Communication Between Two Governments

This week, on the 12th, the US Consulate in Guangzhou (GZ) issued our "Article 5". This, essentially, is a document that notifies the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) that we have been approved to adopt Grace, to bring her back to the US, and that her immigration and citizenship paperwork is ready to be finalized once we arrive in China.



Our agency's reps in China physically walked-in to the consulate to pick up these precious documents and the forward them to Beijing and the CCAA. This means....drumroll please....that we are on the FINAL step of this process. Sometime in the near future (around August 26th if recent trends continue), we will receive our Travel Approval. This is China's inviation to come and get our daughter.



Travel schedules are still sketchy, but if our TA does indeed arrive before the end of August, we may be able to travel in September. Our agency knows that we will be ready to go at a moment's notice if necessary. Please help us pray that we will be able to travel next month, and that we will be able to do all that is necessary between now and then to get ready for the trip (and get the boys ready for the new school year!)

Uprooting

I recently learned that blogs using the blogger platform are not accessible in China. And, because I desperately want to be able to post photos and notes about our adoption trip for everyone back home, I have created another site. So, I am uprooting, at least until we return to the US. This blog will not be updated again until after we return.

We have a new Shutterfly Share Site that we will use as a travel journal. You can access it HERE. If you would like an email when I update it, just become a member of the journal. One pretty cool side benefit is that the grandparents can order copies of any of the photos that I post directly from the share site. So, they can have prints of Gotcha Day delivered by Shutterfly before we even make it home.

Some sweet friends have generously offered to lend us a netbook for travel, so that we can send updates without lugging a laptop all over China.

Now...off to get 9 prescriptions filled, get a blood test to see if I need a HepA vaccination, finish emptying Seth's old room, turn it into Grace's new room, meet with our social worker for the home study update, finish the back to school preparations, buy the rest of the stuff on the packing list, CLEAN MY HOUSE....but first....I'm gonna watch a movie with my hubby :)

**The text of the posts on the Shutterfly Site have now been moved to this blog for the sake of continuity. They are chronological in sequence from this point forward.**

Tiny Girl

It is amazing how quickly this sweet face has captured our hearts from over 8,000 miles away. I wonder about her continually. How is she sleeping? Has she been sick? What is her favorite food? Does she laugh? Does she have a friend? Did she receive the gift that we sent? Does the blanket keep her warm at night?

We had a very few questions answered this week. We received an update of her height, weight, foot length, head and chest circumfrence. We also learned that she has 4 teeth and that she is "healthy". We are so very thankful for the update, which means that the orphanage is now aware that she is being adopted. At the same time, we are concerned about the information revealed.

Our sweet girl has gained just under a pound in eight months. At 15 months old (today), she weighs just over 15 pounds. These measurements tend to be taken fully-clothed as well. As a cleft-baby, feeding is no doubt a challenge for her.

I have been blessed to meet many friends online who are adopting or have adopted babies just like Grace. And, I have learned that these numbers aren't that unusual for a cleft baby. One sweet friend told me, "Any weight change that isn't backward is a good thing."

So, we have put away all of the 18-month clothes that we planned to take to China. It is time to gather 9 month clothes instead. A dear friend, who happens to be a NICU marvel, is helping us to design a game-plan for nutrition to help her grow strong and healthy. We have special nursers for cleft-affected babies in hand, and are ready to put them to good use.

The wait is harder now. We know that she needs us. We know that loving attention and nutritious food are going to radically change her world. And, we anxiously ancticipate the moment that she is placed in our arms.

Please help us pray for Grace to remain healthy while she waits for her new Mommy and Daddy to bring her home.

Baby Steps

In my first post on this blog, I compared adoption to a marathon. It certainly has been! I thought that sending our dossier to China would mean the end of paperchasing. On the contrary, that paperwork was just training for the REAL paperchase that was to come. After an adoptive family received the Letter of Acceptance from China, there are basically 4 steps that must take place before travel.

1-Immigration Provisional Approval ~ @ 3 weeks
2-Immigration Processing through the National Visa Center ~ @ 1 week
3-Issuing of "Article 5" by US Consulate in Guangzhou ~ @ 2 weeks
4-Issue of Travel Approval by China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) ~ 2-4 weeks

We are waiting on step #3. Our paperwork is being hand-delivered to the US Consulate today. We expect our Article 5 to be issued on August 12. This puts us on track for a Travel approval, hopefully, by the end of August. Once the TA is issued, we will request a consulate appointment in Guangzhou. We will leave approximately 14 days before this appointment, because it falls at the end of the trip. But, the entire trip is contingent upon the scheduling of that one appointment.

Our timeline gets a little hairy here. All of China shuts down Sept 23-25 for the Moon Festival. (I would LOVE to be there for this!), and also Oct 1-7 for another holiday, National Day...which seems to last an entire week. So...to be frank...please pray for speedy processing so that we won't have to wait until mid-October to travel! We're almost there, baby girl!

