Dossier Sent...sorta...

Okay so I just found out that our dossier was sent to China on October 7, 2011. However, on October 10, 2011, our social worker called to inform us that China now wants 3 additional letters of recommendation. What?! I was instructed not to panic and that the letters, when received, would be faxed to China. I was sent the very specific list of what China wants to be included in the letter and I got them immediately out to a close personal friend, Eden's daycare and our pastor. (As per the instructions). We are waiting on our pastor's letter, but God love the man, he has already written one for us for the home study and it didn't have to be nearly this involved. He is working with our church administrator to get it done before she goes out of town on vacation. God really love her, she is such a help and a blessing to us. So hopefully all 3 letters will get there next week. So we are basically in the "waiting" game. 3 to 4 weeks is what we are looking at for the Log in Date now.

We also have applied for the Both Hands project through Lifesong for our fundraising opportunity. We hope to have that expedited and get the project done before the holidays. They said they would work with us on the timing if they could. So our prayers are in that direction. Other than that...nothing new or exciting to report. Guess I will see you back on this blog in 3 to 4 weeks.......

Lifesong for Orphans & Both Hands

 

Loving these organizations! We are going through these organizations to help fund raise for our adoption. Lifesong, has several fund raising options but the one we liked the best was the one where we partner with the Both Hands organization and help a widow in the process. The purposes of each organization are below.

Lifesong: Bringing joy and purpose to orphans. We seek to mobilize the church, His body, where each member can provide a unique and special service: some to adopt, some to care, some to give.

Both Hands is a non-profit organization with a two-fold mission. We serve widows in a very practical way in our communities, while raising funds to help willing families adopt.

I had struggled with the dilemma of what to do about fundraising. How can we do it in a way that allows people a tax credit and is legal. Funneling through the church through the foster care and orphans ministry line item while legal was still kinda sketchy and I didn't feel good about it. We wanted to apply to Both Hands but the wait time for approval is like 6-8 weeks, which would be fine but Eric jumped the gun and involved our deacon in on what we wanted to do and she readily identified a single woman who has a time-sensitive situation and we need to help her sooner rather than later. So I was able to get through the grueling application process for Lifesong one day while my mom watched the kids...it took me 7 hours to hash it all out. The night before Eric actually spoke with the Director for Both Hands and was told that we can do the fundraising outside of the organization and he would send us the project manual. But again...how to handle the money? So I emailed Lifesong to inquire about an expedited process. And was pleased and shocked to get a reply with in an hour on a Friday afternoon! The said they could try to put a rush on it and get it reviewed in 2-3 weeks, no promises but they did tell me to put a note on the application and request a quick review. So, YAY, problem potentially solved. So now we are waiting to hear back from Lifesong and hopefully it will all run in God's perfect timing and be a great success! All this to say, both organizations were wonderful to listen to both our requests and concerns and try to help us out. I pray we will officially get to work with them soon!

Dossier Go Time!

I am very glad to announce that our Dossier is finished! But what a finish it was. The Dossier is comprised of 13 documents that are sent to China for China's approval. One such document is our state criminal background check and fingerprints. Well ours...expired. Nice, eh? I think I might have thrown up in the back of my mouth just a little when my case worker informed me of this. But she quickly let me know that I could get a local background check from one of the local police departments and they can write a letter, one for each Eric and I, that says we have no current criminal history. So I'm thinking, whew, just get a simple letter. Well our first police department doesn't do such a letter, the second I contacted can do the letter but can't give me a time frame for completion but they assured me it was likely to be less that two weeks. So the third try is always the charm right...yes, right! So thank you Shelby County Sheriff's Office and your staff in the records department! God love these people they did it for me in like 3o minutes! The only catch was that Eric and I both had to be present and it was a 40 minute drive away; oh and both of my children were conveniently OUT of school and with us. However, my children did great and the drive wasn't all that bad and in the end we had our letters saying that we had not committed any crimes in Shelby County. Here is where I must laugh. China will accept a local background check over a national FBI check. Understand that it is the national FBI check over all 50 states that expired, but to remedy that, a one county check will suffice. How many freakin' counties do you think there are in the entire U.S. of A.?So I could have robbed several banks just one county over and it wouldn't matter. I love China.

