Friday, March 28, 2008

I wait on the Lord...

This is only my second post to our blog--I am getting the hang of it! Hopefully this will be a meaningful way to express my emotions as we walk this road, and to share it with friends and family.

I am just getting impatient waiting for our home study to be completed. The initial draft has been done for over 3 weeks, but the review/revision process has been taking, in my opinion, WAY too long! This is the second-to-last piece of paper to add to our dossier before we begin the notarization-certification-authentication process and the dossier goes to China. Then the REAL waiting begins: waiting for a "match" with our daughter, and waiting for a travel date to go get her. If it were up to me, I'd be in China right now picking her out (and heaven knows it would be hard to come back with only 1!) But I am trying to remember that God is in control of the timing, and His timing is best. Tom is good at reminding me of this, something that I know from experience but can easily forget when we're waiting for this monumental occasion in our family!

I am enjoying reading blogs from other families (that I don't even know) who are actually in China RIGHT NOW with their new daughters. Reading about their adventures, and the struggles to get to know their new babies, nurther them, bond with them, and simply get a handle on the mundane daily tasks of bathing, dressing, eating, and sleeping, has been exciting for me. I just wonder when we'll be in that place.

For now, I will do my best to rest in this place. The kids are on spring break and we enjoyed a fun morning taking Tad, our golden retriever puppy, into the woods to hike the lovely trails of Eglin reservation. Tad loves to wade in the beaver pond and get really dirty in the sand when he climbs out. He shakes his whole body and his hind end and tail are always last to shake. Without fail it makes the kids and me crack up!

Jared and Anna are wanting more independence and are SO excited that we have started to let them, on occasion, take a walkie talkie into the woods to hike to their "fort" and hang out there without mom or dad. They check in by radio every 10 minutes. Now that I know exactly where their fort is, I feel more comfortable with this...

We read a book from the school library about a little boy being adopted from Korea, written from the perspective of the big brother. The book made me sob--it was so lovely--and it enabled Anna to express some of her feelings of apprehension about the adoption. I know she will be a wonderful big sister, but I also know there are big adjustments ahead for us all. Praying it will be a smooth transition!

OK, time to make lunch. More tomorrow--maybe even news that the Home Study is complete??? I can only hope!
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Adventure is Underway

We are excited to have a forum to share our joy and our news as we walk the journey toward our newest daughter. This will also give me a way to journal my emotions as the process unfolds and as our family grows. Thanks for reading!
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Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007