As I think about our journey to Zachary, I am amazed at how we arrived at this point. We had requested an older girl and toddler aged boys. We were almost expecting to receive a referral for an infant. But, God had His plan for our family so beautifully mapped out and used those disappointments to get us to Zachary. Through the different stages of our journey, we had prepared ourselves for an older child and a boy. Now we know who he is!
We recognize the challenges of adopting an older child. We know that we have some difficult times ahead. But we also know that we have some incredibly wonderful times ahead! God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. And we love Him! Therefore, He made these plans for us and Zach for our good! We know that Zachary has been planned by God to be the perfect addition to our family, regardless of the inability to communicate, at first. Regardless of the struggles he may have because of his institutionalization. We know that we are the family Zach was supposed to be in, regardless of where he was born. He was meant to be here, with us, as our son and brother. We joyfully look forward to his homecoming.
We are thankful for family and friends who are rejoicing with us as we look forward to this new chapter in our lives. We are thankful for the fact that our local elementary school has an ESL teacher that speaks Mandarin Chinese (whose husband said of his wife and Zach "they are going to get along famously!"). We are thankful for the existence of a Bible based church in Edina that holds services in Mandarin each Sunday, where Zach can hopefully keep his Chinese language skills fine tuned, as well as learn about our precious Savior in a language he understands.
We are praising God for being with us on this next step of the journey He called us on two years ago.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Some wonderful reactions to our news!
The reactions we have received when we have told people our news has been wonderful! It is so great that people are almost as excited as we are!
When I told Eliza (Madeline was at camp when we found out), she screamed! She also picked up the phone and started calling everyone she could think of. How fun! Thank goodness we have a fax phone, too, so we could make calls at the same time. Of course, our first calls were to Steve and Madeline, who were thrilled to finally get the news(we had been waiting all morning!).
Steve called his brother, Bob, and told him and I left a message on the answering machine for Kirsten and our nephews. I said that we were really excited. Kirsten said that when Andy (our oldest nephew) heard that we were excited, his response was "not as excited as we are!" I love that! Apparently, the boys have been wanting a male cousin for a long time now (they only have 2 other female cousins besides our girls, so they really wanted another boy in the family to balance it out!). Kirsten thanked us for accomodating them! :-) We were more than happy to!
Katie thought about it for a little while. She is happy to have a brother (she has always had fun playing with boys and girls, so it never really mattered to her). After this all sunk in for her she informed me that Zach is Dad's "first human boy company." (We used to have a male German shepherd...). Steve is very excited, too, making plans for swimming lessons and ball games with Zachary's cousins.
We have also received Zach's first official gift from our friends Nic, Megan, Corinn and Noah! (Thank you so much!) It really is a blessing to see how thrilled our friends are for us, too.
Well, the Letter of Intent (LOI) will arrive at Bethany the beginning of the week. Once they send it to China, our wait for further instructions from China officially begins. Now for painting bedrooms, building lofts and bunk beds, and other fun stuff that will help us pass the time until we get to meet our son!
When I told Eliza (Madeline was at camp when we found out), she screamed! She also picked up the phone and started calling everyone she could think of. How fun! Thank goodness we have a fax phone, too, so we could make calls at the same time. Of course, our first calls were to Steve and Madeline, who were thrilled to finally get the news(we had been waiting all morning!).
Steve called his brother, Bob, and told him and I left a message on the answering machine for Kirsten and our nephews. I said that we were really excited. Kirsten said that when Andy (our oldest nephew) heard that we were excited, his response was "not as excited as we are!" I love that! Apparently, the boys have been wanting a male cousin for a long time now (they only have 2 other female cousins besides our girls, so they really wanted another boy in the family to balance it out!). Kirsten thanked us for accomodating them! :-) We were more than happy to!
Katie thought about it for a little while. She is happy to have a brother (she has always had fun playing with boys and girls, so it never really mattered to her). After this all sunk in for her she informed me that Zach is Dad's "first human boy company." (We used to have a male German shepherd...). Steve is very excited, too, making plans for swimming lessons and ball games with Zachary's cousins.
