In hope...

a frustrating week

Well, we thought we were getting close to a referral.  It seems it's further away than we want it to be....

On Wednesday we received the disheartening news that we need to redo lots of paperwork for our dossier that we'd completed months ago.  Apparently China started enforcing policies that they haven't paid attention to in the past.  So now none of the documents in our dossier can be older than 6 months.  Most of ours had been completed in Feb-April and then notarized in May. 

So now, we're on the paper trail again.  Please pray for quick contacting and processing of everything from new certified copies of birth certificates to criminal clearances in Ohio.  There are a total of nine documents we need to redo.  Pray this doesn't delay us too much. 

We want these girls in our arms!

An Update

In trying to be creative and sharing my heart’s impressions of adoption, I’ve been realizing that I’m failing to share with you where we’re actually at in the process.

We’re getting very close to referral time!  Maybe before the end of the year, maybe before the Chinese New Year (mid January), we’ll see.  A referral means that a specific little girl’s picture and information about her medical condition will be sent to us.  We then have about 24 hours to decide if we want to accept or reject this referral.  Reasons we would reject a referral would be that we feel this little one’s medical needs are more than we can handle living over here.  We have limited ongoing resources available in our city, so we’re looking for something that would be more minor and correctable. 

Once we accept a referral, it will still take 4-7 months before we can travel to get her.  We need China’s official approval.  We need to inform the American government which child we intend to adopt.  Then, the US government’s approval gets sent back to China and then we receive permission to get our child. 

I wish it could be easier and faster, but all of this back and forth protects children from trafficking, which is extremely important.

All of this is the process for one child, and honestly we’re still not entirely sure when we might get matched with a second child.  Apparently it’s harder to find baby girls with more minor needs on the special focus list, which is what needs to happen for us to be able to adopt both at once.

So, we appreciate your prayers and we’ll keep you updated!

Acronym Answers

LOI = Letter of Intent…to adopt a specific child

PA = Pre-Approval

USCIS = United States Citizen and Immigration Services

CCAA = China Center of Adoption Affairs (am I wrong in this?  does it have a "w" in it now?)

DTC = Dossier To China… meaning it was put in the mail

LID = Log in Date… dossier registration in China

LSC = Letter of Seeking Confirmation… comes from CCAA, gets sent to our adoption agency

LOA = Letter of Acceptance…China agrees we can adopt this specific child

TA = Travel Approval

CA = Consulate Appointment

Now when I or others use these little letters, you'll know what we're talking about!

Adoption Acronyms Quiz

As we've entered the adoption world, there has been so much to learn.  We search sites and blogs to get information and they all use this acronym lingo and just assume that everyone knows what they're talking about.  I decided I needed a master list.  Below is just a portion of the acronyms we've learned. 

So, I challenge you to take the following acronyms quiz.  Grab a pen and pencil or open a blank word document and write down what you think each of the following stands for.  Then, for fun, leave me a comment and tell me how many of these you know, or think you know.  Don't post answers, or you may ruin the fun for others, just leave me a number.  Then next Saturday, I will post the answers.

What do the following letters stand for?

LOI=

PA=

USCIS=

CCAA=

DTC=

LID=

LSC=

LOA=

TA=

CA=

Geranium Musings

This is my geranium.  It’s been around a long time, pretty much since we moved here.  If you know geraniums, you know usually they’re an annual flower, meaning when it gets cold, they die.  But apparently as a house plant, in a pot, they can live for years.  As you can see, it’s getting kinda long and lanky and not so beautiful these days.  The other day I was picking brown leaves off of it and considering the following analogy:

Hope in the adoption process is a little like my geranium.

At times it’s been beautiful, flowering and green and very much alive.

At times it has a lot of brown leaves and looks rather sickly, but even then, buds are present.

Sometimes it’s looked so bad that I’ve cut off all the stems and started from scratch, but I keep the roots around, because I know it will grow again.  The roots are alive and healthy enough to sustain the plant to keep growing.

Sometimes, though not right now, this plant has large beautiful blossoms that cause the stems to bend and droop because they’re heavy.  The stems fall over but they don’t break.

Are you seeing the analogies?

There are so many ups and downs in this process, it’s crazy.  Literally it could drive a person crazy.  However, I haven’t gone crazy…well, not yet.  You see, I know there is an end to the process and when those little girls are in our arms, all the ups and downs will be worth it, for sure. 

And then I remember that my hope is not in circumstances.  It’s not in the timing of the adoption, which in my opinion is NEVER too soon.  It’s not in grants or financial help from others, though at times the cost of adoption is overwhelming.  It’s not in the small victories along the way.  “We finished our home study!”  “We turned in everything for our dossier!”  “We have our LID!”  (More on acronyms I’ve learned in my next post.) 

No, my hope is a “sure and steadfast anchor for my soul.”  My hope is in Jesus.  He holds this whole process in His hands and I can trust in Him.

Practice makes Perfect...

These are our neighbors/teammates/friends.  We love them like crazy and spend lots of time with them. 

Being with these girls is so much fun and we think it's good practice for our future.  One night when playing after dinner, she...

...did this to Mark.

It's a good look, don't you think? :)

If he can sit through that, and smile, I think he's going to be a great dad!