We finally have our Letter of Approval or as some call it, the Seeking Confirmation letter!! It is en route via overnight Fed Express to arrive here tomorrow. At that point I will check a little box to say "yes, we still want to adopt Yue Yuan Rong", sign it and send it back to our agency overnight Fed Ex. Then it will wing its way to China. We then have to wait for the "routine processing" of said letter before we can be issued our official approval to travel ..... the elusive TA. We must have our TA number before we can request a date for our Consulate Appointment (CA) and then build our trip according to the CA we are given.
How long will it take to get our TA?? Who knows! As short as 2 weeks or as long as ..... well considering what we have just endured I can't even venture a guess at that! Can we travel before our visas expire on January 18th? Only by a miracle of God - I know He is capable of that, but will leave it to His timing and ultimate Will. If we can't travel by Jan 18, we will be postponed for a month and not be able to travel until mid February ..... Chinese New Year is a big celebration in China and offices are closed for 2wks in early February this year.
Here's hoping for a quick and speedy delivery of our TA!
Mary
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Very sad news
All of our agency's families that were logged into the CCAA in early September - most which were held for 1-4 weeks since arriving in China - somehow got caught in a computer error/snafu. We were all eagerly waiting yesterday as we read about LOAs coming in on other sites - some with LIDs later than all of ours. After waiting all day for some good "news" we found out about the computer glitch late last night. The CCAA had not so much as notified our agency that there was a problem and now they are waiting for our agency's Chinese liason to arrive the end of next week to "straighten things out". THEN to add even more insult to our already injured hearts, our agency received a package of LOA's this morning - for families logged in at the END of Sept into the middle of October!! They totally just skipped us and are going to wait until next week to have things corrected. My heart is so very heavy. We do not have the hope to travel now until the end of February - since China shuts down for 10 days for the Chinese New Year which is on Feb 7 this year. Some of the families who received their LOAs today had their dossiers go to China 2 months after ours arrived.
Life is not fair - wear a helmet! I have heard repeatedly - but it doesn't hurt my head nearly so much as my heart - injustice is so hard to handle.
On top of this bad news day, we lost our dear Maggie - 17 mth old Golden Retriever this morning. She was born with a congenital heart issue and had a progressively worsening murmur. She went into pulmonary edema last night and labored well into late this morning. The vet arrived close to 11am to ease her into the great doggie beyond. We will surely miss her and how she loved to run and fetch; to jump into the lake and bark at the geese; and of course how she unmercifully loved to chew on our kitty cats and chase them through the house.
We have nothing to hear on the China front now for at least a week. It will be a long, quiet week. We will try to focus on Christmas preparations and pray that Jeremy will not lie in his bed and wonder sadly why his Mama and Baba are taking so very long to come and take him home to his family.
Mary
Life is not fair - wear a helmet! I have heard repeatedly - but it doesn't hurt my head nearly so much as my heart - injustice is so hard to handle.
On top of this bad news day, we lost our dear Maggie - 17 mth old Golden Retriever this morning. She was born with a congenital heart issue and had a progressively worsening murmur. She went into pulmonary edema last night and labored well into late this morning. The vet arrived close to 11am to ease her into the great doggie beyond. We will surely miss her and how she loved to run and fetch; to jump into the lake and bark at the geese; and of course how she unmercifully loved to chew on our kitty cats and chase them through the house.
We have nothing to hear on the China front now for at least a week. It will be a long, quiet week. We will try to focus on Christmas preparations and pray that Jeremy will not lie in his bed and wonder sadly why his Mama and Baba are taking so very long to come and take him home to his family.
Mary
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Century Club
The Century Club is a club you NEVER want to join. It means you have been waiting for 100 or more days from you LID - waiting for the Letter of Acceptance or Seeking Confirmation letter. This letter is new in the process since our last adoption in 2006 - it is part of the Hague Treaty for international adoption compliance. It in essence asks the parents if they "truly want to adopt said child" that they have been waiting and waiting and waiting to go and pick up?! Well, OF COURSE we still want to adopt him!! It now precedes the TA (travel approval) by 2-4 weeks. But it is a necessary piece of red tape that prolongs the process yet another 3-4weeks. We still have yet to receive it. Add to the 101 days since our LID - we had our dossier actually sent to China on 7/29/07 but it was unfortunately not logged in until 9/3/07 - an additional 36 days to our waiting time. So we have officially been waiting 137 days since our dossier went to China. With all of our prior 3 adoptions from China, we never were more than 87 days from LID. We now have great concern that we will get to China before our visas expire on January 18th. That will cost us several more hundred dollars to redo. We are not in this waiting alone, though - all of us who were logged in during September are still waiting - and most of us were logged in late, too.
