Away We Go

Welp, here we go!

The morning after my last blog post our travel approval came, and we got to work right away making plans.

Our agency verified our Family Day (or Gotcha Day) will be May 8 (a week from today!) and our Consulate Appointment will be May 15.

WOOHOOO!!!

May I be honest for a minute?

I'm terrified. Absolutely, positively beside myself with fear. I'm afraid to be somewhere so foreign, I'm afraid to be away from my babies for so long and I'm nervous to adopt someone I don't know (ha, but did I know my bio kids when they were born?! It makes no sense, but it is what it is).

But I'm confident. I'm confident in God's faithfulness. He led us down this path, has guided and provided for each step, and He will sustain us through the difficulties and fear. I'm confident that our boys are in amazing hands, and we will miss them SO much more than they will miss us :) Ha!

Also: I'm thankful for my fear. It's making me more cognoscente of Caroline's feelings- and it's allows me to think of how she will probably be feeling upon arriving in the US. I mean, I'm scared to go somewhere so foreign, but I get to come home in two weeks. I've been thinking of the all scary things that are going on in her little world right now and in the weeks and months to come, and it humbles me and grants me the ability to have more understanding and graciousness towards this little girl.

On Sunday, some of my amazing friends came over to figure out the boys schedules, and I am SO comfortable now, it's almost silly. I prayed for years for "middle of the night friends." You know, the friends who you would leave your kids with if you went to China?! HA! I cannot believe the way we have been surrounded by people who love us, love our kids and love adoption, and it's stinkin' amazing.

So, the first week we're gone my sweet friends will be watching our boys and loving them like they're their own.

The second week, Grammy and Papi are coming out to visit and I'm pretty sure the boys will be in paradise. I know everyone's in great hands, but ugh, I am going to miss those poop-talking, toot-making, loud-screaming boys!

We will be leaving this Saturday morning, and due to the time change, by the time we get to our hotel, we get Caroline Grace about 12 hours later!!!! We'll have a couple of appointments in her province (we will be in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China) and will be leaving to fly south to Guangzhou on the 11th. Her medical appointment is Friday the 12th, and then our Consulate Appointment will be Monday the 15th. We will pick up Caroline's visa on Wednesday the 17th at 11:00AM, and then we leave the next day for Hong Kong. We will spend one night in Hong Kong, and will leave the next morning to fly back to good ol' Denver! Home Sweet Home! Upon landing in the US (we will have a layover in Seattle) Caroline Grace will officially be a US Citizen! We will be landing around 5:15PM Mountain Time. I'm so excited to go and come home :) HA!

Anyway, all our bags are packed, we're ready to go (I mean, my and Caroline's bags are packed... Kris is waiting until the last minute because #hesthedad #hecan), and we're just watching the minutes tick by (slowly) until Saturday morning!

Please keep us in your prayers. Please pray for our boys to be comforted and contented while we are gone, and please pray for Caroline as she's in a state of upheaval right now and in the weeks to come. China typically removes children from their foster homes prior to their Family Days, and places them in the orphanage. I can't imagine the fear and pain she's feeling right now, and then I think of her foster parents who have taken amazing care of her, and I know they have that heartbroken feeling right now. Please pray for them too :)

Thanks for joining us on this journey, friends! I will try to update while we are gone- if I can't do it from the iPad we will post lots of pics, and save notes on each day, and I'll update the trip when we get home... because there's nothing more thrilling than an adoption trip!!!!!

Any Day Now

Well, here we are.

Our final paperwork was sent to Beijing on Thursday of last week, and now we're in a waiting game.

The final travel approvals have been taking 2-7 days on average lately, and here we are on day 5 and I'm just ready. We are ready to get her and be home and get into our new normal. We've been in this weird state of limbo where we can't make any plans, and instead have to come up with numerous different scenarios depending on when we get travel approval, and when we can leave.

If we don't get approval by tomorrow, leaving around the 6th is pretty much out of the question. Family Days (or Gotcha Days) are only on Mondays, so we would have to scoot our timeline back another week and make plans from there.

