PROGRESS!!

Our agency gives us a checklist to keep track of the paperwork process for China adoption.  I am so excited to have checked off so many steps!!  Notice at the top, it usually takes 12-15 months, looks like we may complete it in 9.5-10 months!  Praise God!  Can't wait to squeeze my new kiddos! (Note: The last steps go VERY quickly, usually 1-3 weeks each, instead of months!)

LOA is On Its Way!!

We made it!!

            L                                O                                A

Our LOAs (Letter of Acceptance) have been issued and are on their way to our agency.  The average wait for LOA is 63 days, ours were issued on day 36!!  These are official forms from the CCCWA (China Center of Child Welfare and Adoption) asking us to accept the referral of our two kiddos.  They sent these out the day they left for a week long vacation for Chinese New Year!  What timing!!

From this point the timeline is much easier to anticipate.  It is usually 2 - 2.5 months until travel!  Can you believe we are actually going to China?!?!  It is actually starting to sink in and the kiddos are getting very excited.  Celebrating tonight!!

UPDATE: They arrived today (2/20)!  Issued on February 15th... meaning it only took 34 days from LID!!!! :) WOW!  That is lightning fast!!  They have been signed and returned with i800 paperwork, the next step is i800 approval! :)  SO EXCITED!

Advocating for Some Sweet Valentines!

Last year I shared 14 Valentines... 14 kiddos that needed someone to say "yes"! At least 6 of them either have families working on bringing them home, or are already home with their family! It is too late for one of them. She had a family pursuing her and decided that she was "unlovable", she decided not to be adopted.
This is why I advocate and ask you to pray for these kiddos. My wish is for every one of them to experience the love of a family, before it is too late. Before, they begin to believe the lie that they are somehow not worthy of a family. :( The sad truth is that they are currently living in orphanages, and some are better than others, but NONE replace a family!
At the age of 14, orphans in China “age out”. This means that they are no longer able to be adopted. They will never know the love of a family. Some children are handed their few belongings (if any) and turned out on the street. Others are lucky enough to be allowed to stay at the orphanage for a few more years. However, the prospects are dire for either of these. Suicide rates for the orphaned children skyrocket to 50% or more. A few, very few, are allowed an education. There are VERY limited jobs available for kids with no parents in a society that devalues the orphan. Even if they beat all of these odds, imagine life without family. There is no one there to celebrate the first job, no one watching them walk down the aisle, no one waiting to hold their first grand baby.

My heart aches and cries out for these children!

I survey the room and realize that this could have been the fate of Meilynn, Kaitlyn, Ryan, or Addisyn. Tears stream down my face as I realize what WE would have missed out on. The countless smiles that spread across our faces at their antics, the endless hugs and kisses we all receive, and the whispers of “I love you” that flourish in our hearts.

So please visit my advocacy site!  
http://andersonadvocacy.blogspot.com/

I hope that you will join me in praying for these beautiful, precious children who are looking for a family to bless!!

Thankful for Some Movement!!

Well, goodness, just when I think I’ve learned the process they change it!  This may be our 5^th and 6^th adoption from China, but there was a recent computer update and they changed all of the steps to our LOA (Letter of Acceptance).  This is the BIG step!!  The rest of the process is fairly easy to predict, but this step…  Some people end up waiting an extremely short amount of time (50 days) and some end up waiting a really long time (over 120 days).  I can't imagine waiting that long to get my arms around these two!!!

They added some “intermediate steps” to this process.  The problem is, they were just added in the beginning of January.  There is not an established timeline for these steps yet.  As I told someone else in the process, we are the trend setters. ;)  Here are the intermediate steps, as we’ve been told.

•  Registered  (The dossier has been logged in.)
•  In Process of Translating (The dossier is in translation.)
•  In Process of Review ( The dossier has been translated and is in review.)
• To Be Matched (The dossier has been reviewed and will be transfer to the matching department.) 
•   Matched (The family’s dossier has been matched with the child’s file and the Letter Seeking Confirmation will be issued next.)
•  Seeking Confirmation (The Letter Seeking Confirmation has been issued.)

Our dossier was “logged in” (first step) on January 12^th.  I asked two days ago, if we were out of translation yet.  Our social worker said they had not seen any movement, but would let us know when some occurred.  I was disheartened to say the least.  Then, I get an email this morning, “I have some great news.  The database shows that your dossier has moved through translation and through review so that it is now at "to be matched".  From this step, you will go through Matched Reviewed than to Seeking Confirmation.  At the end, your LOAs will be issued and we will be waiting for them in our office!”

Now, do I know how much time is left?  I so wish I had an answer.  Our guess is sometime in March.  The CCCWA (China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption) is closed for Chinese New Year (CNY) from February 18^th – 25^th.  This is their one BIG holiday!  I’m still holding out hope for a CNY miracle and to get those LOAs before the end of February, but I am SUPER thankful to have some movement!!!

Thank you for your prayers!!!  Please continue to pray for Greyson and Kristyn!  Pray that their sweet hearts are prepared for this HUGE transition.

Partnering With Us

I believe prayer and support are vital elements of every adoption that we have experienced.  The pressures and stresses begin with the first application and continue until we return home.  (Honestly, they are a part of life, but increase substantially during the adoption process.)  We enter into every journey with eyes wide open.  We understand the strain this will cause emotionally, mentally, and financially.  We do not take any of this lightly.  However, we also truly believe that we are following God’s design for our family.  We have experienced firsthand the tremendous blessing waiting for us on the other side of this journey and the privilege of loving His children.