I truly know that God is in control - it is my weak nature that is so impatient. Just this morning I was pondering just how long the Jewish nation waited for the Messiah to come. 400 years without a word from God! Now that was a long wait!! But they still held out hope and watched and waited. And at just the right time God sent His Son as a baby born in a stable to a normal, everyday Jewish couple.
The day will arrive when we will get to go and pick up our dear son, Jeremy. And, yes, we might have to spend hundreds of dollars more to get new visas, too. But the pain of this loooong labor will pale as we have the rest of our lives to enjoy him and watch him grow.
Sure would appreciate any prayers for this way belated LOA, though! :-)
Mary
I truly know that God is in control - it is my weak nature that is so impatient. Just this morning I was pondering just how long the Jewish nation waited for the Messiah to come. 400 years without a word from God! Now that was a long wait!! But they still held out hope and watched and waited. And at just the right time God sent His Son as a baby born in a stable to a normal, everyday Jewish couple.
The day will arrive when we will get to go and pick up our dear son, Jeremy. And, yes, we might have to spend hundreds of dollars more to get new visas, too. But the pain of this loooong labor will pale as we have the rest of our lives to enjoy him and watch him grow.
Sure would appreciate any prayers for this way belated LOA, though! :-)
Mary
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
New pictures yet again!
What a great smile!!!
With Charis who is now home in America.
He can even hold a piece of paper with his left stump! This sent my heart soaring!!
With his "family" at the orphanage.
Mary
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Jeremy is smiling!
We are following the Chapman's blog as they pick up Charis and a few pix were posted there yesterday. I nearly totally missed my little mister in a group of kids from the orphanage. Why? Because they buzzed his hair and his face looks so much fuller since he is smiling! We don't have any pictures of Jeremy in a full smile. He is in this shot, but unfortunately a fellow orphan's hand is giving the victory sign right in front of Jeremy's face. BUT you can still see the smile with his full cheeks and scrunched up eyes. Can't wait to see him face to face. Click on the picture to see it explode on your screen.
Mary
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A note from China
This morning I received an email from another family who is adopting their daughter from the same orphanage that Jeremy is at. She and her husband met Jeremy yesterday and were able to give him our package. Here is her note to me:
We spent yesterday at the SWI and saw and met Jeremy...he is amazing. He is so proud (in the good sense of that word) and confident. He has a wonderful personality and nothing is going to stand in his way. We took many pictures of him and when I get back home I will send them all to you. The neat thing is that we spent the night in Yueyang to tour the island there on Dongting Lake. On our way out of the city, we passed the orphanage again and Charis wanted to stop by one more time to say goodbye. We went in unexpectedly and the kids were still home for lunch. What fun! WE got more video and many more pictures...Jeremy so wanted to see the video we were taking. We told him we would copy it and send it to his mama and baba. What a son you are getting. He is worth every second of the wait.
This was such an encouragement to my heart. The adversary has been working overtime to bring my heart down with worry, doubts, illness and lack of finances. Our God is bigger than the adversary and stronger by far. I knew from the moment I read Jeremy's first write up in his original file that he was going to be a strong, determined child - one that I would be honored to call my son. Oh, how my heart wants that LOA (letter of acceptance)! We are on day 73 of the wait and certainly hoped to help bring down the waiting averages with an early arrival. I still remember with our first adoption back in 2004, an acronym was made TCIGT - which means "to China in God's time" - how very true. I have never been one to be credited with the virtue of patience, however!
Blessings and good night!
Mary
We spent yesterday at the SWI and saw and met Jeremy...he is amazing. He is so proud (in the good sense of that word) and confident. He has a wonderful personality and nothing is going to stand in his way. We took many pictures of him and when I get back home I will send them all to you. The neat thing is that we spent the night in Yueyang to tour the island there on Dongting Lake. On our way out of the city, we passed the orphanage again and Charis wanted to stop by one more time to say goodbye. We went in unexpectedly and the kids were still home for lunch. What fun! WE got more video and many more pictures...Jeremy so wanted to see the video we were taking. We told him we would copy it and send it to his mama and baba. What a son you are getting. He is worth every second of the wait.