Will you pray for our travel approval soon? Will you pray we have patience in the meantime while we have this last period of unknown? I have come to know lots of momma's in process at the same stage as us, and right now we haven't seen a travel approval come since last Thursday... So, there are lots of babies waiting on their mom's and dad's, so a big batch of travel approvals from Beijing in the next day or so would be a very good thing.

I can't wait to update you all the next time with solid dates and timelines! I have piles to pack in my closet right now, but I don't want to jinx myself and put it in a suitcase :)

Isaiah 40:31- "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

Where we're at and what we're doing

Oh man. Things are getting REAL, guys.

I literally have tingly wrists at all times, and I'm dropping things like crazy since I'm so totally distracted.

So here's a quick update on where we are:

Our Article 5 (the final documents that need approval) were dropped off at the US Consulate in Guangzhou China on April 6. They are picking them up on the 20th. At the same time, Kris' visa will be picked up on the 25th, and overnighted to us.

Once our Article 5 is picked up, they will overnight it to Beijing. The past few weeks, the CCCWA in Beijing has been issuing TA's (travel approvals) within 1-3 days. We are praying to have travel approval by Monday the 24th.

Once we have travel approval, that means we can go. As soon as we receive TA, we have to request our appointment in the Consulate in Guangzhou for the US to finalize our adoption and issue Caroline's immigration visa.

What all this means, is Lord willing, we will be leaving either April 30th, or May 6th. WHAT?!

Right now we're just praying for no delays. Will you join us in praying that everything will go super smoothly and we get the consulate appointments we want?

In the meantime, I'm over here nesting like a woman who's 38 weeks pregnant. I am cleaning our baseboards, scrubbing our floors, and I truthfully can hardly sit still.

We are SO READY. I'm ready to get her and get home and get to living our normal lives as a family of SIX. SIX! That's a big family!

Anyhow, we have finally gotten to work on getting the house transitioned. Two weeks ago, we started with the Big Boy room. Now Keegan and Bennett are sharing, and they are in paradise. The first time they shared a room, they were TERRIBLE. I mean, they would stay up until 10:30 screaming and jumping. They were just way too little. Now, they like to lay in their beds and chit chat for a bit before falling asleep. They no longer wake each other up at the crack of dawn either, so that's always good.

I mean, it's really cool, right?! A total big kid room!!!

Benny and I worked on the design for this room together for a long time. We roamed around the paint aisles at Lowes and Home Depot, and finally decided on a really light grey for the walls and ceiling, and a navy blue for the wall with the window. He really wanted to keep his red curtains- and I love it.

Then this weekend, we had the pleasure of designing and completing our first GIRL room!! WOO HOO! I mean, boys are super fun and easy, but can we all just agree that it's just not nearly as fun to decorate for and dress them?!

The bed and the nightstand were a hand-me-down from my dad's apartment. The dollhouse was the one that my mom and I built when I was little, but I redecorated it to look like our house now (on the outside). The little grey table was $10 from Ikea, and the curtains and rods are also from Ikea. The initials were from Hobby Lobby, and the little "g" is from Amazon .

 

I had actually bought this quilt years ago when we first started the process of adopting in Michigan from foster care, but we ended up getting pregnant with Smith. I remember sobbing when we had to halt that process. It was almost too much to keep that quilt. But I did, and I'm so glad. God wove so much into that little quilt in the meantime.

 

The lamp is an old vintage one I bought off of ebay- it was brand new, though, and still had the old "Penneys" tag on it from the 60's! I LOVE it.

 

 

That "Count your Blessings" board is from Hobby Lobby (80% off- whoop!) and that's where we're putting the fabulous pictures of all of our friends and family in their Caroline shirts.