When we began our latest journey, we knew that we were committing to a big leap of faith!  We were going to bring home a little boy that spent the majority of his life (6 years) in an orphanage.  We also discussed the fact that we were determined NOT to leave 2 boys at home for the FOURTH trip to China!  China is a part of our family’s life.  We talk about it, watch shows about it, read about it, and dream about it.  We knew that if we were going to China again, the boys were coming with us.  We also realized that our girls had never truly experienced China.  Kaitlyn was too young to remember much of anything.  Meilynn was in Guangzhou for the entire trip, add to that the emotional upheaval, and it wasn’t much of a memory-maker for her either.

We agreed that the only way we were going forward with this next journey was to include our Bigs and Middles on the trip.  That was asking a lot, as we knew the price tag would increase exponentially, but God came through and we secured a home equity loan against all odds.  The deal was sweetened with the knowledge that a full of week of our trip will be spent in Beijing!  I cannot wait for our kiddos to experience the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Olympic Square, and the Hutong Tour!  Our parents have agreed to take turns caring for the Littles while we are gone.  They will be a handful, but both agree that they can handle them for the 3 weeks.  All 6 kiddos would be WAY too taxing, so yet another reason that they need to come with us.  We also believe that this will help to introduce Greyson and Kristyn into the idea of family.

Life always throws curveballs though.  We had a hornet infestation at the end of summer and needed to get it taken care of as well as our house sealed.  Our water softner gave out (apparently the one we bought 10 years ago was only rated for 4 people… hmmm… who would have thought we’d have 8 in the house), so we are owners to a new high-efficiency close to commercial-sized water softner with a hefty price tag.  Then there’s our little girl.  Of course, I had always hoped and prayed that we would be bringing home two this time, but this means another orphanage donation, higher fees, and a longer stay in China.  I KNOW that God ALWAYS provides!  I also know that we need to do our part.  I have written for two grants.  One is a Show Hope Grant (Steven Curtis Chapman).  The other is the Lifesong grant.  We were awarded a matching grant last adoption and this helped with the cost.  We will most likely not hear anything as to whether we have been awarded these grants or not until the end of March.  

After much thought and discussion Mark and I have decided to put our house on the market!  I know it is crazy, but as we look around we could use a bit more space and ESPECIALLY more bathrooms!!  We love our current house and it will hold us but it will be really cramped.  We have a couple of options that could work for us better with the number of people that we will have, but we leave it in God’s hands!!  

We can really use your help!!  You can help us by:

• PRAYING!!!  Pray that God could bless us by receiving the 2 grants.  Pray for wisdom and discernment in our housing decision. 
• Adoption Fundraiser – I am planning on starting an adoption fundraiser regardless of us receiving or not receiving the grant from Lifesong.  Once we hear back from Lifesong, we will officially kick off our fundraiser.  We applied for a matching grant through Lifesong and if awarded, this will allow donations to go even further!  Even if we do not receive the matching grant, we could still have an account set up where any donations to our adoption could also be tax-deductible.  This will allow us to keep track of all of those who helped to bring home Greyson and Kristyn.  We will use the money towards the two orphanage donations.

Thanks for all of the support you give us!  We couldn’t do this without you!

Update on Greyson!

Are you ready for this much adorableness??  (I'm not even sure that is a word, but it is the only way to describe this!!)

We received an update on our little guy a record 5 days after requesting it (that included a weekend)!  We asked so many questions about his personality already, that I went for broke and asked for pictures and a video!  I can't believe we got them... BOTH!!  We did find that he likes vegetables, burgers, and snacks. :)  Can't wait to grill him up some burgers!  He is "taking classes in the orphanage and is very good at learning".  They also report that "we have not found that he is afraid of something"... hmmmm... I think we are going to have another Jayson and Ryan on our hands. ;)  hee hee

He even looks like Jayson!  They are probably going to be two peas in a pod and get into all sorts of mischief together... I can't wait!

Now, for the absolutely, undeniably, cutest little 7 year old boy singing his heart out...

Clearer video if you click here and use password: trey   (This is the name Lifeline is using for him.)

Ryan Turned 4!!

We were blessed to celebrate another birthday with our dear Ryan.  

I can't help but stop and think about our amazing journey to him.  I think of the woman who gave birth to him half way around the world.  She must have wanted so much more for him than she could offer.  Does she still think of him, especially today?  Does she question the decision she made 4 years ago?  How I wish there was a way to let her know how completely he is loved and adored!  

We spent this evening as a family of 8, since a snowstorm dissolved any hope of a bigger party.  However, when I saw the joy on Ryan's face as we sang "Happy Birthday", he blew out the candles, ate his cake, and opened his presents, I realized how grateful I am to be his mama and how perfect our little party was.  

I call him our surprise addition.  It is a magical story how he became a part of our family, from clearly hearing God's voice to include a son in our last adoption to coming full circle and getting referred the little guy that caught Mark's attention and whispered "go for it" to his heart.  Ryan is a perfect addition to our family.  He has taught us that we could love an adopted son just as much as a biological son.  He entertains, helps, and loves with his whole being.  We love this little guy more than words can express.  I pray that his birth mother has a peace tonight, somehow knowing that her little boy is cherished beyond belief.