Here is an update on China: they are WAY behind, as I've said before. Current wait time is around 2 years. People are getting their babies that were logged in to China in November 2005. And we are not even logged in yet! So this is making China look bad, and they don't like to look bad! Especially with the Olympics coming up in Beijing next year.
We heard they had a special meeting in Beijing to discuss how to get more babies ready for adoption. Currently, not ALL the orphanages in China adopt babies out. Only certain ones that have prepared paperwork on the babies. Now, they are running out of babies in these orphanages! They need more babies ready! Praise the Lord. We are sending a message to them...we want your precious babies that you don't want!
So here is my THEORY....Something is going to happen, a miracle from God. And lots of people are going to be hired to get paperwork on thousands of babies and they are going to catch back up. I do not believe it will take 2-3 years to get Hope. I never have believed that. And here is a neat thing...I believe that Hope and thousands of other babies will come from an orphanage that never was before in the adoption process. Saved by the grace of God, picked from an obsecure orphanage, and destined for a family of love on the other side of the world. Isn't God awesome?
So pray and believe with us for these things! Miracles. For all these babies! Who knows, maybe one might find their way to your heart and home!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
not your average adoption...
We got our passports in! We had heard rumors that even after paying the expedite fee (which we did) that passports were taking 4 months! I told Daniel, "we are going to get our passports in soon, and it will be a confirmation of God's favor on us." And what happened not 3 days later....passports! And today I got my birth certificate. FROM LOUISIANA!!! These were both things that I thought could hold us up for months!
So here is what is left for us...one more home study appointmet, Daniel to design our family photo pages, our physical exam forms to be completed, and then waiting for the special form from the US government that says we are approved to bring a child home from China!
We have moved at an incredible pace. Nothing stressful. Everything has gone perfect!!! We take no credit, it is ALL God's grace on us and His divine favor! No matter what the time frame is for the average person, we don't go by that. We are not average! When you have God on your side, and you are trusting in Him and believing He is in control, His timeframe is perfect!! Thank you Lord.
So here is what is left for us...one more home study appointmet, Daniel to design our family photo pages, our physical exam forms to be completed, and then waiting for the special form from the US government that says we are approved to bring a child home from China!
We have moved at an incredible pace. Nothing stressful. Everything has gone perfect!!! We take no credit, it is ALL God's grace on us and His divine favor! No matter what the time frame is for the average person, we don't go by that. We are not average! When you have God on your side, and you are trusting in Him and believing He is in control, His timeframe is perfect!! Thank you Lord.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Would you like some nuts with that photo?
Why is it so hard to get a passport photo? If anyone needs to get one, go to a REAL portrait studio like MotoPhoto or something, NOT Walgreen's or Kinkos. Sometimes I feel like nobody cares anymore. After arriving at Walgreen's to take our photos, the man behind the counter (which happened to be the manager) grabbed a digital camera and proceeded to have us stand in front of a "make-shift" background amidst the snacks and film for sale! At that point, Daniel said, his expectations were lowered. So when our photos came out pathetic, orange and hazy, Daniel wasn't surprised. But it made me mad. We paid good money for this. Don't advertise you make passport photos if you can't produce a decent photo!
So I kindly asked the man to retake Daniel's (his was fuzzier than mine) and explained to him the reason why we came here was to get a professional photo for a government document and this wasn't going to do. I didn't want a retake, I had already decided the peach polo I chose for the photo shoot was a poor choice and made my auburn hair look orange. There was no hope for mine. But Daniel is always such a perfect subject, we had to get re-takes.
Daniel was so nice that he told me I could get a retake somewhere else. I later went to Kinko's to get a "better" photo. At least the lighting was better. It HAD to be better. So after I looked at my new photo, I inquired about the "heavenly glow" upon my forehead. "Oh, that's just the lighting," the worker said. Exactly! I thought! The lighting! Shouldn't that be the MAIN THING when getting photos made! She said, "It'll do." She rudely snapped, "I can take it again, if you want." Yes please. But then we realized it was the lighting and we were at its mercy.
Daniel says it's just passport photos. My theory is, we paid good money for a professional, or at least adequate photo, and none were either of those! It brings back bad memories when Chantel and I hired a DJ for a Karaoke party years ago and totally got taken advantage of by the guy (because we are girls)! It's hard to find decent help, right? I just wanted a passport photo. One that didn't make me look like a orange or washed out!
Besides, our dossier guidelines said to send extra passport photos to China which "they will look at while they are placing a child with you." So I wanted them to be perfect, NOT PERFECTLY PERFECT IN APPEARANCE, just perfectly representing us....happy, healthy US! Daniel's photo looked like someone MADE him take the picture and that he's not a cooperative person. His second one is better, but still not representative of HAPPY, DISNEY LOVIN Daniel. Maybe we need to watch the Disney videos before we go take the photos!