 

 

Pretty sure this is my favorite corner of my whole house. I painted that mirror as a chalkboard for my sister's baby shower almost 5 years ago. I finally decided to paint Caroline's life verse on it- I'm SO GLAD I didn't throw that out! See that cute little panda bear hanging on? I think it's an adorable little tribute and encouragement for our little China girl to hang on even when it's scary. And by the way, am I the only one who absolutely LOVES tolle?! She has one over her bed, and one over her vanity- both eBay.

 

That vanity by the way- does anyone remember when we garbage picked that?! I couldn't decide what color to paint it, and then I sanded it down a bit, and I loved the distressed white, so we just added new hardware and a new mirror ($8 project) and voila! LOVE it. And that little bench? I made it a couple of years ago for our house back in Michigan, and again, had no need for it here. So glad I saved it.

 

Last, that DARLING rocker. That was the only thing we really had to "spend" on for Caroline's room. We bought it from Amazon, and it was shipped Prime in two days. It was only $60! Isn't it the cutest room you've seen in a long time!? I mean, not to fluff my own feathers, but I am so proud. We have waited so very long for this room. Now the only thing missing is the cutest little girl I've ever seen :)

 

Okay, guys. If you followed this all the way to the end, THANK YOU. If you didn't, don't worry, I totally get it. This was a long one. Ha :)

 

One last prayer request: will you pray for our Bennett? His heart is the softest, and he knows so much is happening right now. He's such a good boy, but is so very emotional right now. He cried for ten minutes today after we dropped Keegan off at school because he "didn't say goodbye to Keegan." He knows there's a lot going on, and he's feeling it too.

 

Thanks for loving us so well, friends. Thanks for being so excited along with us, and for supporting us so faithfully. We are amazed that we get to call each and everyone of you a friend.

 

 

Weeks Away!

I am knocking on wood SO HARD right now since I just made this title "Weeks Away!"

If everything goes according to plan, we are literally weeks away from traveling to China to get our girl!

Last week we had the pleasure of spending some time with family while in Michigan over Spring Break. While we were there, I was still a crazy lady, incessantly calling Immigration to see if they offered the final approval for Caroline Grace to join our family. On Thursday of last week, the amazing Officer Clark emailed to let us know that they approved our i800 request to adopt Caroline specifically. He mailed me a hard copy approval, and also mailed a copy to the National Visa Center so they can process Caroline's visa paperwork for immigration into the US.

I've been emailing the NVC daily since Monday. Finally this morning I called, and received what's called our GUZ number and our invoice number. Pretty much, it just means that they've received the approval from USCIS and have it logged into their system. This morning I was able to complete our final immigration form for Caroline, called the DS260. It was SO SURREAL. As her petitioner, I had to fill it out AS her. I listed "mother" as me, and "father" as Kris. I was able to list her address as our house. MY HEART.

My heart was overwhelmed filling out this form. It was extensive, and super interesting. We were asked if Caroline had any plans to participate in espionage, fund terrorists or had a history with child soldiers. I was overjoyed, but also really sad that these questions exist.

Right now, we are awaiting one more piece for us to have our final documents submitted in China (I mean, literally, right now. I've been sitting on hold for 31 minutes so far with the NVC to see if they have sent everything to China yet).

The National Visa Center will forward our information to the US consulate in Guangzhou, and once that occurs, they are supposed to email us a PDF letter explaining that it has been sent. Once we receive that PDF, our agency representative will forward our documents for our Article 5 to their in-country representative, who will courier the packet to the consulate. This has a 10 business day review period. Lord willing, this will be dropped off early next week. Once our in-country rep picks up our Article 5, they will overnight it to Beijing to the CCCWA for Travel Approval. These have been taking an average of 7 days lately.

We can travel one to two weeks after receiving travel approval, depending on when we get our final consulate appointment for.
AHHHH! I die. We are thrilled beyond measure. But truthfully, I am beyond anxious. There is SO much unknown, and we are truly feeling every emotion in the book, at the same time. It's SO WEIRD.

We have been waiting to get Caroline's room ready since I keep thinking I might jinx myself. Now, here we are, maybe 4 weeks away from travel, and I find myself absolutely over the moon, but absolutely scrambling.

