Three Little Letters

Before we started our Chinese adoption, I never would have guessed how excited I would be to hear the three little letters LOA. Yet, when on Friday we received ours, we were definitely celebrating around here. That's right, we have our LOA!!! It's been here, been signed, and been sent back to the agency, who will send it along to China. Which means, we're in the homestretch!

Next in the process is waiting (again) for the I-800 approval letter from USCIS, then Travel Approval (TA) from CCCWA. The approval from USCIS should be here within the next three weeks, and the Travel Approval letter comes very soon after that.

What's next after those steps, you ask? Why, we go to pick up our new daughter in China, of course!

We Have a LID!

In the world of Chinese adoptions, there are several capital letter combinations that have great significance. In our last post, we mentioned one of these combinations--our DIC (Dossier In China). The next, and possibly one of the most important, is the LID, which stands for Log In Date. The LID marks the date on which the CCCWA officially received our dossier and entered our information into their system. This is the date that marks the beginning of the last few steps before we receive our travel date. After the LID comes the LOA (Letter of Acceptance--the official referral making our little girl ours), which we will sign and send back to CCCWA, a copy of which will be sent to USCIS along with the I-800 request for an immigrant visa for our little girl. Very soon after that step comes the final step in the process before travelling, and the one we are waiting most anxiously for--TA (Travel Approval). As you can see, at the time of the LID, things start moving along rather quickly toward that all important TA.

Now for the good news...we heard from our adoption agency recently that our LID was June 10!

We should receive our LOA within the next three to four weeks. Yes, that's right--3 to 4!

It looks like we will be travelling sometime in late September or early October!

After all the struggles, waiting, and losses, the end is in sight. We have hope of holding our little girl in our arms in the not-too-distant future!

As a side note, I realize I have used a lot of exclamation points in this post, but with exciting news like this, I just couldn't help myself.

Please continue to pray for us as we complete this process. God has been so good in providing financially throughout this process, but we are still short about $5000. To look back and see how He has brought us the funds needed up to this point, and to know how many people have given so generously toward this adoption, we are not worried about these remaining finances. We know He will provide everything needed in His perfect time. (Remember also, if you feel led to be a part of our effort to bring our daughter home from China, you can donate through our Paypal button in the sidebar, or tax-deductible donations can be made through this link.)

We would also appreciate prayers for our little girl, that God would be preparing her heart for her new family. We have already taken some necessary steps to prepare our family for her arrival. We look forward to sharing a bit more about her once we have received our LOA--we'll even share a picture!

A Big Step Forward!

Finally, we can report some major progress being made in our adoption process! Our dossier is actually in China! By some time in the next week or so, all the documents will be translated and it will be logged in with CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption). This is a huge step toward bringing our little girl home!

We are also making slow but steady progress in our fundraising efforts. We completed our Both Hands project day. Watch the video below... and if you feel led to give, we are still accepting donations toward our adoption expenses.

As you can tell, we are very happy to at last have some good news to report.

Our Newest Adoption Fundraiser

Well, we're at it again--we have yet another fundraising project going on. This time, though, it is opportunity to serve a widow (actually 2 widows!) while raising funds for our adoption. To learn more about what we are doing, click here.

If you want to know more about the organization we are working with to complete this project, watch this video. It will touch your heart and hopefully persuade you to get on board.

Spring's Here!

Spring is finally here!

After a long, cold winter, we are at last seeing green bursting forth all around us. The children and I have spent much more time outside in the past few days, and it feels wonderful to be out in the sunshine and fresh air. The windows, so long shut up, have been wide open lately, letting in the breezes which are forcing out all the stale, dry air trapped in the house all winter. The birdfeeders have had a flurry of activity, providing our young homeschool students with ample opportunity for nature study.

I don't recall ever being quite this joyful--or relieved--to see springtime come as I have been this year.

Now We Wait

I am amazed at the goodness of the Lord which can be seen in every turn on life's road. We have had some busy weeks since starting the Chinese adoption process. Gathering paperwork, filling out forms, getting medical exams and police clearances, and visiting a notary public several times has kept us quite busy over the last month or so.

We have made some very encouraging progress in the adoption process (finally!). About two weeks ago, we received official pre-approval from CCCWA (China's adoption authority) to adopt a certain precious little girl! Pre-approval is great news and means that this adoption is going full steam ahead! It is the first major step in the adoption process in China.  Looks like we will have a new daughter sometime this fall!

