We are simply overwhelmed at God's provision! Through many of you, we have met our first fundraising goal and begun working on the next one. We have enough to finish our homestudy, pay our 1st installment at the adoption agency, file for US Immigration approval and apply for passports. This is such welcome and wonderful blessing because things can keep moving forward.
There are pieces we simply have to wait on, no matter how hard we try to finish our objectives quickly. Immigration approval, for example, takes about 8 weeks, whether you wish hard for it to go faster or not. We have to have US Immigration Approval to complete our dossier (a packet of official documents that we send to China to tell them ALL about us.) There are so many steps toward making sure everything is correct, authentic, etc. Suffice it to say, we run around crazy-like compiling and gathering a bunch of paperwork. If we do it right (ha!), we will have all the other pieces in place ready to slap that Immigration approval (I-797) with them & send the whole kit and kaboodle off to Washington DC for the State Department & Chinese Embassy to certify. Don't know how long that takes, but it's a hurry up and wait our turn.
Then the dossier is off to our agency for final, fine-tooth-combed, review before it all gets sent to THE People's Republic of China. Our somewhat realistic goal is to have our DTC (dossier to China) by mid-January (my dream goal is mid-December!! Can't help it. I'm a glass half-full kinda girl!) After we have a log in date (LID) in China, we will wait 2 (yea!!) to 6 (bleh...) months to be officially accepted, travel & get our SON!! Again, lots just simply depends on who has our file at any given time, and how quickly they move on it. We're praying for quick turn arounds, but we know many families who are praying the same way. I know I'm God's favorite, but He's got to be fair, you know. ;) (BTW, in case you didn't know, you are also God's favorite!! Not sure how that happens, but it's just one of those divine mysteries I'm so thankful for!!)
This journey is (littered? cluttered? polluted? filled?) with so many random expenses. Like lab work and physicals, Express Mail for this, Priority Mail return envelopes for that, fees for this official piece of paper, filing fees here and there, notary fees for EACH AND EVERY document. County certification, State certification, Embassy certification... AAHHHHH!!! I'm getting so used to notarizing everything that I nearly had my grocery list stamped by the Notary Public last week! Whoa, Nelly....
So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for helping us keep things moving with your generous & loving donations. Our travel to China cannot happen soon enough. Every day that passes, our son becomes more & more a part of our hearts, our thoughts, our dreams. It's becoming so real to me that I have a child waiting for me that, at times, I can't breathe. I ALWAYS look at the clock and wonder what he's doing (probably sleeping, since he's 13 hours ahead!!) and who is watching over him.
We are going to send a care package to him in a few weeks with pictures of us and our home, a blanket & some other items suggested by our agency. I hope that someone will show him our pictures regularly so he KNOWS he has a family just dying to get him home. I read another adoption blog last week where the family had sent pictures ahead. Their little guy started pointing at them the moment he was brought into the room to meet them for the first time!! Oh, Lord, let it be that way for us. That is SO not the typical way it happens (there's usually lots of crying, wailing & gnashing of teeth OR quiet observation & resignation), but it would be BEYOND amazing if he had even some slight recognition of us!!
So, when you think about it, please pray for favor and quick work on the government's side of things in ALL adoptions. BTW, would you please pray for our dear friends who are desperately waiting on permission to go to Russia and bring home their little girl? They've waited far too long for her, and the Russian system has all but stopped pending more government intervention. So many babies & families waiting to be united forever trapped by bureaucracy.
With grateful & FULL & longing hearts,
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