Will you pray?

Will you pray for speed over the next few steps?

Will you pray for peace? For us, and obvious for Caroline Grace and her foster family.

We are so thankful to have the support we have. Thank you for loving and supporting us so well, and encouraging us every step of this journey. GUYS, WE ARE SO STINKING CLOSE!

Have an awesome weekend. I'll update much sooner as these next few steps are typically all so close.

LOA and Beyond

44 Days.

This really and truly felt like the worlds LONGEST 44 days in my whole life.

Typically, what happens is that the CCCWA (the agency within China who handles adoptions) updates their system electronically first, and lets everyone stay up to date with their process. Once your dossier goes from translation, to review, you are sent to the matching department, who then verifies that you and your child are a good match, and then they issue your letter of acceptance verifying that China has approved you to adopt that child, and then Kris and I need to sign it to verify that we are moving forward with Caroline specifically.

A few days after their system shows that they have issued you LOA, you end up waiting for it to be FedExed to your agency.

However...

In our case, the CCCWA has not updated their system at all for our file. We still show in review, but our agency has received the official hard copy of our LOA today! Yay!!!!! We have always been told that LOA wait is anywhere from 40-100 days. It was anticipated that it would be at least 50+ days since Chinese New Year was in there, and the entire country of China shuts down for a full week. 44 days was a BREEZE given recent timelines!

Before I get into the upcoming timeline, let me say, I was really, really getting tired of waiting the past week or so. I prayed that God would remind me of His faithfulness- not even in regards to the adoption, just in life in general, so we could see Him move, and remember that He is present.

Friends, we saw our God show up in so many non-adoption, mighty ways this week. From being reminding of the way He orchestrates relationships in our lives to support us and to love us well, and to give us the opportunity to love others well, to providing for our needs and by moving in the hearts of our children to increase in kindness towards one another, we have seen Him move, and we are so thankful.

My anxieties cannot always be controlled well, though. Cognitively, I know God is faithful, and know He will continue to move in our family and circumstances, but with an anxiety disorder, it's frequently more than just KNOWING. My brain felt peace this week, my brain new that things were moving, and coming along, but my BODY.. my body responds with heart palpitations, and lightheadedness, and tingling. It is SO strange.

This morning, Lifesong for Orphans (they granted us a covenant loan for this adoption- an AMAZING organization) posted this. I needed it. I prayed it this morning over and over it.

I feel like I used to never consider Nehemiah, but he has been continually woven throughout this adoption. God used him in BIG ways and he continually moved forward by faith. I really hope and pray that we can continue to move forward in faith in our marriage, in our family, parenting and beyond, even after Caroline Grace is home.

Anyway, God has strengthened my hands :)

Okay, so here's the next steps and timeline going forward...

1800 Submission- We already received pre-approval from USCIS (Immigration) to adopt a child meeting Caroline's criteria from China. Now that we have LOA, we have to request permission to adopt Caroline specifically. They say it takes about 3 weeks for this. Currently, they are running about 16-17 days.

NVC- National Visa Center. USCIS will send our approval to the NVC and they will start working on issuing Visa's.

PDF- We will receive an PDF letter from the NVC after about 1 Week (okay, so we're up to about 4 weeks. It will have a special number on it called a GUZ number (stands for Guangzhou, which is where the US Consulate in China is).

D260- The final form we need to submit. It needs the GUZ number. Once we have all of the above, our agency will send all of this to their representative in Guangzhou, China, along with the hard copy of our signed LOA. This is called the...

ARTICLE 5 Drop Off and Pick Up- This is dropped off, and takes a full TEN BUSINESS DAYS.

Travel Approval- Once this is picked up, they will take it to the CCCWA in Beijing, and then we just wait for Travel Approval (TA). TA is currently running 2-10 days after arriving at the CCCWA.