So now we wait. The Dossier is being authenticated as I type and then it will go through translation and then it will be sent to China; or maybe it gets translated in China, not sure and don't really care. Authentication takes 2-3 weeks. Once authenticated it takes like 3 days for it to get to China and then 2-3 weeks for us to get logged in. If I haven't harped on this enough, it is that log in date (LID) that we want...soon as we get the LID we can start looking for our child. Apparently our social worker has a few in mind for us already which is why she was so encouraging about us getting the Dossier completed yesterday. They have a surplus of boys right now in their system and so she asked me if we still were willing to take a boy, to which I replied..."Yes. Of course." However, the decision is not mine, it's up to God and we are trusting him to clearly reveal to us upon sight which child he has chosen for us. What I mean is that when we both see the child, we will both know, we won't haggle over which we prefer, we will just know our child when we see him/her. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH, it's so exciting and terrifying. Some days I'm like, "What the crap am I doing?! What if this new child totally screws up my other children?! What if s/he is a holy terror and it is just all wrong!?" Then, I hear the voice of my Lord saying to me, "Rest. I got this. I know what I'm doing; even if you don't know what you're doing." Sigh. Thank you Jesus.

CIS Approval

So we have finallly have it...CIS Approval! It came yesterday. But I have to tell you the funny story of how I found out. I was backing out of my drive way and said aloud in my car to Jesus, "Okay Jesus, today is the day we get approval from CIS. So just make it materialize in my mailbox." And I meant it. I then opened my mailbox to see a clipper magazine thing with a white nondescript envelope sitting face down on the magazine. I sighed a little and thought, a bill. But in keeping with faith, I yelled at the envelope as I was flipping it over to see who it was from, "HOMELAND SECURITY!!!" And when I flipped it over...it indeed was from Homeland Security! I laughed out loud and screamed at how funny Jesus is. I praised him and thanked him and we laughed together some more. I think the next time I see a white nondescript envelope in my mailbox I am going to scream, "CHECK FOR A MILLION DOLLARS TAX FREE!" God is good! So now I will run by all the items needed for the Dossier on Monday. Our timeline is now:

1. 2-3 weeks for authentication of the Dossier

2. 2-3 weeks for our Log In Date (LID) with China

3. Once we get the LID we start the matching process!!! That is the exciting part! Finding our child!

4. Once we have a match it is 5-6 months before we can travel to get our child.

That is all for now!

Space Camp Blessing

 

 

Okay so you are probably thinking...what in the world does that title have to do with adopting a baby? It's a good story and since there is NADA to report on the adoption front...waiting, waiting, waiting for the Feds, I felt like this was something cool to write about. And indeed it is. I have been blessed with the opportunity for the past four years now, of getting to interpret for Deaf Space Camp at the NASA Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. It literally is a "blast"! It is my favorite interpreting assignment of the year. I block off space camp week on the calendar every year! This year was strange because it should have happened in May, but we had an F5 tornado rip through our state that in addition to being utterly devastating, it coincided with Deaf Space Camp and it had to be rescheduled. This proved to be wonderful for me as I was only 2 weeks out of back surgery for the original date. It was rescheduled for mid-August. This year I was able to stay with the same group of kids the entire week, normally we jump around to the different teams. This year was fabulous not only because we got to really know the students, which were all awesome, but they were the Advance Academy group, which is the older kids (14-18). As only God can arrange, an intelligent, beautiful, funny, enchanting young Chinese girl was in my group. Normally I would not point out a person's nationality except that for this blog it is central to the point. She was adopted from China when she was a toddler. What an amazing young woman she is. She is a natural emergent leader and everyone listened to her. She has great ideas and great compassion. She was a delight to watch. Her teacher is also incredible, Jen, (love this woman) and it was from Jen that I learned of Anna's background. She volunteered to ask Anna if she would mind me asking her questions about adoption. This gracious young girl, was so kind to spend like an hour with me speaking of her past, her experiences, her future, China, her homeland, visiting, volunteering at her orphanage, Red Thread, finding her parents, just everything. What an unbelievable blessing!!! I could go on and on about Anna, but her story is hers to tell, not mine but I wanted to mention her because she was a treasure of great worth to me. I am posting a couple pictures of her so you can know what she looks like and pray for her. Please pray for her continued success in life and for blessings to abound.

