Our Winter Wonderland

Skiing at J-J Ranch

What's Wrong with this Picture --that would be a tree limb...
That would be the offending tree...
Board Games by Candlelight
Watching the snow fall...and fall...and fall...

My husband and kids have wished for a white Christmas every year. They have always thought I was a bit of a scrooge for saying that a white Christmas would really actually be inconvenient and make everything more difficult. I could say that I was right since two weeks of winter storms canceled every Christmas party and program we had planned, we lost power for three days and had a tree poke a hole through our ceiling...but I think I have to admit that despite all of the cancellations, changes and inconveniences, it was a Christmas season to remember. Being out of our routine allowed us more quiet moments to reflect on why we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Canceled programs and activities gave us extra time together as a family. We had a candlelight dinner for our elderly neighbors. We did things differently. We rescued a stranger in the snow and ended up hanging out at K-Mart with her until 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve. My kids spent hours working hard to shovel snow, deliver firewood to neighbors and drag fallen tree branches out of the yard. We learned that a four wheeler makes a good ski-tow and our driveway a nice ski slope. We learned to be thankful for electricity, heat (we don't have a woodstove...yet) and running water (our well doesn't pump water without electricity...) and were reminded that many people live without these comforts every day. I discovered that sorting socks by candlelight is almost like playing solitaire, but it is difficult to distinguish navy blue from black. We all learned that traditions are fun, but an expendable part of celebrating Christmas. Christmas is about remembering God's mercy and love in sending His son.

DTC!!!

DTC!!! For those not familiar with adoption acronyms - that stands for Dossier to China. That means we finally have all of our official documents completed, notarized, certified, authenticated and sent in a nice thick bundle to China. We have moved from waiting for a review and approval from the US Government to waiting for a complete review and final approval from China. We anticipate this step will take 3-4 months at which point we will receive an LOA - Letter of Acceptance and return an RA - Referral Acceptance to China. Once that is done, we will wait for our TA - Travel Approval to come from China, that takes 2-4 weeks on average. Our actual travel dates will then be determined based on when our agency gets CAs (consulate appointments) for our assigned travel group - probably 1-4 weeks later. Our agency sent our dossier to China on December 23rd which was a wonderful Christmas gift to us. There was a great deal of effort by many people to make that happen. A USCIS officer finally took pity on our long wait and helped us get our approval processed quickly once she had reviewed it. Our social worker stayed up late one night to make changes to our home study and got it out on a fed-ex priority mailing the next day. USCIS sent it back to us priority fed-ex, but it was scheduled to arrive the day of the first winter storm. We didn't find out until it had already been sent that priority delivery in our area is not until the end of the following day. Fed-ex was able to mark our package to be held at their local office and miraculously was able to catch it for us before it got on the truck for the day. We intercepted it when the office opened, drove through the snow to Salem to have it notarized and certified at the Secretary of State and sent it fed-ex to a courier in San Francisco. She had to make two attempts to hand deliver it to the Chinese consulate, but retrieved it Monday and sent it fed-ex to our agency in Virginia. It was supposed to be delivered by 10:30 am, but was delayed four hours due to weather. Despite the delay, our agency China coordinator managed to put it together with the other dossier pieces we had sent the previous week and get it out the door on its way to China before she left that day and the office closed for the rest of the week! It has taken much time and effort. We are very thankful to have our documents on their way!

Christmas Update

This post is for those of you that we don't see often and like those Christmas letters where people tell you what they did for the past year. For those of you that have browsed this blog already, you know the biggest news of the year is pursuing the adoption of a six year old boy in the NW corner of China. In the upper left corner of this blog is a link to a page describing the miraculous circumstances that have led us on another adoption journey. (Note, this will take you to a different blog.) Here are some updates on the rest of the family --