Another big step we reached just last week was completing our home study update. What a relief to have that portion of the work in this adoption behind us. It is a very important step, because it is necessary for us to send in an updated home study with our I-800A form. This form is sent to United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to apply for approval as adoptive parents. I dropped our I-800A in the mail, along with the home study, last Saturday (March 1).

We will also need to include our home study with our dossier when the time comes.

At this point, I am quite proud of the fact that all of our dossier documents have been collected and notarized, with the exception of the I-800A approval letter. Once we have received that, our dossier will be complete and we will be ready for the next step. The I-800A approval process takes about 8-12 weeks.

So for now, we wait.

Heartbreak and Hope

This post is a very difficult one to write, hence I have been putting it off for several days. Please bear with me as I share some news which I hope will be taken with a spirit of understanding by those who read it.

For five months now, we have been waiting to hear that our adoption case had gone to court. We expected to have our court date sometime in September or early October. When September ended and news came of the Congolese immigration authority suspending the issuance of exit letters for adopted children, our concern was raised, but we still felt hope that the suspension was temporary and at some point, the two little boys we were working to bring into our family would in fact be able to come home to us. When we called in the beginning of October to find out how our process was going, we were told that because of the families stuck in DRC waiting to bring their children home, our case was put on the back burner. There was no news of how things were going for us at that time, but we were told that if we called back in a couple of weeks, there might be some more information then. So we waited, then called. What we found out was not encouraging. Some information had come to light that caused us some concern. We decided to wait and see if anything further came of our concerns. About a month later, just before Thanksgiving, we contacted our agency again to ask how our case was coming. No new information, and we were still waiting on a court date. The week before Christmas, we again called our agency, and this time we were told of further information that had come to light in regards to the boys and their eligibility to be adopted. We knew immediately that we could not in good conscience continue with the adoption process. These two little boys already had family members available to care for them, which was causing the courts to examine the situation more closely. It was clear to us that we had no business taking the boys away from a chance to remain in their birth culture and possibly with their birth family.

We were heartbroken, for we had come to care for these little boys and were so looking forward to welcoming them into our family. But we had been called to adopt children who had a need for a family, which these little ones did not. It would be risky to continue with an adoption that might be considered ineligible by the US Embassy in DRC, because it could mean a denial of immigrant visas for the boys by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. That knowledge, combined with the situation regarding the suspension of exit letters, confirmed to us that we had no other choice but to end the adoption process.

 
If we'd had all of the necessary information at the time we were presented with these two boys, we would not have felt comfortable accepting the referral. When we shared this with our agency and asked if there was a possibility of a partial refund on the $24,000 we had paid in fees up to that point, we were told a very emphatic "No refund." We will be refunded a $1,000 post placement report deposit, since the placement did not happen.

 It is difficult to express our emotions and thoughts in the past few weeks. We trust that God has led us throughout this situation and that He does not make mistakes. He provided the funds thus far, and we offered them back to Him unreservedly, trusting in His plan. He will bless the efforts of all those who have given to help us as well.

We are not without hope or direction at this point. In fact, we are more hopeful now that we have been in months. Our direction has changed, but not our focus. We still know without a doubt that God is sovereign and that He has called us to adopt children who need a home and family. He has shown us that He has another way for us to go now.

He has made us aware of a very special little girl with a sweet spirit and a true need for the love of a family. We have been led to change to another agency, one which has a program doing special needs adoptions in China. The first time I looked at their waiting child photolisting, the face of one little girl in particular drew my attention. I opened up her page and learned of her need and immediately felt a sense of rightness. I read her information to Gilbert and showed him her pictures. He felt the same sense of peace I had. We looked at some files of other children as well, but we kept coming back to this one little girl. There was just something very special about her. Learning more about her story and how she came to be an orphan endeared her to our family even more. So, we have applied for pre-approval from China to adopt this beautiful little girl.

 

Things are not turning out like we thought they would. Life rarely does, I am learning. It is good to know that the God who created all things cares for little boys in Africa and little girls in China and mommies and daddies in America and wants them all to know His love and provision. He had all this planned all along, and He will make it into something beautiful in His time.

 

This adoption will cost $28,000, but we are already $10,000 ahead, thanks to God's provision through our fundraising efforts in the fall. All the proceeds of the benefit supper and auction, as well as the grant we have been awarded have been sitting in our adoption fund, waiting for our case to go to court. Since it never did, we still have the funds available for this new adoption. We also qualify for a $2,500 grant from our new agency, so we are almost halfway there already! Isn't God good?

 

So, we are back at square one in some ways, and miles ahead of where we were in others. Please pray with us as we make this change in direction and continue to seek to follow the Lord in all things.