This was such an encouragement to my heart. The adversary has been working overtime to bring my heart down with worry, doubts, illness and lack of finances. Our God is bigger than the adversary and stronger by far. I knew from the moment I read Jeremy's first write up in his original file that he was going to be a strong, determined child - one that I would be honored to call my son. Oh, how my heart wants that LOA (letter of acceptance)! We are on day 73 of the wait and certainly hoped to help bring down the waiting averages with an early arrival. I still remember with our first adoption back in 2004, an acronym was made TCIGT - which means "to China in God's time" - how very true. I have never been one to be credited with the virtue of patience, however!
Blessings and good night!
Mary
Friday, November 9, 2007
In the beginning....
"Let's start at the very beginning ..... that's a very good place to start." This is our 4th special need/waiting child adoption from China. On our last trip to China in December 2006 to bring Sarabeth into our family, we were fortunate enough to meet the Ellisons ... as they were adopting Ammon at the time. We chatted about adoption, yada, yada, and how they came to bring Ammon in to their family. I mentioned to Stefani to keep me in mind if they ever would have a hard to place child on their list of waiting children with CHI (Children's House Int'l) - Stefani gave me her "card" and I slipped it in my bag.
After arriving home to the states, I joined CHI yahoo group and gained access to their waiting child list. This was in February and when I saw dear Atticus' face my heart pounded and my face flushed warm. All you adoptive moms know what I'm talking about. I said to myself, geez we just got home!!! Of course, having done 3 adoptions in the last 3 years, this situation was nothing new to me! But we were rather, how shall I say, adoption poor by this time and I knew we would have to have a very large grant to even consider another child. I emailed Stefani and reintroduced myself - she immediately remembered me. I asked if anyone was showing interest in Atticus as of yet and she said no. I ventured to ask the unthinkable .... would CHI even consider us since we had just returned home two months before. Stefani said that stranger things have happened and if we were meant to be his family, it would happen. BUT she wanted us to wait a bit - 4-6 weeks to allow anyone else to come forward that wouldn't need a special exemption. She did agree to send me his full info sheet and medical. So I tucked Atticus in my heart, shared his info with John and prayed for God's will to be done.
Several weeks later, as is common for Stefani/CHI to do, an update is posted on the yahoo group about all the children who are still waiting and need a bit of advocacy for them. She listed several children, but Atticus' name was NOT on the list. My heart nearly pounded out of my chest!! Stefani said she would let me know if anyone else became seriously interested in Atticus. I promptly emailed her and fearly asked why was Atticus not on the list - had someone else become interested in him - and why hadn't she told me this!! Adoption mommas - you know how much of a "mother bear" you can become at times! Stefani emailed me back and in bold letters stated, the family that is interested in Atticus is "...YOU, SILLY!" I laughed and laughed - she really was taking our interest in him seriously.
A few weeks later, Atticus was given a $6000 Brittany's Hope Grant. Oh, my, this is exactly the kind of help we needed. I emailed Stefani again and asked how much longer we had to wait before CHI would allow us to proceed since there was still no one coming forward for him. Somehow, Stefani and I were miscommunicating I guess, because while I was, at this point, waiting for HER to give me the right of way, she was waiting for ME to say, yes we want to proceed. So in April we had the go ahead to proceed with the process for Atticus. John, however, was still somewhere in limbo even with the $6000 grant. He knew just how much another adoption would cost, and while $6000 is terrific, it's not even half of what is needed. It took John another 3 weeks to finally say, "so what do you want to name this little boy?" I spun around and stared at him and said very emphatically, "don't you play with my heart!" He replied he was not playing and yes, we could proceed with the adoption.
WHOOOEEEE was all my heart could scream! We still hadn't even mentioned this to our children, church family or anyone else. We would have another son! We sent in our LOI the first week of May and had to wait twice as long for our PA due to the need to get a family size waiver and the person who had to sign that waiver was on a 3 week tour of the good ole' US of A!! We had PA in July and I could rest assured that I could finish up the dossier that I had already been working hard on! I had the dossier sent directly to CHI after being authenticated, hoping to have it there by a Friday towards the end of July. Dossiers go out only on Friday and a week could mean alot of difference in regard to log in time, processing time and the time it took to receive the next paperwork from China (the CCAA).
Our dossier went out on July 28th and was in Beijing on August 2nd. Some of my friends had got their dossiers in just 3-7 days ahead of me and they had a LID (log in date) of July 30. We were hoping for a quick LID, too, but we waited and waited with no LID reported. On Oct 12, after thinking we were waiting with a potential LID of 9-10wks before, we were told that it took over a month to have our dossier logged into the CCAA in China. I was deflated and sad to realize I would not get to travel with some of my adoption friends. I finally handed the entire situation back to God (the best place for it to always stay) and rested in the fact that God was in control of the entire timing of this adoption despite how low my heart was feeling. In reality, we were only on day 43 of our wait for LOA (letter of acceptance) instead of day 74. That is a huge difference, but so be it!