I had a good friend, who is considering adoption, email me the other day and she wrote this: "Just wondering how you decided it was time for y'all to adopt, why you chose China, how you picked Lifeline. Any and all info you could share would be appreciated. Truth be told I'm very overwhelmed. The $, the loonngg wait, medical issues, etc etc."

I considered picking up the phone and just having that conversation. I likely will do just that, but it occurred to me that this would be great information to keep for posterity. So I want to respond to all of the above here in the adoption blog. Some of my answers are going to be unsatisfying I believe, because much of our response to God was just that...a response to God. Eric and I have long talked about adoption, before we were married in fact. We both wanted biological children but also felt a call to adoption. I know I have considered it since my high school years. As a married couple we were first challenged to the call of adoption during a mission trip to Lithuania. We spent two days in local orphanages and our hearts were completely turned toward this call. It was 5 months later when I returned to Lithuania with a team of 4 women to stay for 5.5 weeks ministering to youth that we made more progress towards this goal. We had not yet had biological children, and while I was in Lithuania I actually got an appointment with the government liaison for adoption and began to discuss the process. I remember sitting in this small office as the representative stacked several photo albums in front of me and had me flip through them. When they found out I was a sign language interpreter she grabbed all the books from me and then shoved several pictures of a little boy who was deaf that she wanted me to apply for. It was really overwhelming. I returned home to the States and Eric and I began sorting out what we needed to do. It was shortly thereafter that we discovered I was pregnant with our first child, Noah. So we tabled the issue. We decided to wait till Noah was older so that we could adopt and older child and not an infant.

When Noah was about 2 years old, Eric and I went to a Stephen Curtis Chapman concert and little did I know it was his tour to promote adoption. The Chapman's eventually adopted 3 girls from China.(However, I think they only had Shoahannah and Stevey Joy at the time. I'm not totally sure about that though.) A dear friend of mine was working that concert as security staff and he got me in to meet SCC after the show. I was elated! SCC is my all time favorite singer. When I met him, I told him we were researching adoption from Lithuania and he just looked at me and said, "Get your home study done, it is so important, just get that done first." So of course when I got back to Eric, I was all like, "OMG Stephen Curtis Chapman just told me to get a home study! We must do that immediately!" The next day I went online to find out that Lithuania had just closed all adoptions to the United States and only would adopt to France. What's up with that?! Dismayed I just gave up the idea. I didn't feel a leading to adopt from any other country at the time.

When Noah was 3 years old, God called us to ministry in Kenya. I was like, "Africa?! Are you serious?!" God's response was. "Yes, yes I AM." So off to Kenya we went, 3 times in 2 years in fact. During the second trip we began researching adoption from Kenya. We quickly found out they make it next to impossible to adopt. But this time we weren't deterred from the idea. In February 2009, we knew that we wouldn't be going back to Kenya in 2010 because 2010 would likely be our year to adopt. Finally! In April of 2009 we discovered that we were pregnant with our second child, Eden Marie. (Can you hear the brakes screeching to a halt?) To say we were totally shocked at being pregnant again would be an understatement. So once again, we put our thoughts of adoption on hold.

