God Has Given Us A Daughter!

I finally have the privilege of introducing the newest member of the Rainey family to you. Her name is Abigail Grace. Her Chinese name is Liang RuoYun.



Our adoption agency recently had the extraordinary opportunity to access a database of children that they do not often have access to. This has allowed them to match us many months before we really expected it to happen. We received her photos and information about a week and a half ago, but have been waiting for a certain pre-approval from the CCAA before we were allowed to share her information online.

Our beautiful baby girl just had her first birthday on Sunday. It makes me sad to have missed this milestone. But, I know that we will share many more with her!

These are the things that we know:

~Her Chinese name, RuoYun, means "like all living things", the surname, Liang, identifies her as a resident of her particular orphanage.

~She was abandoned at approximately 4 days old at the gate of the orphanage where she resides.

~There is much poverty in her province.

~Her province has the highest rate of both birth defects and infant mortality in China.

~She is with people who truly care for the children in their charge. I have been in contact with families who have been there, know the director, and attest to the children receiving the best care possible in their given situation.

~She has a third-degree unilateral cleft palate and lip which will require multiple surgeries and speech therapy once we get her home.

~She is a quiet child.

~She likes to play with blocks.

~She loves music.

There are many children in her orphanage with mild to severe special needs. The population of the orphanage increased significantly last year. Many of these little ones have very little hope for adoption. The fact that such kind care is given to so many with special needs is a tribute to the Nannies and Orphanage Director. It is a comfort to know that she is with people who love her.

The orphanage was damaged by an earthquake in 2008. Caring people there have been working since then to raise the funds to rebuild so that they can be in a safer structure. This building is being erected now, and they hope to move the children around August.

So here's the BIG question...When do we go and get her?
We don't know for sure. We are waiting for a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from the CCAA. Soon after we get this, we will recieve an invitation to travel. The trip will be planned at that point, based upon the appointment that we are given at the US Consulate in Guangzhou. I will share more about the details of the trip when the time draws nearer. We expect (hope) to travel within 4-6 months.

We are so excited, so thankful, and so very blessed to have the privilege of parenting this sweet girl, and her big brothers Sam and Seth.

We Have a LID

We finally got the email a few days ago that our dossier has been logged in by the Chinese government. Our LID (logged in date) is March 15, 2010. This is the date by which we can measure, as time passes, approximately when we would be matched. This is assuming that we are never matched with a waiting child (one with additional physical needs), which is unlikely.

Effectively, we are on two waiting lists. One is in China for a healthy child. According to time lines in place now (which are subject to lengthen or shorten), we will be matched in 3 1/2 years. (I know, that is a very long time.)

We are also on the waiting list with our adoption agency for a "waiting child". These are children who have been deemed either unadoptable or unlikely to be adopted by China. They have different needs ranging from severe disabilities to being over the age of 9. We prayerfully considered a list of possible needs, and selected the ones that we felt equipped to handle. So, when and if a little girl with one of these needs becomes available, we will be matched by our agency. Since there are fewer families seeking waiting children, we expect to be matched via this avenue first. There is absolutely no way to gauge when this might happen.

So, if you are wondering WHEN we will get a call...so are we :) It could literally be Monday morning, or 2013, or anywhere in between. What we do know is that God is in control of it all, including the timing. So, when our little girl is ready to meet us, He will introduce us.

The Dossier is in China

I just received word that our dossier has been hand-delivered to the CCAA. This is the department of the Chinese government that is responsible for approving and matching orphans with their families. What a journey! This all began in early June, 2009. Now, 9 months later (how appropriate), the paper pregnancy truly begins. I just re-read my first post on this blog and shook my head at aspirations to have our paperwork in China by December. Oh well...His timing is perfect, and He is orchestrating it all. Of this I am sure.

This weekend, while at a retreat with some great women from my home church, I received word that the paperwork was in transit to China. To celebrate, I finally broke down and did something that I have been restraining myself from for months. I bought Grace's first dress.

I have avoided this for several reasons. One of these being that it could literally be several years before we are matched. Styles change and all that, but this one drew me in and I could not resist. So, one day our daughter will wear this lacy, girly dress. And, one day when she is grown I will give it to her and share it's significance in her story. Bit by bit, by a stocking, a dress, a room soon to be prepared and through many prayers...she is becoming a part of our lives.

Surreal....

We began this journey in earnest 7 months ago. I still remember looking at the pile of documents that came from our adoption agency and thinking, "How will I ever get through this?" It was all so mind-boggling at the time. But, step by step, piece by piece, I've muddled through it all. It almost seems surreal that our dossier is complete. (The photo shows the result of 7 months of literal blood, sweat and tears.) I handed it all over to my friend at FedEx...we are on a first-name basis now...a couple of hours ago. It should be in Denver by 10:30 tomorrow morning (that is amazing to me).

After critical review (not once, not twice, but three times over), binding and translation into Mandarin, our dossier will be on its way to our daughter's homeland. Assuming I did everything correctly, This should happen by mid-February.

