DTC.....finally!

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pur and fautless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

The other day while in a store with Emily, a stranger asked me why I adopted Emily. I never quite know how to respond to those "out of the blue" questions from people whose intentions I don't know. Sometimes people can be rather hateful so I am very careful as to how I respond. I am usually quick and to the point but I got the feeling that this lady was truly interested so I shared a little more than I usually do. It ended up being a nice conversation and throughout the day I found myself dwelling on the intentions of my heart as it relates to adoption. It is a passion that runs deep and I am so honored that God has birthed within me this love for orphaned children. We are all instructed to care for orphans and widows but not all are "called" to bring them into their homes and call them their own. How creative is our God that He builds within each of His children different gifts and talent as well as passions so that His purposes can be accomplished. I guess I was just thinking about the fact that I am so thankful that He has gifted me with a passion for His precious children who haven't known the love of a mommy and daddy and I have the joy of being a mommy to 2 of those little ones. This lady asked me, "how did you grow to love her?" My answer was, "well I didn't actually grow to love her, I just loved her." I could tell that this woman was baffled at my response but as I thought about it I could see how she would be confused. God gave me a love for Emily even before I knew her and it was supernatural and cannot be explained in human words so although I try I don't believe that it can ever be understood by someone who has never experienced this incredible love for someone. That love has been once again duplicated within my heart for my sweet little boy. I think about him, I even dream about him and I cannot wait until my hearts desire of holding his little body in my arms is real.

Finally, I am thrilled to report that we are DTC (Dossier to China) as of yesterday, June 22, 2010. So we are one step closer to our boy. Now the second leg of the wait begins. The process has been exhausting and frustrating simply because we so desperately want our brown eyed boy home where he belongs and everything seems to have taken longer than necessary. Nevertheless I am confident that God is orchestrating every little event and will complete our journey in His perfect timing. As I look at time-lines we are hoping that travel will be around October/November which would really be nice considering the fact that we will have him home before the holidays.

On another note, we were surprised with some updated photos of our little guy. It is so good to see him. I am still wishing to see that smile which I know he is hiding. My favorite photo is this one...

It is obvious that he is really checking out his brother and sisters. I am amazed at how much he has changed....must be the haircut. But then I am reminded of how fast time is passing and all that I am missing in his life. Oh I can't wait to snuggle him.

USCIS Approval

On Tuesday, June 2 we arrived home after a little mini-vacation and waiting in our mailbox was our USCIS Approval. For all of my non-adoption friends that is the approval from the immigration service stating that we are approved to adopt our brown-eyed boy. I quickly packaged it up and Fed Exed it to our agency right away. Once this document is authenticated and certified our dossier will be on its way to China and we are in our final leg of waiting. I was thrilled to know that we are one step closer to our boy!

While we wait....Fingerprinting Day

I haven't posted in a while simply because we have been lying in wait. Something that I do not like at all. This process seems to be taking so very long and I miss my little brown-eyed boy. The hardest part about this leg of the wait is that I have had nothing on my list of things to do which makes it all seem less than real. In fact there are times that it seems like a faint dream that I have a son in China. I think about him every day but the hope of having him in my arms is so far in the distance that I have to really work hard at thinking about him being a part of our family. It is my great hope that we will have him with us for Christmas but I just can't get my hopes up and if the first part of this process is any indication of wait times, we may be spending another holiday without our boy....triple UGH! BUT, I will remain faithful and keep my hope steadfast that in God's timing our little guy will be home with us.

We did make some progress though and had our USCIS Fingerprinting appt. last week. We were so excited to finally be able to DO something so we loaded up the gang and headed to the Immigration Office. The whole appt. was lightening fast, we arrived at 8:00 am and were done by 8:20....AMAZING! Our fingerprinting for Emily took us at least 3 hours. Well, given that things went so fast, foiled our plans of doing something special for Cody's birthday because it was so early in the morning so we hit Bass Pro Shop which was a treat in and of itself. We are not hunters, fisherman, we do not like camping or really anything outdoorsy. An occasional day hike is the extent of our outdoor activity. I guess you could call us "city folk" but this was such a treat for everyone. Knowing that a post isn't complete without a few photo's I just had to post a few shots of our excursion to commemorate fingerprinting day.

Now this is as close as we will ever get to a moose.

I think I just might have some hunters in my family after all.....but the guns just have to be pink.

"Emily get your gun"

Yee Haw!

