An Unexpected Thanksgiving Gift

Well, we had hoped to have our immigration approval by Thanksgiving. It doesn't appear that has happened. Yesterday, Pete called and was told our file has finally been assigned to an officer and is under review, so we are hopeful that it may happen soon. We had an unexpected blessing today! For the past two years, I have been doing volunteer work for the organization that provided Anna's foster care in China. We also sponsor a child for foster care. As a result, we receive their quarterly newsletters. It arrived today with such a special gift. Last summer, they did several summer camps with the older children in the orphanages and foster care program up in the province. I knew that another mission organization had done some of the camps, including Li Meng's orphanage. My understanding was that the camps were for older children, so I didn't expect he would be included. These camps were at several orphanages and probably included hundreds of children. When I was reading through the newsletter today, the center section had 17 pictures from the camps. To our shock, amazement and delight, one of the pictures included was a picture of Li Meng with one of the camp counselors! There is no doubt it is him. Aside from recognizing his sweet face, he is holding his very recognizable hand up to the camera to show off his craft. He and the counselor hugging him in the picture both have the most sweet smiles (probably why the picture made it in the newsletter). He has a decorated plate on his head and looks like he was having a great time at the camp. This picture will be such a special treasure to us. We only received two referral pictures. Those pictures are now over a year old and he wasn't really smiling in either one. What a special gift from our gracious Lord! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and my favorite day of the year! My family has patiently endured my ban on Christmas decorations and music until after tomorrow and I have endeavored to keep focused on this day set aside for Thankfulness to our Gracious God (despite living in the Christmas Tree capitol of the world...) Praying it is a truly blessed day for all, Kristine

How long will the wait be?

I was just asked how long the wait will be once our paperwork is sent to China. I can only make a guess based on watching other families with our agency. It looks like we should expect to be in China about 5 months after our dossier is sent, so I have told people 4-6 months. When will our paper work be sent to China? Well, according to US Immigration, they should have processed our application (the one I hand delivered August 19), by yesterday. We tried to call yesterday and they weren't answering the phone. We left a message hoping they would call back. We had been hopeful that they were making efforts to reduce their backlog, but it appears to be getting worse. This would be a great thing for people to pray about, not just for our family, but for every family hoping to adopt from a Hague Convention country. Once we get that piece of paper, it will probably take 2-3 more weeks to get our dossier to China. At this point, we are thinking we might be in China in May or June. In the midst of all of this, however, I have been reminded that God has had a plan from the beginning and His timing is always perfect. Last week, I was thinking about when this little guy entered the orphanage at age three. I started wondering what we were doing that day. When I looked back at the dates, I was truly amazed at God's timing. The same week that he began his journey into the orphanage and into our hearts was the same week God first opened our eyes to the possibility of adopting from China. Many of those reading this blog already know the story of Anna. This is a very brief recap of that week. On October 12, 2005, I heard a prayer request for a little girl in China that needed a family. Many amazing and miraculous things happened that week to confirm that we should pursue that adoption. We had not previously even been talking about adoption, so it was a huge leap of faith for us. We were in contact with the family that had shared the prayer request for that little girl throughout the week. They were new acquaintances for us. On October 18, 2005, they had us to their home for dinner. They shared their adoption stories and we spent time praying for that little girl (Anna!) and for the other orphaned children in the world. That is the same day Li Meng entered the orphanage. With the time difference, as we were praying together, he would have been waking up the first morning in the orphanage. We didn't know about him until we spotted him in pictures with Anna over a year later, but God had a plan in motion. On April 9 of this year, the same family we had prayed with happened to mention a picture of a little girl that was posted on an adoption website. Someone had snapped pictures at a birthday party that had included a little girl they had just learned was referred to them. After looking at her picture, I noticed the agency had a list of China waiting children. When I looked at it, I found a description of a little boy that sounded like he could be Li Meng. After almost a year and a half of watching various agencies for him, we were amazed to see he had just been referred to that same agency! The girl in the party pictures came home last Friday. We had originally hoped our little guy would be home by Christmas. Now we are hoping our paperwork will be to China by Christmas. We had hoped Immigration would process our application by Thanksgiving. Now we are hoping they will return our calls by Thanksgiving. We don't understand why it has taken this long and will continue to do everything in our power to bring him home as soon as possible. However, through all of that, we know we can trust that God has had is eyes on this boy from the beginning and has plan for his life and the timing will be perfect. Have a blessed Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year!

Electronic Acceptance Submitted

We are so happy that today our agency was able to send our official request for adoption to China! This has taken many months. This step is only for our preliminary approval. The official approval will not happen until we have sent our dossier for review. We are still waiting for that special piece of paper from US Immigration that will complete our dossier. We submitted our application in the middle of August, right in the midst of a huge backlog under their new procedures. According to the timeframes USCIS has given us, they should have our approval done by Thanksgiving. We are praying that will happen and we can quickly get our paperwork stamped in Salem and San Francisco, shipped to Virginia and off to China!