We have also received Zach's first official gift from our friends Nic, Megan, Corinn and Noah! (Thank you so much!) It really is a blessing to see how thrilled our friends are for us, too.
Well, the Letter of Intent (LOI) will arrive at Bethany the beginning of the week. Once they send it to China, our wait for further instructions from China officially begins. Now for painting bedrooms, building lofts and bunk beds, and other fun stuff that will help us pass the time until we get to meet our son!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Let the paperwork begin!
Well, we have decided that we will spell his name Zachary. Our Social Worker asked us how we were going to spell his name so it forced us to make a decision! ~:-)
We now begin the paperwork telling China that we intend to adopt Guo Rong and that we have identified resources to help him get the care he needs. Then China will pull our file and put it with his. After they complete their side of the paperwork for this step then they will send us a form called the Letter of Acceptance. Our Social Worker said that once we receive this form it is pretty easy to predict when we will travel. She said they will typically send the Travel Approval about a month after the Letter of Acceptance, allowing us to travel about 2 weeks after that. Once we get the LOA, we can apply for our visas, etc.
Her prediction for our travel was between the end of September and Thanksgiving. Because our dossier has already been reviewed in China, she is assuming it will be on the shorter side rather than the longer. So, more than likely it will be October.
Thanks to everyone for being so excited for us! We are thrilled.
We now begin the paperwork telling China that we intend to adopt Guo Rong and that we have identified resources to help him get the care he needs. Then China will pull our file and put it with his. After they complete their side of the paperwork for this step then they will send us a form called the Letter of Acceptance. Our Social Worker said that once we receive this form it is pretty easy to predict when we will travel. She said they will typically send the Travel Approval about a month after the Letter of Acceptance, allowing us to travel about 2 weeks after that. Once we get the LOA, we can apply for our visas, etc.
Her prediction for our travel was between the end of September and Thanksgiving. Because our dossier has already been reviewed in China, she is assuming it will be on the shorter side rather than the longer. So, more than likely it will be October.
Thanks to everyone for being so excited for us! We are thrilled.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Introducing Zachary Samuel
Here is our son! We are beyond excited. I don't know what to do with myself. It is incredible to watch how God answered our request for a preschool aged girl with a handsome 8 year old boy! And we know that he is the perfect child for our family. Our girls have been so excited about welcoming him home. We hope to travel in October and boy! do we have lots to do to get ready for him. We need boy clothes and we need to paint his bedroom something besides PINK! We are overjoyed and praising God!
We are still deciding on how to spell his name (so many choices for that!). He is currently in Liaoning Province in the city of Dalian. His birthday is 4/30/1999 and has been in foster care since he was 5. He attends the Liaoning School for the foundling and will be in 3rd grade when he comes home. That puts him right in the middle of the gap between our girls. They are currently 12, 10 and 5 (almost 6). So they will be 7th grade, 5th, 3rd and 1st! Perfect spacing!
"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him." 1 Samuel 1:27
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Now we wait!
Well, we requested to be matched with Guo Rong, the adorable 8 year old boy on Bethany's latest Child of Promise list! The requests had to be in to Grand Rapids by 12:00 noon on Monday, July 9 and they said they would let families know by Tuesday, July 10. There is a chance we will find out on Monday, but at least we don't have to wait so very long.
This was such an incredible decision. Eliza kept reminding us that if he is not meant to be in our family, we won't be matched with him so therefore we should simply send in the request! Such wisdom from our daughter and she is so right. We simply want what God wants for our family, nothing more and nothing less. We struggled with his initial diagnosis, which was a potentially debilitating skin disease causing his limp. We had decided that we were not able to handle that, but thought we may as well ask if China could clarify his report since our pediatrician, as well as my brother who was here for a visit, said the information didn't make sense. We asked our Social Worker, and she asked Grand Rapids, and they actually said they would see what they could find out (which they don't often do). We were shocked to get word last Thursday that China responded to their request for information! They said that the skin condition was no longer an issue; his need is simply that he limps. That changed our thinking completely! We were never really concerned about his age. We know that this presents possible problems with attachment related issues. But we trust God to give us the grace to handle everything that comes with this blessing.