An End In Sight

God so often provides things that I need, before I even realize that I need them. Last March, Joel's phone contract was up and he decided to upgrade to a Blackberry. That month, Verizon was running a Buy One Blackberry/Get One Free Sale. (Crazy, right?) So we went the next day to get mine. I thought it would be fun to have, but I never dreamed that I would need it.

We learned about Grace early on a Saturday morning through an email on my Blackberry. We were going to have a family day out that day. Without mobile email access, I would not have seen that email until late that night. From the time that I read the email on Saturday morning, I had 18 hours to gather paperwork and get it sent to our agency so that our referral could be locked in. I very well could have missed that opportunity and lost our referral.

Yesterday, on an interstate somewhere below Atlanta, I received the email that informed us that our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) had arrived at our agency. This document had to be overnighted to us, and I had 4 hours to let them know if it should come to an address other than our home. I would have been too late for that one also, and our precious LOA would have been sitting on our front porch in MD until we found someone pick it up and overnight it to us in MS.

Thank you, Lord, for providing a tool for this adoption before we even decided to begin the process.

Oh...and we have our LOA!!! It is the final approval to confirm that she is ours, and a document that we must sign and return to China confirming that we still want her. (It is also called the Letter Seeking Confirmation.) Our agency estimates that we will travel in 10-13 weeks! We will be waiting for two documents now, one from our own USCIS (Customs and Immigration), and the Travel Approval (TA) from China. The USCIS document is the confirmation that her immigration paperwork is in order. The TA is our invitation to come and get her! I have a ton more paperwork to get together over the next couple of days. We have about a day and a half of down time before our mission trip gets into full swing, which is a blessing. So, I am going to try to find a business center in this hotel so that I can get it all printed out and get started!

The Grace Project

Recently a precious friend of ours approached me and said, "How is the Grace project coming?" Then he said, "Grace Project...I like that!" I like it too. God is certainly using this adoption as a means of exhibiting His grace in our lives.

Did you know that adoption is a beautiful picture of the redemptive work of Christ? Without Jesus, we are fatherless. Without Jesus, we have no hope. Without Jesus, our future is tragic.

Just as God gave us the gift of marriage to help us understand the relationship between Jesus and the church, He has also given us adoption so that we can understand and reflect what it means to become a "joint-heir with Christ."

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Romans 8:14-17 NKJV

Those of us who have chosen to turn our lives over to Christ are adoptees!

A few months ago I contributed to a devotional book that will be published in the fall. My contribution is quite brief, because of the space constraints of the published work. But, the message of this passage applies here. Forgive the choppiness of this post...

Background Passage: Psalm 82

Focal Verse:
“Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless; uphold the rights of the oppressed and destitute.” (Psalm 82:3)

This Psalm is meant to warn national leaders of their responsibility to protect the weakest and most vulnerable among those in their charge. When coupled with James 1:27, it is clear that this same responsibility lies at the feet of every believer.

My husband and I have felt a calling to adoption for many years. Recently God made it clear that the time had come for us to begin that journey. As we began delving into the adoption process, we were surprised by the reactions of many of our Christian friends. All have been supportive, but few seem to realize the Scriptural mandate that we have been given as believers to be active in orphan care. Many have never considered their own position as a co-heir with Christ, and the beautiful reflection of that which we are given through adoption. Paul Pennington, in his blog, Hope for Orphans, stated, “Caring for orphans is God’s will for everybody. Adoption is not.” Consider what role God would have you take in the care of the weakest among us. Whether it is through foster care, adoption, advocacy, or financially supporting those who choose adoption, God’s calling is clear and unavoidable.

So, it's the Grace Project...in more ways than one.

Waiting...Waiting...Waiting...

Man, I thought waiting was hard before we had ever seen Grace's picture. It is a very odd feeling to have a child on the other side of the globe, whose care you have absolutely no say in. How is she doing? Has she been sick? Has she had surgery? Did she sleep well last night? Did she laugh today?

If anyone out there is in need of a lesson in patience...I can tell you where to find one.

This week began in China with the Dragon Boat Festival. Any of you who have young children may have seen the Ni Hao Kai Lan episode about this celebration. All government offices were closed Monday through Wednesday, so very few approvals have shown up this week.

We are on the 55th day of waiting for our LOA from China, which is the final step in the approval process. Then there will be a few more hoops to jump through regarding her citizenship paperwork and our travel appointments. I'm excited to have found an online community of people that are in the same *dragon* boat, waiting at various stages of this process to go and get their little ones. We all compare our time lines...hoping that we might gain insight into when we might see some forward progress. Though it could come at any time, I am trying to tell myself to not expect anything before the end of July. Thankfully, the next couple of weeks will be pretty hectic as we go on mission to the Gulf Coast to continue Katrina relief. My mind will be filled with feeding hungry mission teams, so there will be little time for worrying about the paper chase.

That said, I am ready with the next step. And, our agency is on alert to call us for info on where to overnight the paperwork, depending on where we are at the time. So, who knows, maybe we will have to track down a notary while we are there!