So let's all do the math together... :)

21 Days (or less!) for I800 Approval
7 days for NVC
14 days for Article 5
10 days for TA

52 days. 52 DAYSSSS!

Once TA arrives, you request a Consulate appointment. It really just depends on when you get your CA for, rewind approximately two weeks before, and THAT will be Gotcha Day! Some people leave one week after receiving TA, and some people leave a couple of weeks after TA...

WAAAAHHHH!

My heart. I can hardly handle it.

While We Wait: What I've Read

I posted last how this waiting has been so long. We are keeping ourselves busy while we wait though, and I thought I'd do a few posts about what we've been doing to occupy ourselves in the meantime.

First, I thought I'd do a post about what I've been reading in the meantime, as that tends to be one of the most frequently asked questions on the adoption forums and pages that I've been able to follow...

In the past few months, these are some of the books I've been reading:

The Lost Daughter's of China (click title to access on Amazon). I do like this book, but it's not my favorite. It's definitely following someone's adoption journey, and it's not from a Christian perspective, which is interesting since a lot of adoption books do happen to discuss in relation to Christ. It's a bit of a lengthier, slower read, and slightly outdated, as it refers often to the patterns of adoption in China in the early 2000's when many healthy baby girls were being abandoned and adopted internationally mostly just due to their gender. Now, there are just as many, if not more boys who are being abandoned, and all international adoptions from China are special need adoptions only.

Bringing Lucy Home (click title to access on Amazon) I really like this book. Oddly enough, Kris had bought this for me a few years ago, before adopting from China was even back on our radar. I re-read it again, this time with a better understanding of the process. This is written from a Christian perspective. Also, I do LOVE this because it's relatively short and a really easy read. She blogged her journey first before adjusting to a book format, so the writing is very casual and friendly.

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother (click title to access on Amazon) This really may be one of my favorite books of all time. It is longer, but I still couldn't put it down, and read it in 24 hours. I read it NON-STOP. It was so intriguing. The author is Chinese, and was a radio host of a women's program for years, and traveled ALL over China interviewing women. This story tells the anonymous stories of women all over China who were in terrible, terrible situations and made the horribly painful decisions to give up their daughters. This one is not a happy book, I'll say that up front. However, it's reality, and SO interesting. I loved that I feel like a was able to gain insight into the mind of Caroline's birth mom, but I was also able to learn tidbits about all regions of China. SO GOOD.

The Magnolia Story (click title to access on Amazon) because how many books on China and adoption can you really read in a row, and who doesn't just love the Gaines' with every bit of their being?! I LOVE THEM. This is such a light-hearted, quick read. It's not heavy in the least, and I love how both Chip and Jo contribute, and you know who's "talking" by the font. I so admire their relationship and just love their mutual respect for one another. They speak so highly of each other, and seem to have a genuinely good time together, even when they took big risks that didn't always pay off. Now THAT'S the type of marriage I want to have!

The Little Woman (click title to access on Amazon) THIS IS THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL. Back in third grade, Miss Bosch read us this book, and this is the book that started my little nine year old heart wanting to adopt from China. What a beautiful full-circle moment to be able to re-read the words that placed our girl on my heart so long ago. This is a really short, quick read and it's really inexpensive. I constantly remember this book throughout this journey. As Gladys started praying about going to China, which was so ridiculous in context (she was a single woman in the 1930's who didn't speak a lick of Mandarin), she heard the Holy Spirit asking her "Is Nehemiah's God your God?" I have told myself that so much during this process, and I'll say, we have seen God show up like never before, just liked Gladys did throughout her life. I long for the day when I can live every day remembering that Nehemiah's God is my God, without constantly doubting His faithfulness.

The Connected Child (click title to access on Amazon) This is a book "for" adoptive families, however, I'm pretty sure that ANY family with any type of behavioral/anxiety issues could benefit from this book. Karyn Purvis was the greatest of the great when it came to dealing with trauma in children appropriately, and she has truly become the standard of awesome parenting in the adoptive community. Apparently, she's even become a verb, as a fellow adoptive momma wrote this week (in regards to how hard it can be to parent a child from grief and trauma) that "we just can't Purvis all the time." If you google this book, it will also bring up amazing video resources. I highly recommend this!