The girls were all excited about the chance to bring him home. I have such a lot of things going through my mind, and I am thrilled to see what God is going to do. Neither Steve nor I entered this adoption process thinking that we would be adopting an 8 year old boy. I had adjusted my thoughts to believing that we would be bringing home another girl. So, now that we are anxiously waiting to see if we will be allowed to adopt Guo Rong, I am amazed at how God works. It certainly isn't what I thought would happen, but God is working for our good and the good of this precious child. How thankful I am to know that God is in control, because I could not plan things better than He can.
So, we wait until Tuesday! (I am sure not very patiently...)
This was such an incredible decision. Eliza kept reminding us that if he is not meant to be in our family, we won't be matched with him so therefore we should simply send in the request! Such wisdom from our daughter and she is so right. We simply want what God wants for our family, nothing more and nothing less. We struggled with his initial diagnosis, which was a potentially debilitating skin disease causing his limp. We had decided that we were not able to handle that, but thought we may as well ask if China could clarify his report since our pediatrician, as well as my brother who was here for a visit, said the information didn't make sense. We asked our Social Worker, and she asked Grand Rapids, and they actually said they would see what they could find out (which they don't often do). We were shocked to get word last Thursday that China responded to their request for information! They said that the skin condition was no longer an issue; his need is simply that he limps. That changed our thinking completely! We were never really concerned about his age. We know that this presents possible problems with attachment related issues. But we trust God to give us the grace to handle everything that comes with this blessing.
The girls were all excited about the chance to bring him home. I have such a lot of things going through my mind, and I am thrilled to see what God is going to do. Neither Steve nor I entered this adoption process thinking that we would be adopting an 8 year old boy. I had adjusted my thoughts to believing that we would be bringing home another girl. So, now that we are anxiously waiting to see if we will be allowed to adopt Guo Rong, I am amazed at how God works. It certainly isn't what I thought would happen, but God is working for our good and the good of this precious child. How thankful I am to know that God is in control, because I could not plan things better than He can.
So, we wait until Tuesday! (I am sure not very patiently...)
Sunday, July 1, 2007
We made it to July...
Well, I haven't been very good at posting since there has been nothing much to say. We are still waiting, referrals are still very slowly coming in, and we are still seemingly a long way from knowing who our next child will be!
Bethany did receive another COP list last week with 15 children on it. We are praying about a little 8year old boy on the list with a "slight limp." His need seems so minor but the medical report about his condition is very confusing. The condition the doctors have attributed his limp to doesn't fit the other information on his report. Therefore, we are praying for wisdom as to whether or not we should request this adorable boy. We are realistic about our insurance and ability to care for a need that may be ongoing and require a lot of medical care. If he does have the condition they say, it could be serious. If he doesn't, it may be "just a limp" that could be corrected with therapy. Or it could be anywhere in between the two on the medical needs spectrum. Such confusion! We pray God will make it clear to us what we should do. We want what He wants for us and nothing less!
I do have to say that each time one of these lists come out we are blessed with the attitude of compassion and love that our girls show. All three of them want us to request him! What wonderful hearts they have.
Referrals should be coming out this week. Last months referrals covered only 6 days, so we are praying for a larger batch this time around. We'll see...
Bethany did receive another COP list last week with 15 children on it. We are praying about a little 8year old boy on the list with a "slight limp." His need seems so minor but the medical report about his condition is very confusing. The condition the doctors have attributed his limp to doesn't fit the other information on his report. Therefore, we are praying for wisdom as to whether or not we should request this adorable boy. We are realistic about our insurance and ability to care for a need that may be ongoing and require a lot of medical care. If he does have the condition they say, it could be serious. If he doesn't, it may be "just a limp" that could be corrected with therapy. Or it could be anywhere in between the two on the medical needs spectrum. Such confusion! We pray God will make it clear to us what we should do. We want what He wants for us and nothing less!
I do have to say that each time one of these lists come out we are blessed with the attitude of compassion and love that our girls show. All three of them want us to request him! What wonderful hearts they have.
Referrals should be coming out this week. Last months referrals covered only 6 days, so we are praying for a larger batch this time around. We'll see...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