Anna - is now 4 years old, but she would like to be 40 so "she can get married, have a driver's license and be in charge." She likes to believe that some day she will be big and her siblings will be small and she can babysit them and be in charge. However, she is beginning to understand this will never actually happen and she will always be the youngest, so she is starting to make plans to be in charge of their kids when she is an aunt. She is a smart, sweet, determined little girl. She loves talking (about anything and to anyone who will listen and answer her multitude of questions), singing, pretending to play instruments, pretending lots of other things, wearing lipstick, drawing pictures and putting them in envelopes, hanging out in her brothers' room, going anywhere mommy is going, playing with her friends, carrying around her "greenberry" (the little green calculator that she thinks looks like daddy's blackberry), calling people on her cell phone, telling stories about China and bossing around the dog. She is such a special blessing to our family. She keeps us on our toes and makes us all laugh and smile. She is excited about having a brother come from China and is making all sorts of plans for what she will do while Mommy and Daddy are in China. She prays for her brother in China every day that God would heal his arms, keep him safe from earth quakes and tornadoes and help his papers get done.



Mark - is now 7 years old. Our red-headed wonder is still full of energy and ideas. Mark has never liked to do things in a conventional way and is always thinking of some creative, out-of-the-box idea of how to do things. After the first 3-4 years of his life, we finally stopped saying "the other kids never did that..." This little boy is bound to make a creative and unique impact on the world. About a year ago, he began campaigning to learn violin. We gave him a violin for Christmas and he has now been playing for almost a year. He is also playing piano. He loves to draw and play games. He likes to get through his school work as quickly as possible each day so he can do more interesting things. He played soccer and will soon be on a basketball team for the first time. He loves to play in the yard, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes and roller blade. Despite his fierce determination and energetic personality, he also has a very tender side. He is very patient with his little sister and enjoys keeping her entertained (most of the time). Just today, when he perceived some stress in me, he made me a card that said "to Mom from Mark, in times of stress, remember God has a plan." We are hoping that Mark will be able to go to China with us. Mark began asking to adopt a brother not long after we brought Anna home. He has faithfully prayed for him. We think Mark will be able to put Li Meng at ease. Li Meng may not understand our language, but two little boys can play and communicate without knowing the same language. They are very close in age and size. Mark is a bit nervous about going to China, but we know he will love the adventure.



James - is now 10 years old. He is still our sweet, sensitive, sensible and responsible boy. He is growing very much and becoming a great help around our home and property. He often helps dad with projects and does little repairs for me. He has become my official "AV Man" since I can never remember how to turn on our TV or DVD player. He is also usually in charge of starting our books on tape. He loves doing those types of things. He is also very helpful with his younger brother and sister. Anna loves it when James is in charge of her. She pretty much keeps herself wrapped around his little finger and he would do most anything for her. James has been taking drum lessons for a little over a year. In August, he broke his arm when trying out someone's skateboard. He had to take a break from drums and asked if he could start learning piano with his good hand. We were surprised by his interest in piano, but let him have a try at it. He has been playing ever since. He loves soccer, basketball and tae kwon do.



Sarah - just turned 13 years old! We always knew it would happen and this was the year she finally became a bit taller than Rachel. She is still very creative and artistic. She would love it if her school day consisted of art, drama, music and crafts with her younger siblings. She is so good with little people. She is always thinking of creative projects and activities they will enjoy. Last year, she really enjoyed playing Mary Lennox in a musical version of The Secret Garden. So far this year, we have not signed up for any drama opportunities, but she has been enjoying being part of a speech club and apologetics group. She has been continuing piano and guitar lessons. Recently, she had her first opportunity to play her guitar along with other musicians leading worship. She has enjoyed learning to sew with her grandma and earned a blue ribbon at the fair for an outfit she made for Anna. She has also become good at helping to cook dinner and desserts!



