Adoption Update

"So is anything happening with the adoption?" Yes, things are happening, but the process is still very slow. On Friday, we had our "biometrics" appointments. This was our appointment to have our fingerprints taken for U.S. Immigration. That process is still very slow as a result of the regulations implemented in April. We did hear good news that USCIS intends to speed up processing. However, at present we are being told to expect 90 days. This is much longer than it took when we applied with Anna. We are praying we will be included in the sped up process. From what we hear, the processing is still very backlogged. Maybe our home study will be one of the few that doesn't require revisions! We had an unexpected blessing at just the right moment today. See the "help bring him home" link for details!

Dancin' Shoes

Yesterday Pete's niece, Jessica married Isaac! All of our children had a part in the celebration. Mark had fun waltzing with the bride and then trying out his own dance moves. Anna managed to find some dance shoes too!

Fall

Some of the other things happening around here! This summer, Anna turned four and Rachel turned 16! (Ignore the dates above, I'm a bit technically challenged and just realized today my camera date was wrong!) Anna's birthday was 6/26 and Rachel's was 8/18. We had a very fun and busy summer. We visited my sister and family in Nevada, worked around our property (finally got a bit of a garden in this year!) and had back yard camp fires in our fire pit. All of the kids won blue ribbons at the county fair. We think fairs are so much fun, we visited two different county fairs this year! Above is a puppet show production from last week. We officially started our fall routine last week. In addition to our academic studies at home, we have various children involved in music lessons, Spanish class, German class, Speech, Apologetics, Science co-op and Tae Kwon Do. Our entire family is involved in our soccer league. Even Anna is playing this year with coach dad!

ShiHeZi Visit - Update and Social Studies Lesson

We were disappointed to learn that the team that visited Xinjiang was diverted and unable to visit ShiHeZi or another orphanage. We aren't entirely certain why. However, there was terrorist activity reported in that province the following week, so it may have been due to security concerns. It is hard to say. We are praying for safety and security in this province and other parts of China during the Olympics and beyond. Many people are not aware that China has many, many minority groups. The full name of the Xinjiang province is The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. We were told this means that Uighur people hold the top offices in the government and Universities. The Uighur people are a completely separate ethnic group than the Han Chinese (those you would think of as "Chinese") and from what I understand are more closely related to Islamic Turks. As happens in many cultures and countries, there are some extreme groups that resent Chinese rule and would like to be independent. Most of the Uighur people live peacefully with the Han Chinese. The Uighur people are the largest of the 23 minority groups present in Xinjiang. Another of the larger minority groups are the Kazak people. Unlike the Uighur people, the Kazak people do have a land to call their own in neighboring Kazakhstan. When we were in Xinjiang to adopt Anna, we had a week of waiting for her passport. During that time, we visited areas populated by Kazak people and Uighur villages in the mountainous areas. If you look at pictures of these areas, you will see the colorful yurts (similar to the less colorful ones found in some Oregon campgrounds) where they live. This was where Rachel had her interesting horse ride down a mountain. Our visit to Turpan, where we were stranded in the desert by the donkey cart, passed through Kazak villages. China is a vast and fascinating country with many people and features quite different from those seen in Beijing! This is the end of your social studies lesson for today...

Home Study Approved

We had word yesterday that after going through all of the necessary reviews to ensure it is written in compliance with the new regulations, our home study has finally been approved by our agency! We should be able to submit it to USCIS (U.S. immigration) for their review some time in the next few days. Currently, we are being told it is taking 3-4 months for USCIS processing. When we have received acknowledgment that our USCIS application is moving along, we will be able to submit our EA-Electronic Acceptance (formerly the LOI - Letter of Intent) which officially tells China that we would like to adopt Li Meng. For Anna, we had done this at the beginning of the adoption process. However, the current rules from the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) require that the dossier (that thick, official, stamped and sealed package of required documentation for the adoption) be submitted within 3 months of submitting your Electronic Acceptance. Since the USCIS timing is a bit unknown, we have had to wait on submitting our EA. When the EA is submitted, we will be waiting for a PA - Preliminary Approval - from China. This should happen while we are waiting for our immigration approval from USCIS. When the USCIS approval is received, we'll be driving it to Salem to be stamped by the State of Oregon before express mailing it to The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco for their stamp. When that is received back and all is sent to our agency, our dossier will be on its way to China for translation, review and approval. At present, it looks to be taking about 3 months for the RA-Referral Acceptance (in effect the official approval) to arrive and then 2-4 weeks for TA-Travel Approval. Actual travel should then be in another 1-4 weeks. There! Now you have all been updated on our progress and given a lesson in adoption lingo!

Visitors to Shihezi!!!

There is a mission team leaving for China tomorrow through Orphan Outreach missions. The team is from a church in Texas. Their visit includes a day with the children in Shihezi next week! They are taking pictures of Anna and our family to Director Guo. We have sent her pictures several times before over the past two years. They are also taking a letter to her. The team hopes to have an opportunity to interact with Li Meng and to take some pictures of the children that include him. We are very excited and thankful that I "stumbled" upon the information about this group a month or so ago. We are praying for this team. There will be a blog for this trip on the orphan outreach website. Here is a link if you want to try to find it. I couldn't find it yet, but they don't leave until tomorrow so it should be up soon. http://missions.orphanoutreachblog.org/

We have a name!

After much prayer and lively discussion, we have finally agreed on the name Joshua! We deliberated for a very long time about the name. Since he is old enough to understand the importance and significance of his name, it seemed even more important that we choose a name that would have significance and meaning. There were several other names that had serious consideration and in the end I asked my husband to make a decision. He took a quick poll on this name while we on vacation and announced this was the name. The next morning I decided it would be nice to read through the Old Testament book of Joshua. I didn't get very far before I realized that our family had worn this name around our necks. A few years ago my husband started wearing a shield/cross pendant that had the verse Joshua 1:9 on the back. James had wanted one too and Pete bought one for him. The next Christmas, James wanted to buy one for everyone else in the family. I wore mine all of the time until I got my necklace in China with the Love symbol. I think we should all start wearing them again until we bring Joshua home. Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."