering Linny's testimony, I was in the middle of both the Love Dare and the 40 day Spiritual Journey to a more generous life. God was working in amazing ways in my life! I found people living and blogging about God's generosity at the same time that I was reading his word as expressed through these two studies. But there's more.

While all of this was happening, God kept putting little signs up all over the place that seemed to be telling us we were not done with the journey to an adoption in China like we thought we were. Back in 2006 we submitted a dossier for a NSN adoption in China, expecting to travel in early 2007 to a new daughter. While we waited I made a baby quilt, with a map of China on it. In 2008, the wait stretching from months to years and years, we withdrew our dossier from China when we adopted from Taiwan for a second time. We believed at the time that the door to China had been closed for us. All this time my China quilt has waited on a shelf above the sheets and towels. Back in August I tried to get in touch with a woman I'd met during the wait, who was finally traveling to China for her daughter. I thought I'd give her the quilt. But I never heard back from her. I tried again in October to reach her, but still no response. Earlier this month I was lamenting the fact that I hadn't heard back. The quilt still sat in our closet and I was so eager to send it along. Out of nowhere my husband said, "Maybe it's not supposed to go to her." I looked at him, surprised, and instantly, without either of us having to say another word, realized we were at that moment both hearing the same thing from our amazing God - that quilt is for our daughter who is in China.

Not too many days later I found her on a waiting child list. We sent off an email of inquiry just before midnight on a Friday night. And with that, doors started to open. So many things have happened in the last two weeks that I could fill a year of Memorial Box Mondays, but I'll save them for another post. To God be the glory!

Welcome

Welcome to our little corner of the world! We have been blessed by God with a passion for children and parenting. After raising four biological children, we were called to adoption. We brought our fifth child home from Taiwan in 2006 and our sixth in 2008. God has placed it in our hearts to open our arms to a waiting child in China. We'll keep you posted on the process and pray that many will be moved to help fund the cost of bringing her home. For this adoption we are stepping out in faith with only one tenth the needed funds. We have faith that God will provide. We hope you might be moved to help be God's hands in this work, help us see that there is one less orphan in need of a family.

In Isaiah 1:17 God encourages us to care for orphans:
Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! Take up the cause of the orphan! Defend the rights of the widow!

We invite you to join us. Thank you for your prayers and support!