In the meantime, I must have considered a dozen names for our new son. I started out with the name Jeremy and then went all the way around the bend and back before deciding that Jeremy would actually be his name! His picture is forever at my bedside for a quiet goodnight prayer. Sarabeth also asked for his picture to be in their room, too. We were able to send Jeremy his first package (which included a photo album of his new family) with another family who were travelling to his orphanage to adopt their new daughter. This family was so kind in not only delivering this package, but took numerous pictures of Jeremy for us, too. Some of these pictures are what has already been posted on this blog - thank you Walkers!! A second package is on its way to China right now. The Chapmans are on their way to adopt their daughter who is also in Jeremy's orphanage. So I will soon have even MORE pictures of my son to post all around my house!
Thanks for visiting our blog and reading all the way through this long post. I just want to say that God has been so gracious to us as we follow His direction in the adoption of these children. So as I recently posted on one of my yahoo adoption sites:
There's no other more worthy thing to invest your time, life or money into - than the lives of children. Dear Sarabeth had a wonderful life in China with a wonderful foster family for nearly 7 years .... but she was NEVER told that there was a God who created her, loves her and died for her to be able to go to Heaven. She is just eating up the Word of God and glows with inner joy!! No amount of money, time or having a safe/comfortable life can compare to seeing this transformation in her life! And dear little Juls - she would have been dead in the arms ofsome poor ayi, since no one in China could have ever fixed her heart -it was a real toughy for the docs here in the states! And if we have to pay the bills off for years to come, so be it!
No we are not crazy and no we are not trying to fill some void in our lives or trying to "stay young" by having kids in our late forties! We have heard all of those comments! The crazy one most of all. But when you do it once, you finally know that it's not that bad/hard and geez, we could do this for yet another child! ... and another .... and another!
Catch the adoption Spirit!! Actually several of my email/adoption girlfriends think we should create a new AA - adopters anonymous! Hello, my name is Mary and I peeked at another waiting child list just this morning! LOL! Another heart issue for me is this - when I reach Heaven's gates, I want to have run a long, hard race, fought a tough, exhausting fight and fall at the dear Lord's feet totally spent and used up for Him. I do NOT want to be wallowing in riches in my retirement years, sipping tea by the pool and taking sight seeing world trips! I do not want to be refreshed and freshly showered - I want to be worn out and filthy from the work of bringing every child I can to the Lord's throne. THEN and only then will I truly enter into rest and be able to rejoice forevermore with all the children HE has brought into my life!!
Blessings!
Mary
After arriving home to the states, I joined CHI yahoo group and gained access to their waiting child list. This was in February and when I saw dear Atticus' face my heart pounded and my face flushed warm. All you adoptive moms know what I'm talking about. I said to myself, geez we just got home!!! Of course, having done 3 adoptions in the last 3 years, this situation was nothing new to me! But we were rather, how shall I say, adoption poor by this time and I knew we would have to have a very large grant to even consider another child. I emailed Stefani and reintroduced myself - she immediately remembered me. I asked if anyone was showing interest in Atticus as of yet and she said no. I ventured to ask the unthinkable .... would CHI even consider us since we had just returned home two months before. Stefani said that stranger things have happened and if we were meant to be his family, it would happen. BUT she wanted us to wait a bit - 4-6 weeks to allow anyone else to come forward that wouldn't need a special exemption. She did agree to send me his full info sheet and medical. So I tucked Atticus in my heart, shared his info with John and prayed for God's will to be done.
Several weeks later, as is common for Stefani/CHI to do, an update is posted on the yahoo group about all the children who are still waiting and need a bit of advocacy for them. She listed several children, but Atticus' name was NOT on the list. My heart nearly pounded out of my chest!! Stefani said she would let me know if anyone else became seriously interested in Atticus. I promptly emailed her and fearly asked why was Atticus not on the list - had someone else become interested in him - and why hadn't she told me this!! Adoption mommas - you know how much of a "mother bear" you can become at times! Stefani emailed me back and in bold letters stated, the family that is interested in Atticus is "...YOU, SILLY!" I laughed and laughed - she really was taking our interest in him seriously.