A Room for Our Brown eyed Boy

Oh how I wish that I had some wonderfully exciting news to share. Like we were DTC but alas we are still awaiting our request for fingerprinting. Our I-800 was FINALLY filed last week and I am told that it can be anywhere from 2-3 weeks before we are called for fingerprinting and then it can be another 3-6 weeks before we receive our USCIS Approval. For all of you non-adoption folks, this is a very important piece of paper that says your family is approved by the United States Immigration Department to adopt a child. (I am hoping that the recent events concerning the Russian adoption don't mean longer waits for this document) Anyway, we are not having a hard time passing the time as life is beyond busy as I have been overwhelmed with trying to catch the kids up with their schooling coupled with day to day activities of taking care of a house, husband and 3 kids. Despite the busyness I have found that I have no problem brainstorming and planning a special place in our house for our newest member.

When we purchase our home 2 years ago, I was convinced it was absolutely perfect for our family. It was a far cry from living in a high rise condo with 3 kids and while I still think many aspects of the house plan are perfect there are a few things that I have discovered are less than ideal. For example, we have 3 floors and only 2 bedrooms on each of the floors. I would absolutely love to have all the kiddos and their playroom on the same floor but that isn't possible without a major renovation of this house. I really dislike having the kids (and their stuff) scattered from one end of the house to the other but we can't do a renovation right now and we aren't even sure it would ever be possible therefore my wheels have been turning about where to put our brown-eyed boy. We currently have a room that is on the main level of our house and close to our master bedroom that is being used as a school/playroom. We decided that since we aren't going to be homeschooling next year we could transform this room into our little guys room. However, I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have a beautiful Pot*ttery Ba*rn type entertainment unit that my daddy made for the kids that will stay in this room and I love the cornice over the window which is black and taupe colored. I would love to keep the cornice but am having a hard time finding bedding that is suitable for a little boys room that matches. Also, I want to mix some furniture as I wouldn't want white furniture for a boys room. Sooooo here are a few of my ideas. I would love love some input on what you think.

Here is our school/playroom currently. (Lighting was super bad for the photo)

This is the bed from Pot*tery Ba*rn that I love in the espresso finish. Hopefully they won't discontinue the Tho*mas Furn*iture and I could get additional pieces when we are able to move him to another room.And I absolutely love this bedding. My favorite!

Found this picture online and love the layout of the room with the shelves. Thought it might work well with our room by putting the bed up against the wall across from the entertainment unit. I also like the idea of putting a trunk or chest at the end of the bed for toys and stuff.
Not my favorite but kind of liked the "western theme" Thought the black bed was nice but I am afraid that I may get tired of the black over time. Would have to do quite a bit of searching for fabric for the bedding however accessories would be easy as we have tons of western stuff out here.

This was my least favorite but again thinking that accessories for a fishing type room would be really easy.

We also love golf and I have looked at some golf themed bedrooms....nothing jumps out at me as super cute so if you have any ideas or links for those types of room please share.

Birthday Pictures...warning cuteness alert!

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trust in you.

Isaiah 26.3

Earlier this week we were gifted with 7 photos of our brown-eyed boy celebrating his birthday. These photos are such treasures because they allow us a small glimpse into a day in his life which is soothing to us as we wait for our lives to be one in the same. We were all so excited to see him having his cake although I have to admit that as I looked at these photos my heart ached a bit because of what appeared to be sadness on his little face. To see that everyone around him seemed to be having such a wonderful time of celebrating him while he really appears to be miserable caused my "mommy instincts" to kick in wanting desperately to fix whatever it was that was making him unhappy. I have worried over these photos and felt such a longing to scoop him up and and pour out my affections upon him but have had my heart checked with the knowledge that he may have difficulty receiving and accepting this adoration and love of a family. His little heart may have been wounded causing him to shy away from attention, he may be afraid to have fun for fear that he will be disappointed or he may have simply just woken up from a nap (I know that I don't exactly feel like smiling when I just wake up). Nevertheless, my trust is in the Lord....He can bring perfect peace to my heart as well as the heart of our little boy no matter what the circumstances of our emotions are.

31/2 years ago when we first saw Emily's picture, I prayed every day that God would prepare her to meet me. I even boldly went before the Lord and asked that God would give her vivid dreams of me so that on that day when she saw me for the first time that my face would be familiar and somehow bring her comfort and that she would know that she was safe in my arms. I KNOW that God heard and answered my prayers and so I am on my knees once again praying for my little boy who is so far away, going before the throne of the God who made him asking that in a supernatural way my brown-eyed boy would have a great sense of a mother's love even if she is thousands of miles away.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20

Apparently, cake on the face is good luck.

Our sweet boy is 3!

On February 23 our sweet little boy celebrated his 3rd birthday and he did so without his family. I thought about him all day and wondered what was going through his little mind. Birthdays are always big celebrations around our house and it was difficult knowing that across the globe my son was having a birthday without me. Nevertheless, I know that this will be his last b'day without a grand celebration. We did coordinate a birthday package through Blessed Kids and are hoping for a few photos of him with his cake.