In November 2010, "A Night with the Chapman's" tour came to Alabama. As a back story, they had a little girl named Maria that they had adopted from China, who was tragically was killed by her older brother in a horrible car accident. Maria was 5 years old when she went home to be with Jesus and her precious brother Will, was 17 at the time of the accident. Maria was the third child they had adopted from China. Well needless to say, God is faithful and he had inspired the Chapman's to go on the road and tell their story. Mary Beth Chapman, was the speaker while Stephen and their two older boys (Caleb and Will) played music. It was an incredible night. Their testimony was humbling and amazing. They were promoting their organization called Show Hope (previously Shoahannah's Hope), they now support special needs orphans in China, in addition to helping families trying to adopt by providing grants. Since Maria's death they organized and built a special needs hospital in the poorest region of China, called Maria's Big House of Hope (MBHOH). At the concert they were asking for sponsors for Show Hope, and the sponsorship was not like a Compassion sponsorship where you are partnered with a child and write letters and such. It is just a monthly contribution to sponsor MBHOH and other special needs children's wards in China. Eric signed us up immediately. With our sponsorship that night we got a free copy of Mary Beth's book, "Choosing to See." It is fantastic, I highly recommend it. Well I devoured that book. It is the story of her life. It details all three adoptions and of course her most recent tragedy, dealing with Maria's death. While that event is moving and devastating, the whole book isn't focused on it.

It was after reading this book and processing her three adoption stories, I knew it was time to really start the process. I asked Eric to read the book and like a good man, he read it. After having him read the book I was hoping to engage in a meaningful dialogue about beginning the process for real. When I approached Eric about this his response was this, "Did you want me to read that book to convince me now is the time? Because we could have just started this process two months ago if you'd only told me. I've been ready, I was just waiting on you." I love that man.

So here we are in 2010, Eden had just turned one and we are thinking of bringing in another baby. Eden did not have an easy first year and my back was all out of whack (later we would find out that I had a ruptured disc in my lower back and I would have surgery.) Now did not seem the best time to be doing this, and I felt quite crazy for beginning this process now. But here is why we pressed forward:

There is never going to be a "good" time. You are never going to be "ready" to add to your family. It is never going to be easy. You will never have an extra $30,000.00 lying around.

This was God's clear message to me. He even went so far as to say, "I've prompted you twice before to start this process and you didn't. I mean, I even sent you Stephen Curtis Chapman, woman! Now is the time!" So we jumped in! I remembered that a good friend, DeEtte, had adopted two girls from China through an agency called, Lifeline Children's Services. They were so good to her and she loved them. So, I called them. I got hooked up with our current social worker, Amy, and the rest rolled along. I did look at a couple other agencies before settling on Lifeline, but I just had a good feeling about them. They had all their stuff organized and out on the web. You could see clearly how much money was going where and when, what the process was, all that you would want to know you could find on that website. They were in the process of moving locations the week we submitted our online application, and as the Spirit would provide, they were moving from Mountain Brook to Hoover! Yay! Much closer to us. We have been nothing but pleased with Lifeline and have met so many people who sing their praises. It is a good fit for us.

How we landed on China is sorta random. We seriously considered Ethiopia, since we have such a strong Africa connection, but Ethiopia had just changed its process to be now a two trip requirement and a huge amount of time spent there. Uganda was another option but the time required to stay in country was just too much. So Africa got ruled out. Eric has always had an attraction to the Asian cultures and histories. China is a very popular place to adopt from and as we researched the process we found that it is mainly because they make it so easy. The are called the well-oiled machine of adoption. It is one trip, 10 days total (4 of that are in a plane). They get you in and out quick. Because they are a part of the Hague convention everything is pretty much above the table, with not surprises. Lifeline has an agent who is Chinese herself, that works for them in China. So she makes things smooth like buttah when you arrive and before you arrive. It just clicked for us, China was the place.

With regards to the long wait to adopt a child out of China, we knew that we wanted a special needs child and that the wait wouldn't be terribly long because of that fact. This is true for many countries around the world that adopt out their children. China is almost going to an exclusively special needs adoption plan. They won't even give a timeline on how long a "healthy" child will take. But special needs children can be adopted between 12 -16 months. In dealing with special needs out of China, they mostly adopt out what they call, minor medical correctable children. You can get children with more severe disabilities but most of the children have issues that can be easily corrected or managed in the United States. We also have an incredible international adoption clinic right her in Birmingham, AL. One of the best in the country. They are very helpful and looking at pictures and videos of children to determine the severity of their disabilities before you even commit to choosing that child. Then when you get back home with your child they are invaluable to be able to assess every aspect of your child, physical, psycho-social, motor skills, developments issues, everything. That is such a blessing for us.