A few weeks later, Atticus was given a $6000 Brittany's Hope Grant. Oh, my, this is exactly the kind of help we needed. I emailed Stefani again and asked how much longer we had to wait before CHI would allow us to proceed since there was still no one coming forward for him. Somehow, Stefani and I were miscommunicating I guess, because while I was, at this point, waiting for HER to give me the right of way, she was waiting for ME to say, yes we want to proceed. So in April we had the go ahead to proceed with the process for Atticus. John, however, was still somewhere in limbo even with the $6000 grant. He knew just how much another adoption would cost, and while $6000 is terrific, it's not even half of what is needed. It took John another 3 weeks to finally say, "so what do you want to name this little boy?" I spun around and stared at him and said very emphatically, "don't you play with my heart!" He replied he was not playing and yes, we could proceed with the adoption.
WHOOOEEEE was all my heart could scream! We still hadn't even mentioned this to our children, church family or anyone else. We would have another son! We sent in our LOI the first week of May and had to wait twice as long for our PA due to the need to get a family size waiver and the person who had to sign that waiver was on a 3 week tour of the good ole' US of A!! We had PA in July and I could rest assured that I could finish up the dossier that I had already been working hard on! I had the dossier sent directly to CHI after being authenticated, hoping to have it there by a Friday towards the end of July. Dossiers go out only on Friday and a week could mean alot of difference in regard to log in time, processing time and the time it took to receive the next paperwork from China (the CCAA).
Our dossier went out on July 28th and was in Beijing on August 2nd. Some of my friends had got their dossiers in just 3-7 days ahead of me and they had a LID (log in date) of July 30. We were hoping for a quick LID, too, but we waited and waited with no LID reported. On Oct 12, after thinking we were waiting with a potential LID of 9-10wks before, we were told that it took over a month to have our dossier logged into the CCAA in China. I was deflated and sad to realize I would not get to travel with some of my adoption friends. I finally handed the entire situation back to God (the best place for it to always stay) and rested in the fact that God was in control of the entire timing of this adoption despite how low my heart was feeling. In reality, we were only on day 43 of our wait for LOA (letter of acceptance) instead of day 74. That is a huge difference, but so be it!
In the meantime, I must have considered a dozen names for our new son. I started out with the name Jeremy and then went all the way around the bend and back before deciding that Jeremy would actually be his name! His picture is forever at my bedside for a quiet goodnight prayer. Sarabeth also asked for his picture to be in their room, too. We were able to send Jeremy his first package (which included a photo album of his new family) with another family who were travelling to his orphanage to adopt their new daughter. This family was so kind in not only delivering this package, but took numerous pictures of Jeremy for us, too. Some of these pictures are what has already been posted on this blog - thank you Walkers!! A second package is on its way to China right now. The Chapmans are on their way to adopt their daughter who is also in Jeremy's orphanage. So I will soon have even MORE pictures of my son to post all around my house!
Thanks for visiting our blog and reading all the way through this long post. I just want to say that God has been so gracious to us as we follow His direction in the adoption of these children. So as I recently posted on one of my yahoo adoption sites:
There's no other more worthy thing to invest your time, life or money into - than the lives of children. Dear Sarabeth had a wonderful life in China with a wonderful foster family for nearly 7 years .... but she was NEVER told that there was a God who created her, loves her and died for her to be able to go to Heaven. She is just eating up the Word of God and glows with inner joy!! No amount of money, time or having a safe/comfortable life can compare to seeing this transformation in her life! And dear little Juls - she would have been dead in the arms ofsome poor ayi, since no one in China could have ever fixed her heart -it was a real toughy for the docs here in the states! And if we have to pay the bills off for years to come, so be it!
No we are not crazy and no we are not trying to fill some void in our lives or trying to "stay young" by having kids in our late forties! We have heard all of those comments! The crazy one most of all. But when you do it once, you finally know that it's not that bad/hard and geez, we could do this for yet another child! ... and another .... and another!
Catch the adoption Spirit!! Actually several of my email/adoption girlfriends think we should create a new AA - adopters anonymous! Hello, my name is Mary and I peeked at another waiting child list just this morning! LOL! Another heart issue for me is this - when I reach Heaven's gates, I want to have run a long, hard race, fought a tough, exhausting fight and fall at the dear Lord's feet totally spent and used up for Him. I do NOT want to be wallowing in riches in my retirement years, sipping tea by the pool and taking sight seeing world trips! I do not want to be refreshed and freshly showered - I want to be worn out and filthy from the work of bringing every child I can to the Lord's throne. THEN and only then will I truly enter into rest and be able to rejoice forevermore with all the children HE has brought into my life!!
Blessings!
Mary
Thursday, November 8, 2007
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