Slow Going

"Be patient then brothers until the Lords coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." James 5:7

We have worked as fast as we can to collect all our documents but it is rather slow going. Our re-location to Colorado as well as Mike's retirement proved to create a little more work in our collection process. Not to mention the new requirements that have been initiated since our adoption of Emily.

I was reminded as I read this verse in James of how patient farmers have to be as they await the birth of their crops. The girls and I planted a little tomato plant last summer and I can remember it seemed like forever before we finally saw the little green beginnings of our tomatoes and then even longer for those green tomatoes to turn red. That little tomato plant endured some harsh winds, dry soil and hot sun but in September we savored the fruit of our labor. I know that we too will savor the fruit of our labor in a big way when we have the joy of bringing our sweet boy to his forever home. So we keep slowly plugging away on this paperwork.

We have been blessed with a FANTASTIC social worker who worked with lightening speed to get our homestudy completed and in the midst of getting to know her I discovered a friend. What a nice surprise given that we had not had overly good experiences in the past with our social workers and I love having a new friend.

So we continue to work at crossing all our "t's" and dotting all our "i's" and are praying that within the next 2 weeks we will be ready to submit our I-800A.

Oh, the waiting......it can be tough but I already know how it all ends and despite the length of time I know beyond any doubt that I will feel the warmth of holding my sweet little brown eyed boy.

Updated Photos and Information.

Given that our intial information was over a year old, I was eager to get some new photos and updated stats on our boy so I contacted Adele at Blessed Kids and coordinated these items. Our update and pictures were delivered very quickly and I was thrilled to see our sweet boy. My heart ached to hold him but I was comforted to see that he looked good.

We were told that

• He weighs 21ibs & 9 oz. and is 29 1/2 inches tall.
• He is described as a quiet child who is afraid of strangers. (oh my, we might be in for a wild ride when he sees us for the first time)
• He loves food very much. (good thing since he has a mama that loves to cook)
• His most favorite thing he likes to do is have snacks. (I can provide plenty of those)
• His health is good and he has recovered well from his surgery. (YAY, God is so good and has been taking care of him all along. His cleft repair looks fantastic and from the information we've been given it appears as though his palate was uneffected.)
• He can walk all over the place. However he is not willing to go to places that he is not familiar with. (I know that I am going to be on my knees asking God to prepare this little boy for the day when this strange woman and man will take him away from all that he has ever known and emerse him into some of the most unfamiliar places. I already hurt for his little heart as I know he will grieve with a sadness that I have never known. May God prepare me to know how to meet all of his needs)

I was thrilled to see his darling face in these photo's but my longing for him has now increased as I see how much he is changing and we are missing all those special moments. These photo's are my motivation to move as fast as I can in getting this paperwork completed.

PA!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful celebration in our house this year. It was a beautiful fall day and we feasted with our good friends The VanKirks and gave thanks for this new addition that would be joining our family. On November 30th I received news from our agency that we had been approved by CCAA to proceed in the process of bringing our brown eyed boy home.

Let the paperchase begin!

The Waiting Game

"I saw God before me all the time. Nothing can shake me; he's right by my side. I'm glad from the inside out, ecstatic; I've pitched my tent in the land of hope. Acts 2:25 (Msg)

With our LOI on its way to China we begin what I know will be a long series of periods of waiting. In the adoption process it can often feel as though you are in a constant state of waiting for some type of document or some sort of approval. We know that this with this adoption the agony of our waiting will be magnified due to the fact that while we will compile the documents for our dossier our son is a world away from us in China. In most Chinese adoptions the dossier paperwork is already logged into China prior to receiving the referral of a child which is what we experienced with our adoption of Emily. That scenario makes it a little easier in that once you see the face of your son or daughter the time for travel is shortened because you are paper-ready to bring him or her home. Due to the fact we have not even begun the paperwork our wait to bring Wei Zhongcun home will be anywhere from 8 - 10 months. Despite knowing how difficult this wait will be I have great assurance that God began this work and the timing is already ordained by the one who created my son and HE will bring about the fulfillment of each milestone throughout this process in perfect fashion. I will strive to be patient and trust HIS ways and know that HE is never far from our little boy. He will hold him in HIS arms while we wait. I am reminded of how God stretched and expanded my comprehension of who HE was and how vast HIS loving arms could expand during our adoption of Emily. God used this time of "waiting" to polish and refine some rough edges of my humanness. I think that at this present time of my life I am in great need of having those truths become big in my life again while those rough edges have become visible again and are in need of some polish. And so I will wait, I will trust and "my flesh will live in hope..... knowing that HE has made know to me the ways of life and HE will make me full of gladness with HIS presence." (Acts 2:26-28) AndI with great joy I will anticipate that beautiful day when my brown eyed boy is in my arms.

Here are our referral pics. What a cutie pie!