Going with a Hague convention country requires a lot of "homework". But it is good homework. Some of it is mind-numbing but it is good information. For us it was an 8-hour online training program that we did at our leisure over a couple weeks, as well as reading two really good books and some government websites about China. It is 10 hours of credit essentially. While it seemed arduous initially, it was really great information to have.

The money honey. Whew! This was initially the one thing that made me want to sorta throw up in my mouth a little when I thought about it. It is unbelievably expensive and while we don't live pay check to pay check normally...some times we still do, plus, we send out son to private school. Lifeline is really great in this respect because they breakdown their fee into 4 major payments. So far we have met all our deadlines and likely will for all of them. The issue for us will likely be the travel expenses. They cost more than the adoption. But here is where we landed on the money...

If God orders something...He'll pay for it.

I fall back on Him here. He is the one who told us to do this, so he is gonna make sure that money keeps rolling in. And he has. It has been a series of amazing blessings, dare I say miracles up to this point. We received an unexpected bonus from Eric's job and a huge tax return we didn't count on. I was given 3 summer conferences to interpret and some friends did a garage sale for us with donated items. We changed Noah's school and got a huge price break and we refinanced our home and lessened out payment and didn't have to pay an August mortgage payment! People keep stuffing money in our pockets randomly and we haven't officially started fund raising or applying for grants! So if you aren't going to adopt because of the money...then you probably weren't meant to adopt in the first place. The money will come if your faith is in the one who owns it all anyway. Having said that, I do wonder how the rest of the money will come, but it is more out of curiosity than fear of it not coming. I'm just excited to see how God is going to do it, he so cool like that. We are going to send out personal letters because we believe in including others on the blessing and the journey. We are also going to apply for different grants. So we are going to be trying to raise some of the money. I will say it becomes tricky because people can't write off their donations for tax purposes, unless you have a church or something that will let you run the money through an existing adoption/orphans ministry. Lifeline has a seminar coming up that is called, Adoption without Debt. We will be attending that it is September 10th, 9:30 to 12:00. I'll hopefully have more ideas after that. Plus, there is the federal tax credit for international adoption, it is usually at least over 10K. I also have this great friend who is going to put "boxes" or jars about in gas stations for me to collect money or perhaps we will have candy bars to give away for a donation that we may put in some teacher's lounges in local schools. I will make the boxes and maintain them, but she is gonna be the "front man" to get them "in" the schools. She has no fear or shame...I have both...hee hee.

So here we are on the journey...it is a step by step, day by day process. It is exciting and terrifying. I have wavered some days but Eric has never wavered and he is my rock. I know we are doing what God is calling us to do. I can't wait to meet my new child.

Biometric Fingerprinting Invitation

Okay so this isn't the actual invitation, I didn't feel like scanning it but it looks very similar. The reason I am posting this picture of the letter is because I've never gotten anything from Homeland Security, I'm sure posting this will get me thrown in jail or something, but I thought it was pretty cool. This was our letter from HLS saying they got our application and have already cashed our check...they did that part in record time. The invitations to go get our Biometric fingerprints came a week or so later. We go on August 12th to get those done. I was unsure as to what that really was and why the fingerprinting we did with the State wasn't good enough. My mind wandered to the possibilities of drawing blood, taking a hair sample, any version of obtaining DNA, peeing in cups, and several disturbing probe scenarios...but it is only a high tech fingerprint session. I googled it and the most helpful site was one that helped Boy Scouts obtain their fingerprinting merit badge! Ha! How funny is that?! So that is the next step in the process. Not terribly exciting but forward progress in my opinion! Yay!