Off We Go!!

Thank you all so much for the many, many ways you have supported us.  We are off to fold that beautiful little guy into this eagerly waiting family.  Feel free to follow along on the adventure at family5kandmore.shutterfly.com We'll do our best to post in the midst of all the little boy craziness.

And, lest anyone finds this blog and thinks, "what a great opportunity to ransack the family farm!", I leave you with this thought I posted on FB recently:

>>HAHAHA!! This is what my friend posted prior to his travel last year.

Starting tomorrow, I will not be available for a couple of weeks. We are going to China to pick up our little guy! I can't wait!!  Now, if anybody reading this want to use this opportunity to rob my house, I have a house sitter, a large hungry dog, an alarm system, cameras, an LAPD officer who lives across the street, and my next door neighbor with a few guns! Have fun!

For the record, we have many of the same "benefits" in place for when we travel, including neighbors who watch out closely, an officer with K-9 "assistance" across the street, plus an attack barn cat. :)

Plus, there's nothing of value left; it's all been liquidated and sent to Ch*na.

Chosen & Dearly Loved

We received the WONDERFUL news this week that we have been awarded a $3500 matching grant from Chosen & Dearly Loved (in partnership with Lifesong for Orphans) to raise the remaining funds we need.  We are so grateful for their support in helping us raise the funds we need to travel to our very own chosen & dearly loved son.

As it is a MATCHING grant, we need anyone & everyone's help, so please share this link and information with anyone you know that may be interested in any year-end, TAX-DEDUCTIBLE giving opportunities.  It would mean so much to us.  We are so close - all of the steps in the process point to us travelling in 6-10 weeks - but we still have that last chunk of change to raise.  Our travel expenses are higher than normal because our little guy is from a rather remote area.

UPDATE: as our funds were so generously raised, I've removed the details for our matching grant. Please consider supporting the following organizations who are helping other families.  We can personally vouch for each of these.

Chosen & Dearly Loved
Lifesong for Orphans
Show Hope 
Tim Tebow Foundation

Thank you so much!!

Updates, updates, upDATES

We (well, "I") always get a little silly when we get new pics & info about our little man.  So, grab the people around you, come-on-everybody-do-the-conga style, and sing with me, "Updates, updates, up-DATES!"  Again!   "Updates, updates, up-DATES!" Move around the room.  Grab more people (introduce yourself if you need to...) ;)  "Updates, updates, up-DATES!"

Little dude is about 35 in tall now, and 25 lbs., which translates to LONG & LEAN.  By the clothing charts, that would be 2T in length but about 12 months in his waist.  HA!  Looks like Big Daddy G will have to bring me some rope from the barn to cinch up the little buckeroo's britches.

And, this tidbit:  "he is a bundle of energy and fun with a really lovely sharing nature"

Ok, wait a sec...

Isn't he BEAUTIFUL??!!!

This. kid.  My. heart.

Alright, I'm back now.  Hmmm, where were we?  Oh yeah, updates...

Just to bring everyone up to speed, the Chin*se adoption process is solid:  predictable & stable.  There are certain steps that have a specific timeframe, and a few steps that are variable.  We've just crossed the last big variable hurdle - LOA (Letter of Acceptance) - the official match of our paperwork to our son's.  All this time, we've been "pre-approved", pending the sufficiency of our dossier.

The much anticipated LOA document pretty much says:  The Ch*nese government has matched you to ________________.  Do you accept this match?

Do I accept this match???!!!!

Let me just say, it took all that is within me to NOT write:

Heck, YEAH!!

Ok, my bark is worse than my bite.  I wasn't REALLY tempted to do that.  Not even a little.  In fact, when these documents come through, there is a crazy anxiety that grabs you temporarily because you KNOW that you are going to be THE ONE to mess it up, and, for-goodness-sake, it's not like we can go print another "original" off at Kinko's.

So, we dutifully & politely checked:  "We accept this child" and, with a shaky hand, double checking that we were hovered above the exact right spot, signed and dated this beautiful document.

Phew...

Now, the rest of the process is rather predictable, and we are definitely on track to travel in 10-12 weeks. However, a little, tiny obscure holiday happens to fall on January 31st, and the country will PARTY for the following 2 weeks.  Chinese New Year is only the biggest, baddest, greatest holiday celebrated there all year, so everything will be shut down for part of those 2 weeks.  And, it will be too crazy & crowded to travel in the midst of it (even though I would LOVE to experience this important part of my boys' culture in person!!  Food, family & fireworks??  Yes, please!)

So, unless something really big happens to derail all of the little pleasantries the 2 governments will be exchanging in breathless anticipation of our arrival in the Motherland (it's late; I'm going downhill fast. sorry), we should be able to travel the 2nd half of February to absorb our amazing little bro into this crazy clan.  Cool, huh?

Honestly, I have to be a little silly at times about this because the process is heavy, the wait is long, the reason he's available is tragic, but the gift to our family is unbelievably good.  So good.  God has preserved this little one's life and, in His great kindness, has created a perfect shaped hole in our hearts for him to fill.  I love and miss one I have never met.  It is a bit of a mystery, and it wrecks me again and again.

I don't know how to perfectly segue into this:  we still need help to get there.  We're making progress, but there is still a financial "ocean" to cross before we cross the real one to unite our family.  If you want to support our family in bringing our little cowboy home for good, the information is over here on the side somewhere ------------------->>>>  If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at any time HERE.