So when we get them scanned in, I will post them for all to see and you can judge for yourself. Lesson learned, go to a REAL photo studio with REAL lights when you want a photo. And don't take bad pictures home. Last night, between Walgreen's and Kinkos we spent about $55! And we have nothing good to show for it.
Oh, well, at least we are sending in our passport applications today. Of course, they are EXTREMELY backed up and say they are being hit with an unprecedented number of passport applications, so we are paying the expedite fee. We are still waiting for my birth certificates from LA. Daniel's from Texas got back in about a week!! Daniel says I should've been born in Texas!
Even so, I am so happy that we are where we are. Things are moving along VERY quickly in the paperwork process. And at Kinkos the two men there waiting for help had both been to China and one of them had adopted 2 girls from there and showed me photos! Thank you God for the encouragement. Hope is worth it all!
So I kindly asked the man to retake Daniel's (his was fuzzier than mine) and explained to him the reason why we came here was to get a professional photo for a government document and this wasn't going to do. I didn't want a retake, I had already decided the peach polo I chose for the photo shoot was a poor choice and made my auburn hair look orange. There was no hope for mine. But Daniel is always such a perfect subject, we had to get re-takes.
Daniel was so nice that he told me I could get a retake somewhere else. I later went to Kinko's to get a "better" photo. At least the lighting was better. It HAD to be better. So after I looked at my new photo, I inquired about the "heavenly glow" upon my forehead. "Oh, that's just the lighting," the worker said. Exactly! I thought! The lighting! Shouldn't that be the MAIN THING when getting photos made! She said, "It'll do." She rudely snapped, "I can take it again, if you want." Yes please. But then we realized it was the lighting and we were at its mercy.
Daniel says it's just passport photos. My theory is, we paid good money for a professional, or at least adequate photo, and none were either of those! It brings back bad memories when Chantel and I hired a DJ for a Karaoke party years ago and totally got taken advantage of by the guy (because we are girls)! It's hard to find decent help, right? I just wanted a passport photo. One that didn't make me look like a orange or washed out!
Besides, our dossier guidelines said to send extra passport photos to China which "they will look at while they are placing a child with you." So I wanted them to be perfect, NOT PERFECTLY PERFECT IN APPEARANCE, just perfectly representing us....happy, healthy US! Daniel's photo looked like someone MADE him take the picture and that he's not a cooperative person. His second one is better, but still not representative of HAPPY, DISNEY LOVIN Daniel. Maybe we need to watch the Disney videos before we go take the photos!
So when we get them scanned in, I will post them for all to see and you can judge for yourself. Lesson learned, go to a REAL photo studio with REAL lights when you want a photo. And don't take bad pictures home. Last night, between Walgreen's and Kinkos we spent about $55! And we have nothing good to show for it.
Oh, well, at least we are sending in our passport applications today. Of course, they are EXTREMELY backed up and say they are being hit with an unprecedented number of passport applications, so we are paying the expedite fee. We are still waiting for my birth certificates from LA. Daniel's from Texas got back in about a week!! Daniel says I should've been born in Texas!
Even so, I am so happy that we are where we are. Things are moving along VERY quickly in the paperwork process. And at Kinkos the two men there waiting for help had both been to China and one of them had adopted 2 girls from there and showed me photos! Thank you God for the encouragement. Hope is worth it all!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
More joy in walking with God through the fire, than on beaches without Him!
Today we had our second of four home study visits. Questions such as why are we adopting, why China, how we met, strengths and weaknesses, etc. It was fun! We are having so much fun. At the same time, it is still so overwhelming and emotional for me. I start reading information to Daniel about the adoption and I can't make it through the sentences without crying. We are so amazed right now that we are actually doing this. It feels so good. To know that God is using us to change Hope's life. The more we read about adoption, we actually wonder why we didn't do it sooner. It just seems so natural to us. Here is an excerpt from John Piper, a father who in his fifties adopted a child with his wife who had the desire for years! It touched me so greatly, I wanted to share it:
• Adoption is from God. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace." So adoption was part of God's plan. It was his idea, his purpose. It was not an afterthought. He didn't discover one day that against his plan and foreknowledge humans had sinned and orphaned themselves in the world, and then come up with the idea of adopting them into his family.
• Consider adopting children into your family as an overflow of the inheritance that you have in Christ from God, your Father.
• We adopt a child not for our own glory but for God's glory. God adopted us for the praise of the glory of his grace. Therefore we adopt for the praise of the glory of his grace. The questions you ask as you ponder adopting a child who needs a family are not first questions of feasibility or affordability. The questions you ask first are: Is my heart fixed on glorifying the grace of God? Is my aim in this to make the grace of God look glorious? Is Christ the center and goal of this decision?
