Another month down

I have to say that when the referrals came out at the beginning of April, I was discouraged. The China Center for Adoption Affairs sent out referrals to cover two LIDs (dossiers logged in on October 25th and 26th) for the entire month of March. It was hard not to be disappointed about that. Also, as I shared earlier, our dossier was sent to China exactly 5 years after our dossier was sent requesting Katie (3/8/01 and 3/8/06). Yesterday, April 26, was exactly 5 years after we received our referral for Katie. It's hard knowing that we may have another year to wait for our next child.

But, we are one month closer to our referral. We just don't know how many months we are supposed to wait. God does, though, and this is all in His perfect plan. I can hardly wait to see our child's picture for the first time and finally know who we are waiting for! What an awesome day that will be!

On the brighter side, since we are now looking for a car for Steve, after his Camry broke down on the way to Duluth on Wednesday (it will stay in Duluth, too), I guess we are thankful that we have another year to gather our expenses for this adoption!

As we get to the end of April and the next batch of referrals, I pray for more than two days of LIDs to be referred. Maybe if I keep my requests simple, it will be harder to be disappointed...

Thanks to everyone for praying for peace for us in the wait. We really appreciate you!

We Are So Blessed

Here is something that touched my heart. Adoption is difficult to understand for those who have not experienced its incredible blessing. I think this explains the blessing wonderfully.


We Are So Blessed

We have the opportunity to pray and wait and plan and hope and dream
and work for our child. Circumstances don't allow us to take our
child for granted - ever. We do all these things for so long and at
such great emotional cost, that when our child is finally in our
arms, we truly cherish every minute. Every second...

We are blessed to be in our child's life. We are blessed that God
planned for us to be a family, and that we were given the
opportunities that brought us together. We get to see all the best
parts of mankind in our wonderful children. All the goodness and
potential and innocence and ambition and confidence and love. And
what a beautiful sight that is...

We are blessed to have run this race. It is long and, very often, it
is practically impossible to complete. But we run anyway, and
believe in ourselves and our child enough to do the impossible. We
run, knowing that at the end of this great race, a child is waiting
for a chance at a wonderful life. And we get to be the ones to give
her that life.

We are blessed that when our child laughs, we are the ones to hear
it. And when our child cries, we are the ones she looks for. When
our child feels pain or joy or accomplishment or excitement, she
shares it with us.

We are so blessed to have had the chance to see life from a
different angle. To see that things don't always go as you planned
them out in the 5th grade- but that better things are in store. To
be part of the few who feel constantly misunderstood. To be one who
always has to be on guard against the rude and ignorant comment. To
feel the frustration of not having the perfect comeback to that
comment until three hours later. Our kids can use those experiences
and lessons we have learned. We are deeper, stronger, more
compassionate people because of this journey. And the world our
children live in is better because we have grown in these ways.

Our child is blessed. She is patted and hugged and nestled and
rocked and kissed and squeezed and taught and tickled and corrected
and praised. She is told of her value in God's eyes. She is certain
of her value in our eyes. And she never wonders if she will be cared
for tomorrow or the next day...she sleeps comfortably each night,
safe in our care.

We should tell our children we are proud. We have saved and
scrimped, prayed and begged, planned and schemed, worked and
worried, and hoped endlessly for them. We have dedicated years of
our lives to finding them and bringing them home to their forever
family. And we have given our whole hearts to them even before we
ever saw that precious face.

Now that is love. And parents who adopt know all about that...

Author unknown

We received our first "shower" present!

Today was exciting. I belong to an online group of Christians adopting from China, affectionately nicknamed the "ladybugs". I participated in my first "cyber shower" which had a bedtime theme. Well, today we received our child's first gift! Jessica sent our little girl two beautiful silky nightgowns (with ladybugs on them, of course), a book of prayers and a really cute book about the moon, which actually acts as a night light. I have never seen one like it before. It was really fun to receive something for our little one. Jessica is also trying to adopt a little girl who is older, so hopefully she bought her daughter one of those beautiful nightgowns! Thanks Jessica.

NewSong-China Rescue

To listen to this video, you will need to stop the Steven Curtis Chapman video at the bottom of the page.

Jessica shared this with an online group I belong to. It says so much and is truly heartwrenching. Please watch it...

Bethany has a new COP list!

It's incredible but Bethany has just received a new COP (Children of Promise) list yesterday. This is a little over a month after the last one. Normally, they come about every 3 or 4 months, so this is great. I like to think that this means China is working at getting more children out of orphanages and set into families! We are still thinking that we will be patient and wait, rather than requesting one of the children on this list, but we are open to God's leading.

We are out of review!

We just found out that China has reviewed all dossiers logged in through March 31, 2006! This is a significant step because it means that we have officially been approved by the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) to adopt one of their children! They did not ask any questions, and required nothing more from us while they reviewed our dossier, which is good. This is basically the last step before being matched with a child. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that we will be matched any sooner, since we are still waiting our turn in line, but it does mean that our dossier is progressing!

Referrals and the wait

Well, as I learn how to work with this site, I will try to keep you updated on the happenings in the China adoption world. Yesterday, we learned that China had issued referrals to all dossiers with an LID of 10/14/05 to 10/24/05. This is only 11 days worth of referrals for the month of February. That is a little depressing, since that means it will take China a full three months to match all of October 2005 LIDs. At this rate, it will take us 3 years to get our referral! Don't worry, I know that won't happen, but it would be nice if they would pick up the pace a little... Those that just received their referrals have waited 16-17 months for their referral. Who knows, maybe next month, China will match an entire month worth of LIDs! Here's hoping!