WOOHOOO!!!!!

OUR I800 IS PROCESSED AND APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!

It is being over-nighted to the NVC(National Visa Center)  This is a big step to be done with.  Thank you to everyone who is joining with us in prayers, we appreciate them.   A big Thank You to our fantastic Immigrations Officer Ms. J.  who has been over the top helpful and kind.  She has been a gift.


YAY:)!!

On My Heart

These Sunday posts seem to have morphed into a recap of what is(or isn't) going on with the adoption coupled with a post on some aspect of faith simply because there hasn't really been enough going on to make many separate posts.  I am hoping that at some point that changes but for now...here's where we are.  We are waiting for our I800 approval.  Basically that is the US Immigrations Department approving Min as an orphan to be brought into the US and receive citizenship.  We think it is being expedited and are hoping to hear that it is approved at the beginning of this week.  Then USCIS mails that approval to the National Visa Center who logs it in and cables(emails) it to the appropriate Consulate, in our case the US embassy in Guangzhou China.  Once this has been emailed to them, our agency representative will hand deliver all of the supporting documents that we have already sent to the Consulate so that they can approve everything to give Min a visa and citizenship.  The Consulate takes a standard two weeks.  Then the approval goes back to the Chinese Center for Adoption and they will issue an invitation to travel, then we can go.  A few more steps and we will be on our way to Min!  The nice thing is that these steps are short and defined so there are little milestones to hit quickly over the next few weeks.

We sent a photo book and a letter to Min, it might arrive this week.  It was interesting to put it together; we went out to the ocean and took pictures of our sons and our family by a waterfall that feeds into the ocean so that they would be current pictures.  It was fun to have them say "Hi Min" instead of "Cheese".  We are lucky to live in a beautiful part of Alaska, an island surrounded by the Pacific Ocean which is dotted by hundreds of mountainous islands.  It is fun to drive a few minutes and be at the water.  While we were enjoying the  day together, I couldn't help but wonder if Min will enjoy being out near the water as well.  I wonder what she will think when she sees all of that water, or the mountains.  I've been thinking of all of the firsts she is going to have with our family.  We built a fire and had s'mores after the pictures and let the boys work on some of their scouting skills, will Min want to have her own fire steel?  Will she want to flip over rocks looking for small sea creatures and delight in finding an eel or small crab or buried clam?  Will she enjoying finding starfish or collecting shells or sea glass?  Then I think about her health.
This adoption has gone quickly since we started from scratch and found Min's file before we had even signed on with an agency. I'll be honest, we really debated long and hard about whether it was fair or right of us to lock her file when she has a serious heart issue and we would have to do the entire paperchase.  Surely a family who was further down the adoption path would be able to bring her home sooner.  Since we chose her it was a concern that we were potentially making her wait in an orphanage for longer than necessary simply because we wanted her in our family even though we were not paper ready.  Well, we prayed a lot...and I felt peace.  And at least from the information we had we were the only family reviewing her file.  And I have done everything I could to get the paperwork and everything else done as fast I could.  I feel that I owe that to her.  My prayers of late have been begging God to bless her heart.  From the start of this process we have prayed for her to be able to hang in there and for her heart and especially her lungs not to be damaged additionally.  Now, as we are nearing the homestretch of this adoption, I am starting to get the doctors appointments lined up for Min, it is a little staggering to know that there is simply so much we do not know about her health.  It is a little humbling  to know that we don't have control over so much of this process and that we are at the mercy of someone else's time frame.

A friend was asking me about how the rest of the family is doing with the adoption and if we were getting nervous.  I can honestly say that this adoption has changed our family.  It has made us a better family.  It has made us more aware of the blessings and comforts we enjoy.  It has made us more thankful for each other.  It has made us more aware of the hundreds of millions of orphans around the world who lack the things we sometimes take for granted.  It has made us much more aware of the power of prayer.  It has solidified our belief that God not only cares for us, but that HE knows us.  He loves us.  He hears and answers our prayers.  I have felt His peace every singe time that I have started to worry or doubt or question anything about the way this adoption was going to work out, financially, attachment wise, health wise, and in all the little details that I don't know.  I know that we are Min's family.  I truly don't believe that God makes bad things happen, but He does allow them to.  And He can make great things out of bad things.  I can't wait to see the great thing He makes with Min in our family because I know that He has a plan for us.

LOA!!!!!

We have our LOA!!!!!!!!

It arrived at our house today around 4:30pm.  We have approval from China to officially adopt Min!

I don't know what else to say...thank you so much for your prayers.  I know they have been heard and I appreciate them on our behalf.  We have sent our I800 out and it is supposed to be expedited so....we are getting there quickly!

Being Carried

We should have BIG  NEWS  TOMORROW!!!

I really love the poem Footprints about the person who looks back on their life as a set of footprints in the sand.  Through much of their life there are two sets of footprints but during the times that were difficult there were only one set of footprints.  The person berates God for leaving them alone during the times of trouble and God says, "Those are MY footprints, it was during those difficult times that I carried you."