 The One Year Bible (click title to access on Amazon) SO MANY PEOPLE blogged/Instagramed that they're been reading through the Bible annually using this. I've been a Christian for twenty eight years, and I've never read it clear through, so I decided that this was the year. I ordered this, and have been reading it incrementally. It's New Living Translation, which is different than what I'm used to, but I like the wording so far. Also, I LOVE the lay out. Reading all the old laws in the Old Testament is really, really hard for me. I love that this breaks up the monotony of it, and pairs it side by side with the Gospel. For me, it puts the grace and freedom from Jesus in a whole new light when it is compared (literally) right next to Leviticus.

My good ol' NIV Bible- I'm not linking this, because I really think a daily Bible should be a matter of preference for the reader. Truthfully, I'm not strictly dedicated to the NIV, and I've heard lots of arguments for lots of different translations, HOWEVER, I am much more simple than that. This Bible was from the Family Christian Bookstore years ago, and I ended up with NIV because I loved the size and feel of this Bible in my hands. I knew I'd be more likely to spend time in it, if it was physically comfortable to me. This Bible has almost become like "home" it's so familiar. I tried to replace my Bible with my One Year Bible just so I could deal with less books, but as gooney as this sounds, I started feeling "homesick" for my old Bible, so I'm just doing both for now as much as I can.

What have you been reading lately? I would love some recommendations... Remember, I'm waiting a lot and need to occupy my mind so I don't become a crazy lady :)

HAPPY WEEKEND, FRIENDS!

Update(s) on our Girlie!

When we started this process, I was sure it would be so much "better" than being pregnant, and I was so wrong. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely different.

But, FRIENDS, this waiting is SO HARD. It's just as hard as being pregnant

We are on day #34 of our wait for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China. This can range from 40-100 days, but it feels like it's been months and months already. It's so trying- we can't even tentatively plan anything travel-wise until we receive our LOA. However, even after we receive LOA, the timelines we're being told range anywhere from 7 weeks to 12 weeks until travel.

By God's grace, last Sunday night (Monday morning in China) we received our first update on our beautiful girl! We couldn't have been more excited- the update came exactly when we needed it. It's the oddest sensation to miss a child so desperately that you've never met face to face. It was boggling opening our email to see our precious girl an entire year older. My heart.

Friends, do you see the tiny bracelet on her wrist?! Oh my. And look at all her pony tails! I have stared at this picture way more than you can imagine. If I could crawl into that photo I would.

She just looks so sleepy here, and I love to imagine her home in her jammies making this precious sleepy girl face. And may I note: this girl is a GIRL'S girl. She is eating out in the first picture, and shopping in the second. This is my DAUGHTER! :)

 

Look how bundled our little dolly is. FYI: in China, they bundle the children like no one's business. Even in the summer from what I hear, they still dress them much warmer than we would ever dress our children here in the states. It's a cultural thing, and I love it so (they all look like little squishy marshmallows). I love her little pipe cleaner crown!

 I can hardly handle the pig tails. She is so darling, and we are so thankful that somehow, God is leading our girl across the world to our family.

We received ten questions answered by her foster mom, and we have learned such precious tidbits about her. I've read it over and over again, and each time feel like I'm getting to "know" her better. This girl is obviously so loved and well cared for in her foster home. She attends therapy daily, and by God's grace, this little girl who we were unsure would ever be able to walk without assistance is now running. She doesn't like noisy toys, and if they surprise her, she throws them and yells 'no' at them. She is allergic to seafood, and loves meat and pot-stickers (that-a-girl).

Friends, this girl is HEALTHY. She's a big girl :) She's bigger than her big brother Bennett in both height and weight, and almost weighs as much as her biggest brother, Keegan. We are so very thankful to have her in such awesome care.