Rachel - is now 16. She recently received her driver's permit and is starting to learn to drive. This will be a good thing since she has so many interests that require transportation! She is taking some outside classes and loves many sports. All of the kids started taking tae kwon do this past year, but she is the only one that has actually been advancing to higher belts. This is partly due to her determination and also because she is the only one that has earned the money for the testing! She does a fair amount of babysitting, does some horse feeding and dog sitting and also enjoyed helping friends with haying during the summer. She is still passionate about writing and spends any free time on her writing projects. Last summer, she and I spent a week at a Christian Writer's Conference, which she loved. She submitted a proposal for a children's book to a book publisher at the conference. Although she was offered the opportunity to publish her book, we opted not to pursue it due to the costs involved. It was very encouraging for her though. She is interested in film making as well and is currently working on a film competition project with a friend. She has been becoming more involved in Teenpact, a government and civics program, and hopes to participate in more activities in the coming year. She also hopes for a new mission or ministry opportunity.



Pete and I - will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this year! Years ago, I had imagined we might spend it in Hawaii or some other tropical location. It looks like our big trip this year will be to China! We are excited to go back. I must admit, I didn't think that in our 20th year of marriage we would be adding another child to our family. Life is full of many surprising adventures. After two company acquisitions in the past four years, Pete is now employed by a large German based company called SAP. He is still doing project management work. An interesting twist this year has been the opportunity for him to move his office home. We have LOVED having him work from home. Since his hours are sometimes very early because of the international work force, it has been nice for him not to have to drive to an office at 5:30 in the morning. Last year, he had to do a fair amount of traveling, so it is nice to have him around more when he isn't traveling. He and I are still running - when we have motivation, time and aren't injured. We hope it will keep us in good health and strong enough to keep up with our kids for many more years! Last year we ran in two half marathons. One of them was in Florida. My sister and brother-in-law treated us to a three day cruise in the Bahamas afterward which was quite a treat! Even though the girls are taking a few outside classes (foreign language, music, literature), I'm still overseeing the majority of the academics for all of our children. Five grades levels! This keeps my days pretty full. Just to make sure they remain full, I seem to regularly volunteer our home to host a variety of activities and events. There was a 10 day stretch in November where we hosted 8 different events. That was followed by my being sick for a week...so perhaps that was a bit much... We love having people in our very casual home. We just wish we had time to have all of the many special people in our lives here to spend time. We look forward to the coming year and hope for many more opportunities to spend time with our friends, family and new acquaintances. We are thankful for God's love and mercy in our lives and know it is by His grace alone that we are sustained day by day. May God bless you richly in the coming year.

Immigration Approval!

After waiting more days than I'm willing to count, we finally have our approval from the US Department of Homeland Security USCIS, Hague Unit to adopt a child from China! Our application was sent in mid-August and spent several months in a huge backlog of files created when new regulations were implemented in April . However, that will soon be just a memory. Our immigration officer told us she was putting our approval document in a fed-ex envelope for us today. Once it arrives, we will be notarizing it, driving it to Salem for certification, sending it to a courier in San Francisco who will hand carry it to the Chinese Consulate for Authentication and then forwarding it to our adoption agency where it will join the rest of our dossier for its journey to China! If all goes well, it will be there by the end of the year and we will begin the next wait which is for final approval from China to adopt Li Meng. That wait looks to be 3-4 months. Once we have that approval, it looks like it will take another couple months to actually get there. When we have received that Letter of Acceptance, we can officially post his picture on our blog.

While we were sleeping...PA!

There was exciting news in my email this morning! While we were sleeping last night, China issued our Preliminary Approval. This means that they reviewed our Letter of Intent to adopt a special needs child and some basic application information about our family and have agreed to review our file for his adoption. Our agency had previously agreed to request updated information once we had the PA. We never dreamed they would have almost instantaneous results! Our agency's China liaison called the orphanage and sent us an update dated 12/1/08 (today!) which means they would have been talking with them while we were sleeping last night since China is 13 hours ahead of us. The orphanage then took some pictures of him in his classroom and emailed those. We received four pictures of him in his classroom and a brief updated description, “A lovely boy, Li Meng. He is a little mischievous child, has many ideas to do something. He is good with painting, but doesn’t like study very much, and always has very good appetite for all kinds of food.” They also gave us measurements which show he is slightly taller than Mark, a couple pounds heavier and the same shoe size. I guess that will make clothes shopping a little easier! Last week, we finished moving the boys to a newly repainted room with three bunks! Here is a picture.