Ni Hao

I'm sitting here on Sunday night listening from the other room as my husband chops vegetables for our Sunday Chili.  It's a tradition...nearly every Sunday for 8 years we've made chili and had a date night at home.  Josh has the recipe perfected- it is his shining moment in the kitchen each week.  After the kids are in bed we curl up on the couch with a bowl of deliciousness and talk.  Back when we had our tv we'd sometimes watch movies, but now we mostly talk and it is so nice to have this to look forward to every week.

Right now I can hear the meat sizzling to the sounds of "Ni Hao" and "Putong qua"...Josh is practicing Mandarin as he cooks.  It is simultaneously sweet and silly, the strange sounds coming from the kitchen.  He makes me smile.

A week ago Josh ran out to pick up some take out Chinese to celebrate getting our LID- the start of our official long wait to hear that Zachary is ours.  He burst into the house practically beaming- he was so excited!  "Rene, they speak Mandarin!" he told me enthusiastically..."I actually spoke with the lady at the front...she smiled and told me I spoke good!"  His Mandarin was intelligible and brought a smile to the face of the normally stoic lady who runs our favorite Chinese restaurant.  It felt like a huge victory and we just laughed at the craziness of it all!  We have a Chinese son waiting for us...in China.  And we're trying to learn one of the most incredibly difficult languages.  My sometimes reserved husband is eager to speak it with strangers because he is already so in love Zachary and just wants to be able to communicate with him when we meet him.  Who would have thought we'd be here!

Asher and Laurel are using the mandarin words for thank you and excuse me as often as the English ones.  And the other night Asher and I stayed up late because he was determined to learn how to say, "I am your brother" in Mandarin for when he meets Zachary for the first time.

Two cultures are colliding and it couldn't be more beautiful.  Adoption is already stretching us and growing us, so much to learn and be thankful for.

Log in Date

China has officially received our dossier and we are logged in!  Today starts day 1 of our wait for LOA.  Here we go!  

A Different Mother's Day

To my sweet Mom- the woman who gave birth to me, sacrificed often, loves extravagantly, and is always there for me no matter what.  God gave me the best when he made you my Mom...I love you!

To Josh's Mom and step Mom- the lovely women who helped mold my husband into such a wonderful man, who have become true second mothers to me...I honor you!

To my Asher & Laurel- the little precious gifts who made me "Mommy" 4.5 and almost 2 years ago, who wake me each morning with squeals and smiles on their faces, and fill my life with love and joy...I adore you forever and always!

To Zachary- my son halfway across the world, who already owns a piece of my heart, whom I love with a ferocity and protectiveness that makes me willing to move mountains to hold him in my arms...Mama is coming!

To his Chinese Mother- for your courage to choose life for your son, to want the best for his future, for the sacrifice and loss you surely feel even today so that he might have the chance to live...thank you.  

What a privilege to be a Mom...and to see how a mother's love stretches past all boundaries and just does.  It does the fun things and the hard things...because that is what love is all about.

This year feels a little different.  Obviously the depth of love and gratitude I feel for my biological kids is pretty much indescribable.  They are incredible little people.  But this year, "a child born to another woman will call me mommy.  the magnitude of that tragedy & the depth of that privilege are not lost on me". It's not lost on me...the women who came before me, the absolute miracle of motherhood.  What a complete honor and gift to be called "mommy".

Happy Mother's Day!!! 

DTC!!

Well, today is the day!  We are officially DTC (dossier to China) and that is something to celebrate.  This is the big milestone that we have been working so hard towards these past 4-5 months.  Six months since we saw his face.  Four months since we officially requested to adopt him.  Hours and hours of paperwork, essays, documents, notarizations, education requirements, physicals, and interviews.  We have been approved, certified, and authenticated by the USA and now we have officially sent everything to China so that they can review and basically give us permission to come and get Zachary.

Look at those pretty little seals from the Chinese Consulate and State offices...can't believe we've made it this far.  Incredible.

We already have PA (preliminary approval) so we know that China is essentially promising that we will be approved to adopt Zachary providing that all the right documents on the US side are sent to them.  We were given 6 months to get these things to China (our dossier) and now here we are 2 months ahead of schedule!  We were told to have everything in by July 3rd, and today we are DTC, so that is thrilling.

God did it!  We made our deadline with room to spare and are that much closer to meeting our beautiful boy.

I don't know if I can express how much effort, energy, love, stress, and anticipation has gone into this moment.  I know I can't express how much we've seen God move in this process...it has been humbling.  Now we wait.  We wait (probably 3 months or so) for China to send our official letter of approval to adopt Zachary (LOA).  Once the LOA comes we go into a frenzy to get everything ready to travel.  Probably three months after the LOA we will be in China meeting our precious son for the first time.

So, thank you for all the support and prayers that have brought us to this point.  We are over half way there!  Please pray that our LOA would arrive quickly, some people wait 20 days and some people wait over 120 days (the average is 70 right now so we're hoping for sometime in July).  Pray that the government officials have no questions or issues with our dossier and that we are approved.  And most importantly, please, please pray for Zachary.  We hope that he is in good health, that he is being loved on, and that God would prepare his heart to meet us.

Yard Sale - Adoption Fundraiser!

Calling all hoarders, pack rats, or people who just have stuff they've been wanting to get rid of....

We need your help!!  

Our family is planning a big yard sale for Saturday May 31st and all proceeds are going to go to bring Zachary home.  We are asking for anyone and everyone to donate any stuff that you might not need or are wishing to give away.  Ice cub tray?  We'll take it!  King size bed?  We'll take it!  Clothes, shoes, electronics, toys, knickknacks, furniture, blankets, tools, exercise equipment, old stuff, new stuff, used stuff, silly stuff, we'll take it!  We will take anything, big or small, and trust that if the Lord wants to sell it then it will get sold!  We will be happy to come pick up and haul whatever you have, or you are welcome to drop things off at our house or the church.  The bigger the yard sale, the more potential for success!