What we've found is that now our preparations are having to adjust slightly, and we're having to prepare for the fact that although she may not have much experience with the trauma from neglect that typically comes with adoption- we're having to prepare that the grief she will feel will most likely be that of having to leave her China Granny and foster brother. Will you please continue to pray for her heart? That she would start to be prepared for all of these changes coming up?

This update was so, so precious to us, and helped us to feel all the closer to our Caroline Grace, but my WORD, if I thought I was itching to get over to China to pick her up before, you better believe that I am all the more on pins and needles to get over there now.

Lastly, will you pray that God would continue to direct our paperwork through the right hands in China so we can start moving on to the next step? Waiting is hard. But what a joy to be waiting on our Sweet Caroline, and to be able to trust in our God who is able.

We are so very grateful for your willingness to join us on this journey to bring our girl home. You are (all) the best, and I couldn't be more thankful for you.

DTC and LID!

Last Monday, January 16, our dossier was returned authenticated from the Chinese Consulate and the US State Department. Because our placing agency is SO awesome, our social worker had it uploaded into the CCCWA (China's Department that handles adoptions) website, and the hard copy FedEx-ed to Beijing the same day. At that point we were considered to be "DTC" or "Dossier/Documents to China."

The next step was a short one (praise the good Lord, because the step we are on now will be the longest waiting yet). As of yesterday, our dossier was logged into China's system (confirmed they received it and are starting the process of translating, reviewing, matching and issuing their final approval to adopt Caroline specifically). Our official Log-In Date (LID) is January 22. We now have to wait for China to send us our Letter of Acceptance- those are running anywhere from 40-100 days. Lets pray together for it to be closer to the 40 day window :)

Now we wait! Although we are glad we got logged in so quickly, we're also a little antsy since Chinese New Year is next week, and all of China (literally) is shut down from this Saturday, January 27-February the 4th. There will be NO movement on anything, so we're just hoping they don't get too backed up during this time.

In the meantime, we plan on starting to transition the big boys back into one room over the next couple of months, so we can also start working on transitioning Keegan's room into Caroline's room. I've entered full blown nesting stage, and I find myself wanting to organize like crazy. I'm organizing the linen closets, utility closets, storage room, etc. PS it's so much more fun nesting while adopting since you can move, and you feel just so much better overall than when you're pregnant.

So anyway, that's where we are.

We are also waiting on an update on Caroline, and hoping for some updated information and photos on our girl (we weren't allowed to request an update until our dossier was logged in). We were able to send 10 questions for the CCCWA to forward to her foster mom, and our fingers are crossed that nothing is lost in translation, and we are able to learn more about our sweet girl in preparation for bringing her home.

Thank you so much for joining us and for praying for us. We have seen our God do really big things in this adoption through your prayers and support, and we are confident that through His goodness, we will continue to see Him show up and do even more big things.

 

Psalm 68:5 "A Father to the fatherless, a Defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling."

Our Baby Girl As a Baby and Where Do We Go From Here?

Hi, all!

Truth: this process is so much more enjoyable when we are not worrying about how we are going to come up with the remaining funding. Thank you so much again for your generosity towards our family. I've spent my spare time researching travel, and starting to participate in Facebook groups for China Adoptive Parents, and have even found a group that is for parents of children adopted from Caroline's specific SWI (China refers to the orphanages as Social Welfare Institutes).

Now, Caroline is actually in foster care, and has been since she was 7 months old, so she no longer lives in the SWI, but everything is routed through it, so the other parents in these groups have been such a tremendous gift to us- a total wealth of knowledge!

I started out by asking some general questions about her SWI's process for providing updates and how they respond. The thread took a turn, and I was directed to a volunteer with an amazing charity who had been on a trip in October of 2015 to Hangzhou (the capital city of the province that Caroline lives in), who thought that she may have met Caroline when visiting the nearby foster center that she would attend for daily therapy and school.