• We dare only adopt children if we have a firm faith in the all-sufficiency of God's future grace. The pain of adopting and rearing children is sure. It will come in one form or the other. Should that stop us from having children or adopting children? No. The self-centered world "cuts their losses" by having few or no children. But we grieve, hoping that they will see that the grace of God is sufficient for every new day no matter how difficult, and that there is more true joy in walking with God through fire, than walking on beaches without him.
• What matters is not that we do all we might have done or all we dreamed of doing in this life, but that while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk in the path of love. The times are in God's hands, not ours.
Isn't that beautiful? I know that not everyone is where we are right now. Last year, I wasn't here. But God has brought me to this place and it is so lovely and pure and fulfilling that I must share with you these things as I walk down this new path in my life. I hope it touches people along the way. And I hope that others will decide to adopt as well as God speaks it to them. Hope.
• Adoption is from God. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace." So adoption was part of God's plan. It was his idea, his purpose. It was not an afterthought. He didn't discover one day that against his plan and foreknowledge humans had sinned and orphaned themselves in the world, and then come up with the idea of adopting them into his family.
• Consider adopting children into your family as an overflow of the inheritance that you have in Christ from God, your Father.
• We adopt a child not for our own glory but for God's glory. God adopted us for the praise of the glory of his grace. Therefore we adopt for the praise of the glory of his grace. The questions you ask as you ponder adopting a child who needs a family are not first questions of feasibility or affordability. The questions you ask first are: Is my heart fixed on glorifying the grace of God? Is my aim in this to make the grace of God look glorious? Is Christ the center and goal of this decision?
• We dare only adopt children if we have a firm faith in the all-sufficiency of God's future grace. The pain of adopting and rearing children is sure. It will come in one form or the other. Should that stop us from having children or adopting children? No. The self-centered world "cuts their losses" by having few or no children. But we grieve, hoping that they will see that the grace of God is sufficient for every new day no matter how difficult, and that there is more true joy in walking with God through fire, than walking on beaches without him.
• What matters is not that we do all we might have done or all we dreamed of doing in this life, but that while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk in the path of love. The times are in God's hands, not ours.
Isn't that beautiful? I know that not everyone is where we are right now. Last year, I wasn't here. But God has brought me to this place and it is so lovely and pure and fulfilling that I must share with you these things as I walk down this new path in my life. I hope it touches people along the way. And I hope that others will decide to adopt as well as God speaks it to them. Hope.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
We are number 20,000 in line!
Still confused about how and when we get Hope? Here's a rundown:
Right now, the CCAA (Chinese officials handling all adoptions) are sending out referrals to families that had a DTC date of November 2005. That means these families were done with all their paper work and sent their dossier to China in November of 2005. And since then, they've waited for this long, a year and a half.
At the current pace, which could speed up or slow done, our wait time is expected to be around 2 years.
If China sends out over 10,000 precious babies a year for international adoptions, and we are 2 years away, that means that 20,000 babies will probably be adopted before we get our turn! Crazy!
So me, and my predictions, came up with this:
If we are DTC in September. add 18-24 months to that--we'd get Hope in March or so of 2009.
And if she were around 10 months old when we got her (average age of adoption) then she would be born around June 2008, and conceived around September of this year!
So we can begin praying God's favor and protection on her life as He forms her in her mother's womb. And for her mother that will have such a long road ahead of her, coming to the painful decision to abandon her baby...our Hope.
When Daniel and I really start to think about it, now that we "know" Hope, we are sad for her...that she will be abandoned somewhere unsafe and scary. Maybe she will be one of the few that are safely left in a public place out of harm's way. Maybe not though. Either way, she will not be alone for long. We are coming as fast as we can!!
Right now, the CCAA (Chinese officials handling all adoptions) are sending out referrals to families that had a DTC date of November 2005. That means these families were done with all their paper work and sent their dossier to China in November of 2005. And since then, they've waited for this long, a year and a half.
At the current pace, which could speed up or slow done, our wait time is expected to be around 2 years.
If China sends out over 10,000 precious babies a year for international adoptions, and we are 2 years away, that means that 20,000 babies will probably be adopted before we get our turn! Crazy!
So me, and my predictions, came up with this:
If we are DTC in September. add 18-24 months to that--we'd get Hope in March or so of 2009.
And if she were around 10 months old when we got her (average age of adoption) then she would be born around June 2008, and conceived around September of this year!
So we can begin praying God's favor and protection on her life as He forms her in her mother's womb. And for her mother that will have such a long road ahead of her, coming to the painful decision to abandon her baby...our Hope.
When Daniel and I really start to think about it, now that we "know" Hope, we are sad for her...that she will be abandoned somewhere unsafe and scary. Maybe she will be one of the few that are safely left in a public place out of harm's way. Maybe not though. Either way, she will not be alone for long. We are coming as fast as we can!!
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