We could also use help with:

• setting up the yard sale (transporting tables/large items, labeling prices)
• possibly running a snack concessions table
• making signs to advertise
• cleaning up

Please let me, Josh or our families know if you want to help or have something to donate.  If you'd be willing, as the date gets closer, to talk up our yard sale, Facebook, tweet, tell your friends and coworkers...that would be awesome.  Thank you!  The location is still to be determined...we are trying to decide if having it at our home vs. another location would be best.

Josh and I have been praying about this and are so excited about the opportunity to not only raise funds for Zachary, but to also reach out to our community about adoption.  We are hoping to print out fliers to give to everyone who comes by that explain the gospel, our adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, and how this has motivated us to love orphans and pursue Zachary.  Will you pray for us?  Not only that we would have success in selling things and reaching our financial goals, but that peoples' hearts would be open to hear about Jesus and also to learn more about adoption.

We have some big, big payments due next and we are hoping this yard sale will put a dent in the total we'll need in the near future.  Once we get our LOA from china (3-4 months) things will start to move quickly.

We are excited and will have more to say about this yard sale as it gets closer.  If you'd like to help, just contact us.  God is so good to give us family and friends who already care about and love Zachary.  We think about how our son is not just gaining a Mom and Dad, but he is getting grandparents, aunt and uncles, cousins, church brothers and sisters in Christ and so much more.  He is truly gaining a family.   Lots of love to you all!

ps. here's a puzzle update- our hope is to finish it before we get our LOA, lots of pieces left!
We are almost halfway to our goal with $960 raised, wow, thank you! We've still got many puzzle pieces left, as some people have given more than $10 per piece.  We're going to put names on the puzzle pieces for any amount donated...to our funding page or stuff given or donated to our yard sale, it all goes to help bring Zachary home.  Can't wait to see it finished!

YES.

Our adoption process has been smooth so far, although we know once everything gets to China and out of our hands that strange things can happen.  Still, God is in control.  But the waiting....wooweee the waiting is tougher than we thought.  I've never claimed to be a patient person, but God is showing me that I can't claim any patience at all with this process...every drop of patience I have is from Jesus.  He is cultivating it in me.  Because every bit of myself wants to speed up this process so that we are there, right now, holding Zachary in our arms.  Josh told me yesterday, "You know what....waiting is so hard once you've already fallen in love with his face."  And that's the truth.  We don't even know our son.  We only know his face, and yet our hearts long for him and miss him and we want to be the ones tucking him in at night.  We want to be the ones who catch his giggles and smiles throughout the day.  We want to walk with him through his fears and frustrations.  NOW!  But God is showing us that there is a purpose in the waiting, and that beautiful things bloom out of perseverance.  The other day an adoptive Mom who has been there/done that said to me, "I'm not telling you it is going to be easy, I'm telling you it is going to be worth it."  And so, the waiting and the uncertainty is difficult, but the reward will be huge!  May God help us wait with grace.

"When you say YES to adoption, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. God has already said YES to adoption. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because it is hard," but all that is garbage.  God is in the middle of it all.  You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like heck to get them home. So we will.  We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but by God's grace, get them home we will."

--Jen Hatmaker (adoptive Mom)

Immigration Approval!!

Our paperwork was approved quickly.  It took 36 days ya'll.  We were expecting at least 60 and told it could take 90.  God heard our prayers and answered them specifically and loudly.  He's been doing that our entire adoption process.  We've had many "no" prayers in our spiritual walk, but throughout this adoption God continues to tell us YES!  Thank you Lord for seeing to the smallest of details...even answering my prayer for a "nice officer" by allowing me a chance to talk to ours.  When I called to check on our status the person who picked up the phone just happened to be our officer...and was completely kind and gracious and gave us a hearty "congratulations!"  This same officer will be handling our other paperwork for Zachary, so it was a blessing to know we got a good one.

One step closer.

We are rushing this beautiful "permission letter from the USA to adopt" out for certification and authentication.  The rest of our dossier has been certified and is at the Chinese Consulate right now getting authenticated.  Once everything gets back to us certified and authenticated (hopefully 2 weeks or so) we will officially send everything to China.  That is the big milestone!

So here's what the process looks like from here:

1.  Authenticate dossier
2. Send dossier to China
3.  Receive log in date from China (paperwork processed)
4. LOA (letter of acceptance that dossier has been translated and we have been given Chinese government approval to adopt Zachary)
5. I800, GUZ, Article 5 (not even going to try to explain, basically a bunch of steps to get Zachary an American visa and get a consulate appointment in China to come adopt him)
6. Travel Approval!

Because this step went quickly it is looking like we have a good chance of getting to Zachary before Christmas!!!  That has been my prayer all along, although Asher prays that we get him before Halloween because he doesn't want him to miss out on all the candy (lol).  Once our dossier gets to China, it is typically 4-6 months later that travel approval is given.  Most of this depends on the LOA wait, which averages anywhere from 20 days to 120 days.  There is no rhyme or reason, some just take longer than others.  So, we truly have no idea when we will travel, but hopefully sooner rather than later.

We are so excited to have this step behind us and will truly celebrate once we get our dossier to China.  Our documents need to be approved for authentication and then safely travel back here and then to China without any issues.  Then it is all out of our hands and we pray for the Chinese government to officially approve our request to adopt Zachary.  Keep praying for us, we feel your love and support each step of the way!