She requested some extra information from me, and told me she needed to verify some information with her contacts in China. I didn't want to pry- I didn't follow up at all (this is SO not me. I am the follow up Queen), and assumed that the photos she suspected were Caroline Grace were not.

Kris and I were over the moon when we received an email from this precious woman ten days later, not only confirming that the photos were of our daughter, but providing a small update from her physical therapist in regards to her current condition.... "SMART" :) Talk about a tear-filled moment. We started this process knowing that there were SO MANY UNKNOWNS in her medical file. Her condition could vary tremendously. Per her therapist in country, "This girl is smart" and is on track developmentally.

WHAT?!

Now, let me step back and say, I take that as an amazing update, however, I am also aware that adoption is painful- this little girl has experienced tremendous loss in her little life, and will face even more loss in the near future. I'm 100% expecting her to grieve HARD. Why wouldn't she? Any child who experiences what she will experience has the right to grieve. So we're just anticipating that. We're also anticipating that perhaps, other medical/developmental things may come up in the future, but it's such a joy to know that right now, she's doing well... We didn't even REQUEST this update, it literally just popped into our email inbox, along with FIFTEEN BABY PICTURES OF OUR GIRL!

Friends, this is such a huge deal to me. Something in my soul LOVES roots so much. I love to know who I am, where I came from, and to feel rooted. I want that for Caroline more than anything- but that's just not the nature of International adoption. But God has gone and done it again, and despite what the nature of the process is, has provided her a bit more history.

In addition to the baby pictures, this amazing volunteer sent me tons of pictures of her foster center, her friends, the neighborhood she lives in, etc. I've started a scrap book, and it's such a feeling of euphoria to flip through these photos and feel a bit closer to our Caroline. As corn-ball-y as it sounds, I just kept hearing Luke 2:19- "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart," as these emails from a stranger started pouring into my inbox. I wish that this woman knew the enormity of the gift she has given our family by providing our daughter with history and context in the midst of so much unknown.

AH! How I wish I could have been there to squish those precious little eleven month old cheeks!!!!!! I have more pictures of her smiling that I wish I could share publically, but there are other people in them- and for confidentiality purposes I cannot share yet. BUT SERIOUS, GUYS. THOSE CHEEKS.

Lastly- I've had some people reach out to find out what comes next in this process, so I wanted to give a quick break down:

1. Currently all of the documents for our dossier are being authenticated by the US State Department and the Chinese Consulate. Lord willing, they will be complete this Friday, or next Monday, and our agency has advised that as soon as they receive them back from the courier, they will send everything off to China the same day!

2. In adoption "lingo" that is "DTC" or Dossier to China. It will be uploaded document by document electronically in the CCCWA's system, and will also be FedEx-ed to China.

3. The dossier has to be "logged in" by China. This takes anywhere from 7-10 days. Once it's logged in you are considered to have a "LID" or "Log-in Date."

4. Now we will wait for our Letter of Acceptance from China, which can take anywhere from 40-100 days. It's currently averaging approximately 60 days from LID to LOA.

5. Once we receive our LOA, we will have to file one more immigration application to adopt Caroline specifically. Supposedly this takes approximately 2-3 weeks. Next we have to file for Visa's. This can take another few weeks. Once we receive all of this we will send everything back to China.

Next we have to have our Article 5 dropped off at the US Consulate in China. I don't even know what that is, actually, but I know we have to do it :)

Then, we wait for TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!

Once we obtain travel approval, we will schedule our appointment at the consulate in China, and schedule our trip around it. "Gotcha Day" will be approximately two weeks BEFORE the consulate appointment.

My wrists are tingling and I'm getting all excited just typing it.

Thanks for sticking with me for the world's longest post. Will you continue to pray for our family through this process? We are specifically praying that God would prepare Caroline to come home- that He would guard her heart and protect her spirit, and continue to heal her body. Would you also pray that our family would be prepared for another family member?

These are such exciting times, and it's overwhelming and such an honor to have you journeying with us.