Thank you so much for sharing our excitement.  Please pray for us as we continue to prepare to become a family of 7.  Of utmost importance to us is equipping our 5 year old for the trip back to his birth-land and for his new role of sharing the rest of us with his little brother.  He is so excited, to the extent he "gets it", but this trip back may be very hard on him.  We are thankful beyond words for the work of Dr. Purvis and the Empowered to Connect team, as well as the counsel of wise, more adoption-seasoned friends, who continually remind us of the complexity of parenting these 2 precious sons from hard places but also remind us that there is great HOPE that joy and healing are available in the midst of the pain.  Seriously, if you have a child in your life - whether you are the auntie or uncle, teacher, parent, grandparent, friend - ETC is the BEST overall training on connecting to the heart of that child, adopted or not.

I think it was the Peace Corp who had the slogan years ago:  It's the toughest job you'll ever love.  Sorry, PC, parenthood trumps you in this.

Our hearts are so full.

boys & summer buzz cuts - proud family tradition

sweet lil stinker

It pays to be a Super Sleuth (or a very determined waiting mama!)

Lookey at what I found snooping around the interweb!!!

Don't know by whom or how this was put together, but this is OUR beautiful little guy.  Cannot WAIT to hold this amazing kiddo in my arms and bring him home for GOOD!

Meet Our Little Guy <<<<<click here!!

[And, for those of you keeping track, our dossier is in DC getting all gussied up for the trip to Ch*na.  We also got our fingerprinting appointment today, so we're moving right along!  Hoping that we can be done with this leg of the journey by mid-August.  Fingers crossed. :)]

Tidal Waves and Birthdays, Part Deux

OK, so we've talked tidal waves of fees.  Let's talk other tidal waves...

But, first, a little quote, then some context.

From "The House of Hope", Robin & Joyce Hill use the following imagery when describing their decision to begin their full-time work with orphaned & abandoned children in Ch*na:

It seemed...as if they were being asked to step into a river, and although she had no idea where they would end up exactly, they could trust that it would take them to the right place. (p. 41)

 Later, Robin reflects further:

...they have been swirled around a few times, and even had to shoot some white-knuckled rapids, physically, emotionally and spiritually, but they have entrusted their lives to that river of love that flows from God's heart,... Time after time, they have seen the evidence of how much God wants to provide abundantly and even extravagantly for the discarded and abandoned...

...the invitation to jump in that river, and see where it takes you, is open to every ordinary person, and if you choose to make that leap, it may be a shock to the system, but God can be trusted to do what He wants to do.  Rob says, "It is possible to spend your whole life focusing on your own comfort and safety, or you can accept God's invitation to come into that river of His amazing love." (p.216-217, emphasis mine)

When Greg & I read those words last year, something welled up within both of us that said, "YES! and Amen."  That simple, but powerful, clear analogy resonated with us so strongly.  It helped put words to the pieces of our own story and expressed the reality of our own lives.

jumped in
swirled around white-knuckled
shock to the system

Update and A little horsing around...

Our little dude has been advocated for before.  Thought y'all might like to see what others have said about him.

(And, doesn't "Shane" sound like a good cowboy name??  It's how the former agency referred to him since Chin*se names are not shared publicly.  Not a bad moniker during the wait!)

http://www.asiahope.blogspot.com/2011/11/shane-fast-as-lightening.html

http://tenlittleducklings.blogspot.com/2013/03/shane.html

Doesn't he sound fun??  We've heard from other updates very much the same thing - that he is fast, active, full of personality, and a bit of a stinker, but really sweet and engaging.  Looks like we may have our hands full with this one AND his "big" brother Joel.

Seth's limb difference is fairly complicated, and we don't really know what all will be involved once we get home.  He has quite a bit of orthopedic work ahead, but we have an AMAZING ortho team who will help him achieve the best outcome.  Joel has thrived under their care, and we expect even more great progress down the road for him.  We are truly blessed with an incredible community that will welcome, embrace & care for our precious newest cowboy.

WHERE WE ARE NOW:
Our homestudy just completed its final revision stage.  THANK YOU for helping us that piece paid off!  Our homestudy agency filed paperwork with US Immigration (I-800a) on Friday.  I spent Friday in paperwork heaven (or hades, depending on your perspective!)  After 9 stops at various agencies & gov't offices (and 7 1/2 hours running the roads in Nashville area traffic, BLECH...), I was able to get the remainder of our documents ready for the final certification and approval, so basically, our dossier is nearly DONE.  We are moving right along, except....

Now, we wait.

This is a hurry-up-get-your-stuff-signed-quickly-and-FedEx-it-back-then-wait-FOREVER-for-agencies-to-process-it journey.

Sigh...

Soon, we will be fingerprinted, and hopefully be approved with no real fanfare nor delays to bring a new family member into the country.  That 1 page approval document is the last item to complete our dossier for submitting to Ch*na. If I get my birthday wish this week, that won't take more than 6 or 7 weeks.

Then, we can scramble around to get it notarized, certified, sanctified, glorified, and get it to our agency so they can finish our dossier and get it on its merry way to our little man's motherland A.S.A.P!!!!

Then, we will wait.
Again.
Ugh...

In the meantime, we're enjoying learning all we can about his home area and what our trip to a different province of Ch*na will look like.  It's a sweet & fascinating piece of this puzzle that Seth's province is known for horses & grassland, even though he has not experienced that lifestyle.  Yet. :)  What a wonderful connection; we're eager to experience a little of it (albeit in the dead of winter!) when we travel.  And, then bring that lil buckeroo home and introduce him to the "grasslands" of home.

Definitely room in that saddle for lil brother

Big Daddy G is NOT holding on.  Little man is riding ALL BY HIMSELF!!