Charlotte Nicole

We were still floating on air as we were learning more about our daughter.  Our agency was not as optimistic about us getting matched with a second child as we were.  We had until the first of May to get matched or we had to proceed and only be able to adopt our first match on this trip.

On April 4 we sent an email to our agency officially stating our intent to proceed with our adoption of Florence.  I (Sam) was traveling for work and stopped for lunch when I got an email from our agency with a reply to our acceptance.  After the usual info there was a section that caught me by surprise.  It basically asked about a special need that was vague on our list.   If we were open to it she had a little girl for us to review.  

That's big news!!!!  Enjoying a BBQ sandwich suddenly took last place on my priority list.  I started researching the need between bites and then called Michelle as soon as I got to the car.  Michelle was even more excited than I was!  She called our agency and got more information.

The next parts of the story were very, very hard for us.  There were a lot of questions about her condition.  She is less than 2 months older than Florence, which is a big deal with adoptive families.  Our Social Worker wanted us to make sure we were educated on the whole picture.  So we had a phone consultation with our International Adoption Clinic.  We had a consultation with a local specialist.  We talked with other adoptive parents.  We did tons of research.  After all of this, we felt good about going forward.  We were not sure what our Social Worker would think.

Our Social Worker called and asked about our research and said, "OK, I'll get them to release the file."  It was only then that we were able to read more and saw the beautiful face of our daughter.

We finally went 'Public' with Charlotte on Easter Sunday.  It was great to be able to share our second helping of joy with our family and friends.

We just got updated information,  pictures, and video the next day and are thrilled at how well she is doing and how good she looks.

God has taught us a lot about the importance of our dependence on Him and how faith is not about making decisions based on what we can see but stepping out having faith that no matter what, God is with us.

Florence Joy

It has been a long time since our last post.  Up until a little while ago there wasn't much to tell.  We were just waiting for a call ...

Then it came.

March 19 was normal day.  Michelle ordered some baby chickens that morning.  I was at my office when I saw a number that from our agency's area code.  I left my conversation to take it.  We couldn't get Michelle on the line so I had to track her down.  She drove right over and we called back to get the information.  We agreed that we wanted to see the file so we could look over her file, her pictures and make an decision.

It took about 1/2 a second.

Once we saw the photo of this beautiful girl we knew she was our daughter.  She was smiling!  It was apparent that she had JOY.  We were awe struck by God's amazing protection of our daughter and how He had worked all things to join us together.

We managed to print some pictures and surprised both our parents in person to tell them the news.  It was great to share our joy with our family.

Our medical team reviewed everything and for the most part she looked great to them.  By the time we got some more information and VIDEO it appears that she is catching up well.  We watched the videos about 1,000 times a day those first 2 weeks.

We love this little girl who lives across the world.  We can't wait to bring her into our family so that she can join our journey thorough life.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

So, what HAVE we been doing?

It has been SUCH a busy summer!  Sam is either gone or working very diligently on summer programs through his job during the summer months.   I run the farm and home while he's gone,  and in years past,  spend a lot of time working with the horses,  having a summer camp and catching up on household projects.   Generally, I had a good time. :)
This year was different!  I am not teaching,  so I worked full time straight through the summer while doing my best to keep the farm running and the adoption paperwork going.   I am not going to lie...  it was HARD!  I worked a full day on my feet,  then came home to eleven animals (who all took a turn being sick while Sam was away! ) needing my attention and a very weedy vegetable garden!   It was not easy, and I had some difficult moments,  but I am thankful for my family and a friend that stepped in to help.   All that being said, God and my determination to keep making money for the adoption kept me going... but I am NOT doing it that way again next summer!!!  :)  Hopefully we will have the children by then, but in adoption you have to expect the unexpected delays.
Sooooooo,  that's our summer in a nutshell.   On to fall:
Our paperwork is done (until we get a referral) , so we are waiting,  waiting,  waiting.   We've been using this time to get back into a routine after a busy summer and make some small preparations for our children.  One of the preparations we've been working on is designing a safe play area near the barn.  We know it will be a while before they can use it, but it would be great to have it done and ready before they come home.   We are taking any and all suggestions!  A swing set and a sandbox are a must, but where to put it and how to enclose it?  What other play equipment should we include (it does need to be reasonably priced! )?  Do you know anyone that has raised or is raising children on a farm?  What ways can we keep it fun and safe, but still include them in our daily work?   We've purchased a child sized wheelbarrow (modeled by Scout) and a few other things.  Any tips or recommendations?   Please let us know!   We are having fun thinking of all the things they can do on the farm with us!  :)

LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, what we thought would take 4 to 6 weeks took only 2 days!!!!  We have our LID (Logged In Date) and are now able to be matched with a child.  We are thankful and excited to be where we are in the process. 

The next step is ...

Waiting.

Waiting for our first referral.  It could happen tomorrow, next week, next year.

We are praying that the wait is not too long and that God will use this time to prepare us for the transitions to come. 

Stay tuned! 

Dossier Success!!!

We have been silent for the past month but only because we have been very busy.  Sam had his 3 week adventure in the mountains for work.  Michelle was busy keeping the farm running and had family visitors to keep her company.  In the middle of all the travel our I-797 finally came.  This is the most important form we received.  It basically says that US immigration has approved us to bring our children home to the US. 

Michelle received it and the next day got it and the other 18 documents overnighted to Houston where they were hand delivered to the Chinese Consulate.  They reviewed all our documents and put a sticker on each one that tells the Adoption folks in China that it is legitimate and not forged, etc. 

Today we received the documents back and will now send them to our Adoption Agency for review. If all check out they will be sent to China next Friday and walked in to the CCCWA that Monday!  It will take 2-6 weeks for them to process the paperwork and get us in their database.  We will then get a log in date, which will mean we are eligible to be matched with a child. 

What's next after that??  Waiting....

We could be matched the next day, next month, a year, two years, who knows.

After we are matched with our first child we will have only about 4 months to find our 2nd child.  At some point time will run out on us being able to get them both in one trip. 

The paper chase has been a real test of our patience.  We really thought we would be done months ago.  God has reminded us that He is in charge, not us.  We know that His timing is perfect even if we think otherwise. 

We are very thankful for our family and friends who have encouraged us along the way. 

The pic below is the final stack of papers that we are sending off.

'That's a lot of money for a bunch of JUNK'

...that's how my (Sam's) dad summed up our yard sale.  We raised about $1,000 towards the adoption expenses!  It was amazing how much better it went with so many people involved.  We had some leftover stuff from our last yard sale, but the 'good' stuff came from our friends and from a local business who held a consignment sale a few months ago and gave us all the stuff no one came back to pick up.  And let me tell you, it was a  LOT.  Because this was part of the World's Widest Yard Sale it was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday affair.  I took it all to my parent's the weekend before and they got it all put out and some-what priced.  I have an aversion to spending lots of time pricing stuff for a dime.

Beverly Hillbillies?  All we needed was Granny

Even though it was a bunch of junk, God used it to not only allow us to raise some funds for the Adoption but also talk to folks about our adoption.  We were beyond blessed and so thankful for our family and friends who helped out.

Who is excited about finger prints???

We are!  Our appointment notice arrived today.  On June 11 we will have our finger prints taken (again) so the government can ensure we don't have an FBI record, etc. 

We are excited to be making progress! 

The big Yard Sale is next weekend in Troy (see previous post about that).