I'm not going to say that adopting is the most difficult time in my life or is really even that hard, comparatively.  I mean really, we fill out paperwork, we get fingerprinted, we spend a lot of money, and we wait.  It is not super strenuous.  But in many ways, like a pregnancy it is emotionally draining.  Even when you are so excited and hopeful and feel completely led and blessed, it takes something out of you.  At least for me that is the case.  The waiting, the unknowns, the what'ifs, the hopes and dreams, the health risks, even though I truly feel great about the adoption and have been blessed with a lot of peace, it is still a bit draining.  This last week I hit a wall.  I went in to finish up the boys school work and check in on their next years curriculum(we homeschool through a specific program that is graded, etc.) and the teacher there asked if there was any news about Min.  I started tearing up and just struggled to even answer.  No, there was not and no, I knew nothing, and no, I had no idea when we would know, and no, I didn't know for sure when we would be able to get here, and no, I didn't know if her health was OK, and no, I didn't know when I would find out any of these things.  And yes, I was done.  I really didn't want to talk or think about it at all.  Not, really the response I try to portray to people! 

Anyways, I said a quick prayer, and was reminded that God had led me to this path and that I am willing to follow it wherever it leads, and He will carry me when I can't walk or need a little pick me up if I stumble through my moments of being unhappy with the fact that we THOUGHT we would for sure be traveling in the next couple of weeks and there is NO WAY we will make that time frame. 

We have been waiting for our LOA.  It's not a fun wait for all of your documents to be translated, reviewed and then approved with the child you are adopting.  You cannot move forward in your adoption without it.  And there is no set time.  It isn't like you can think, for sure two months and then we have it.  It could come, or not come, at any time.  I prayed, and fasted, and prayed some more for this LOA to be issued.  Apparently this week my husband decided that enough prayers were going toward the LOA and he would focus his prayers on me.  What a gift.  I needed them badly this week and I am grateful for those prayers to help me not lose focus on the big picture and get bogged down in the momentary delays.  I felt carried this week.   I am grateful to believe in a God who takes interest in the details of our lives, who loves us a His children, and carries us when we are weak or need a rest.  I am grateful for the gift that having those beliefs is and the way it changes my life.  I am grateful for Him.

Pain

Still waiting for news.  Our dossier is translated and supposed to be reviewed very soon....

Yesterday we decided to take the boys out biking.  We used to bike a lot as a family, but where we live in Alaska doesn’t have great biking areas so our boys usually just scooter.  We went to a parking lot and took the training wheels off and, lucky me; I got to be the one who predominately worked with one of my sons.  He was scared.  He didn’t want to try.  He was not happy.  But we kept working on it.  He did great.  He learned how to ride a bike.  Then when he was showing his dad…it happened.  He fell.  He scraped his pinky finger.  He was devastated and never wanted to get back on a bike again…but we made him ride around a bit more then gave him a movie night with mom and dad.  On the way back home we were talking about pain.  We had joked it off at the time after checking to make sure it wasn’t too serious.  He said, “Mom, you really wouldn’t ever want me to get hurt would you?”    My answer was, that I can’t shield you from every hurt or pain.  That’s part of life and mom’s that really love their children let them do hard things so that they can become stronger and better people.  But that mom’s never like to see their kids hurting and will be there to love and help their kids through it, but not necessarily take the pain away.  We kind of talked about things for a few minutes and how he really did not want to ride a bike.  He is 8 and he has a Cub Scout bicycling event coming up.  So it is past time.  We talked about how sometimes the things worth learning how to do are hard and take work and yes it would be easier to quit but in the long run it will hinder you.  Stuff like reading, learning to swim, math, and relationship building can all be hard and scary but is important.  Then we talked about Min.  She is going to have her little body cut open for a heart repair surgery.  It will be painful.  It will be hard.  I think probably given the choice many people in the moment would opt out.  And if we wanted to shield our children from all pain we would, but it will be to give her life.  That really hit home.  Because parents who truly love their kids don’t try make everything super easy but try to help their kids to grow to be wonderful people who can have full happy lives.

I felt like I got a little glimpse of God’s work with us.  Yes, we have pain.  Yes, we have life lessons that we might wish to opt out of.  Yes, in many ways we can want to rail against the one who seems to be making us go through things that we think are too hard.  But in the end, we were not meant to just go through life easily.  We are here to grow and be tested and make it through tough experiences.  And they make us stronger and better people.  And God still loves us and will walk through life with us and will comfort us and encourage us even if He doesn’t take the hard stuff out of our path.  And I am grateful to know that He loves us that much.

Angels

And now for an update....We are still waiting for our LOA.  Once we get that we need to go through three brief US government steps with the Immigrations department, the Visa Center, and the US Consulate in China.  Then we will wait for China to give us travel approval and leave!  We have been waiting for our LOA for 24 days and it has been 38 days since our documents went to China...not that I am counting:)

Our last fundraiser has a few more days left, it ends on Thursday,...the Thirty-one link on the side of the blog is a link to order cute purses, bags, organizers, etc.  We are under events and you can just click on ours.  All of the commission is being donated to our adoption fund, which is really really great.  Thanks Anne!!!