Once it arrives in China it will be reviewed by the CCAA and Logged In. The day this takes place will be our LID date (logged in date). LIDs are important because they signify when a family is queued up in line to wait for a child. People who were matched with a child in December all had a LID date from 3 1/2 years ago. Because we are on the waiting child list, it is quite possible (we are hopeful) that our LID date will be irrelevant because our adoption agency will do the matching instead of the CCAA in China. This often goes more quickly because most waiting children are considered unadoptable.

Regardless, we know that we are on God's timeline here. We know that He is in charge of revealing Grace to us. So, until His time is perfect we will wait...and update paperwork.

I began this blog with a running analogy, comparing adoption to a marathon. The first leg of this race is now complete. I can't see the finish line yet, but I know it exists and that is enough for now.

CCAI Responds to Haiti

When we chose our adoption agency, we did so, in part, because of the testimony of the founders. It was important to us to work with folks that held a similar worldview to ours. We have been impressed with CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International). As an international adoption agency, they really have their act together. Now, I am blown away.

CCAI had recently begun working in Haiti. The relationship there prompted a response to the events there in recent days. I cannot recount in any better words the story they shared with me through email this week.

Wednesday Jan 20, 2010


Dear CCAI Supporters,

We landed at Port-au-Prince International Airport at 13:59 pm yesterday and hand delivered your contributions [...] to the orphanage staff.

[...]an orphanage that has been caring for about 130 kids, was badly damaged by the powerful earthquake that hit the poor Caribbean nation last on January 12, 2010. Although no children were severely hurt, their dorms were devastated beyond repair. The older children have been living under five tents and the babies are being cared for in the trunk of a big truck. Fox News and CNN managed to reach the orphanage three days after the quake, but their reports of the terrible conditions did not lead to the immediate and adequate aid of food and water that they desperately needed.

On 1/17 at 18:24, [...], an American missionary from Denver sent us an urgent message, pleading, “We need[supplies]quickly!!!”

We immediately contacted one of our long time supporters who had offered their family private jet for emergency use the day before. They wholeheartedly supported our request to use their plane to send supplies to the orphanage. We spent the next five hours storming several Wal-Marts and Walgreens purchasing[supplies]. At 5:30 am, over 2000 pounds of supplies were loaded onto the jet and the plane took off at 6:33 am Denver time.

Five and half hours later, at 13:59 pm, we successfully landed at the war-zone like Port-au-Prince International Airport in the midst of many dozen landing and taking-off aid aircrafts and helicopters from around the world.

We were totally surprised as soon as we opened the gate. Five orphanage staff and volunteers[...] were right there, ready and waiting with a SUV and a truck! We had no idea how in the world they were able to drive and park right by our plane.

We have never in my life seen people so excited, so thankful and tearful, nor who hugged so hard!

We unloaded the supplies as quick as we could and covered the truck with tarps. We offered them an advise we received prior to our departure from another pilot who has been transporting aid to Haiti the day before: Cover the supplies with tarps and let a couple of guys lie on top of it pretending dead so supplies will not be high-jacked on the way back to the orphanage.

At 16:00 pm, we left the airport with seven completely exhausted American and Belgium doctors who had been working in Haiti non-stop for over three days! A free ride in a fancy private jet could provide a little physical and emotional comfort to these heroes.

A huge thank-you to all of you unsung heroes who took action to care and to love. Thank you for entrusting us with your loving donations.

Please visit www.haitiadoption.org to view our Haiti trip photos.

For The Haitian Children,

Josh and Lily

All I can say is WOW. I am proud to be working with this organization. Want to learn more about CCAI? There is a link at the bottom of this blog's homepage.

The above photo is the header for CCAI's webpage.
Disclaimer: I edited the details of what was delivered, the name of the orphanage, and the names of the workers for safety purposes because this is a public blog. These edits are denoted by [brackets].

The Final Authentication!

My nice friend and the FedEx store called...yay! So, the final document is now at the Chinese Embassy for the last layer of approval. As soon as it returns we will have a complete dossier! Look for a nonsensical celebratory post in about a week :)

Love ya'll!

The Blizzard Threw a Kink in Things

On the Friday night before Christmas a blizzard hit the Maryland/DC area (and a lot of other places, too). Joel and I were planning to hand-deliver our final document to the State Department on the following Monday, just before leaving to visit our families for Christmas. We had planned on stopping at the FedEx store on the way home from DC that day to overnight the document to the Chinese Embassy for it's final authentication. Our hope was for that document to be waiting for us when we returned home on January 2.

Well...the blizzard shut down DC. So, we couldn't go. We decided to overnight the document to the State Department before leaving so that we could turn around and send it to the Embassy as soon as we got back. The problem is...the State Department has not returned it yet. I know this because my FedEx tracking number has not been activated. I know...I know...the holidays and the blizzard and weekends got in the way. So....we wait....because we can do nothing else. I guess we should get used to it. There is a lot more waiting ahead. We are so very close to having a complete dossier...so very close.