At the risk of sounding like a hokey late night infomercial, I believe there are angels among us.  I truly do.  I'm not talking about unseen heavenly messengers, though I do believe in those as well.  I'm talking about people who share God's love through what they say or do.  Many of my friends are angels to me.  They touch my life and make it better or help me when I need it or say the right thing that answers a prayer that I have had.  Sometimes it is acquaintances who maybe are not close personal friend but who bless my life in amazing ways.  When I was pregnant and on partial bed rest with my third pregnancy, my husband had to go out of town for work so I had two little boys under three and was in my third trimester and having some problems with the pregnancy.  I prayed and prayed but could not feel an answer.  I worried and was a nervous wreck.  A wonderful woman stopped by my house one evening.  She and I had never done anything socially, but we went to church together.  She had felt like she should stop by on the way home from work.  She came in and changed a diaper and sat and talked with me.  I don't remember a thing she said.  But she was an answer to my prayers.  I felt the peace I had been searching for because of her.  That son is 8 now but I still feel the same way about this woman.  She is an angel to me.

This adoption has been that way to me.  I have felt surrounded by angels.  Some of you are close friends of mine.  Some are not.  Some are people I may never meet, but who were willing to help and support my family financially, or through prayers.  I have been so very humbled through this process.  When we started I never though that we would need to ask for help.  We planned on travel sometime in December hopefully, that totally changed when we found Min.  We could not have gotten to this point in our adoption on our own.  And I am grateful for the many, many angels who have made that happen.  I am  grateful for Ann, Teresa's mom, for advocating for Min.  She gave us pictures, video, and encouragement.  She helped us find a doctor to review the file, and helped us with paperwork questions.  She also has set an amazing example for me and given me peace about all of the what ifs.  She is an angel in my life.

I am grateful for W.  She watched the video of Min with me and cried alongside me.  I can't tell you how much that meant to have someone be as moved as I was.  She has brought coloring books and nail polish for Min's suitcase.  She has supported us in our fundraisers and asked for updates at least weekly.  She has been a huge blessing to me and is an angel in my life.

I am grateful to D.  During our 10-10-10 fundraiser she organized an effort at work and passed an envelope.  We were floored and so very appreciative that someone would take the extra effort to do that.  She is an angel to me.

I am grateful to D. for being supportive of every single fundraiser there is and being so excited to meet Min.  She tells everyone that meets me that I am adopting a beautiful girl, it is nice to know that it is always very real to her.

I am thankful to K.  who spoils my other kiddos and has already started to spoil Min.  She is willing to help me with some sewing projects, knowing that it is important to me, and also making her own, knowing that mine probably won't turn out as amazing as they look in my mind:)  She lets me be upset when things don't go as fast as I want and reminds me without condescending that it is all going to work out and God knows me and Min.  She is an angel to me.

I am grateful to J.  who was a huge blessing in our fundraiser and who is always so excited and encouraging about our adoption.  She is an angel to me.

This blog could go on forever with Melissa, who designed a necklace for Min, Tina who sent me pictures from her visit to the orphanage, Miss Courtney who has emailed and been so helpful with paperwork, X who returns every email quickly, my sisters, my friends, my family and the many, many people that I know have upheld us with their prayers, words, and actions.  I cannot truly thank you enough for the impact you have had on my life.  If angels could be defined as beings that share God's love I think that there are many who qualify and I am so very very grateful for all of you in my life.

And I hope that I can be an angel in the life of someone else.

Be Still and Know

Nothing much going on in the the adoption process.  We found out that our dossier was still in translation this week and hopefully will be back to the CCWAA soon for final review.  It has been one month since our dossier was sent to China.  I'll be honest, I really expected a much faster turn around and for us to have our LOA by now and be on to the next step.  I felt that since average time frame was about two months, ours would be about one month since it could be expedited.  I had a wonderful plan in my mind about when we would travel, when the hospital visits would be, when we could be back home as a complete family, how long I would be away from my boys, the types of activities my sons could do while we are gone, etc.  And now we have been waiting that one month, and have no idea when an approval will be issued, but obviously not on my timeframe.  Which I'll admit, is really hard and a bit frustrating, since there isn't someone I can call, or a manager I can talk to.  There isn't really anything else I can do at this point to speed the process along.  I feel like I am nagging with my prayers, begging for the same things over and over again.  And then I feel the whisper to 'Be still and know that I am God." 

And when I do, I have peace.  I have done all that I can do at this point.  I can only know that I am not alone in this process and that God can work all things out for the good of those who love Him.  So even though things are not exactly working out as quickly as I want them to, I have trust that they are working out and that I will be upheld by One who knows me, loves me, and wants good things for His children.

So, I will be still for a time, and know that I am being given a gift of peace, which is a great gift when I know without it I would be a nervous wreck dwelling on all the bad things that could happen or the way that I am not seeing the things fit together in the way that I envisioned them.  I am grateful to be able to be still, since I know the One who allows me to be.