What Takes So Long?

Jillian and Lainie Holding Mia's Picture

This picture will go to Mia in her care package.

Now that we have Mia's referral -why do we have to wait so long TO GO GET HER? The answer is complicated. Unlike Lainie's adoption, we received Mia's referral before we had a completed Home Study and other paperwork. This is because we began Lainie's adoption requesting a Non-Special Needs child and then switched over to special needs when we saw her on a list. With Mia, we started the process looking for a special needs child and THEN began our paperwork. I know it is confusing. All of that to say, we are working on paperwork and it isn't about how fast WE can complete it, it is about how FAST the governments of both countries process it. This week we will receive our completed Home Study. Then, we will mail in our I800A - this is an infamous piece of paperwork in China adoption. Hopefully, with a week of so we will then receive an appointment to go to the Immigration Office in Charlotte for our fingerprint appointment. This appointment will most likely be many weeks from now. That is one hold up. In the meantime, I have collected a mountain of paperwork for China referred to as a dossier. This includes birth certificates, medical forms, financial status reports, etc. Once our fingerprints are done and we are approved by immigration, they will send us an approval letter. This will be the final piece of the dossier. Then, each piece of papework must be authenticated by our state, our national government and the Chinese Consulate. Each piece must be sent to those offices and they put their stamp on it. THEN, we can finally send it to China. At that point, we can expect to wait about 3 months for them to send us our LOA (Letter of Acceptance). We will sign and return it hte same day. Then, we will wait again - hopefully not more than 2 months - but could be longer - to receive our TA (Travel Approval). Then we are ready to go. Are you still with me?

In the meantime, we are putting together a care package for Mia. There are many services that provide help with getting these packages to waiting children. We are using Ann at Red Thread.

Meet our Mia

This is Yang Miao, our little Mia Carol. We decided to call her Mia in order to keep part of her Chinese name. Carol is my mom's middle name. She was born on January 3, 2003 in the Shaanxi Province of China. She is six and a half years old which makes her 1 year younger than Will and 3 years older than Lainie. She was on a waiting child list because she has repaired cleft lip and palate. We hope to travel to bring her home in early 2010.
I have struggled with what to write in this post. I've tried to get it done for several days now. I want to answer the how and why questions that many of you have, I want to tell the story of how this all came to be, I want to share with you that I am excited yet terrified, happy yet sad... So many things that just can't be expressed by mere words.
For now, you'll have to just enjoy the sweetness of Mia's picture. I'll try to figure out how to share my heart another day.
Jen

Here we Grow Again

Since Lainie came home in May of 2007 we have been burdened by the plight of orphans around the world. Latest estimates indicate there are 187 million orphans in the world. As of this week - there will be one less.
We have begun the paperwork to adopt another child from China! Just last week we received our new daughter's file. Yang Miao - we will call her Mia - should be with our family by the end of the year. She is six years old. China has new regulations about revealing too much information about her publically - so you'll have to wait for pics and more info. You can however, begin to pray, pray, pray. Mia's story begins with a huge leap of faith for us. We are already amazed by how God has worked in our lives and we take each new step of this journey holding on to The One who calls us to "walk by faith, not by sight."
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself as the mother of 5 children! Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that two of my children would be brought into our family through adoption. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined how happy and blessed I would be....

Stay tuned......

Family Vacation Photo

I saw this on another blog. It made me smile. So true, so true.

Things I've Learned About Having A Family of Six

1. Dirty floors don't matter.

2. The bath at the end of the day washes off the day's meals.

3. I hear "Wow, you have your hands full at least 100 times a day." It makes me smile.

4. My husband is the most patient man alive.

5. Groceries that would last other families a month are gone in a week.

6. Lots of "letting go".

7. Cherish the tiny handprints on the wall. They don't last forever.

8. Spray and Wash is my best friend.

9. With 4 kids who needs a gym?

10. The more LOVE you give, the MORE LOVE YOU HAVE TO GIVE.

Things I've Learned About Adoption

1. It is a miracle

2. Patience

3. Your kids will find you.

4. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

5. Love is all that really matters.

I could add many more to each of these lists. I learn new things about love in a big family and how adoption changes lives every single day. Maybe more on another post.

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Ahhhh! Summer!

We are LOVIN summer vacation. We've been to the beach, the pool, the movies... lots and lots of fun. We've stayed up too late and slept too late. And, we've loved every single minute.

I've been catching up on summer reading. I highly recommend Crazy Love by Francis Chan. In a very small nutshell it reminds us that God's love for us is Crazy. We can't fathom it. Can't imagine it. We are called to love in that same way...

"If we allow ourselves to live recklessly for Him then we, too, will see His glory. We will see him do the impossible."

Makes me wanna do something crazy. Hhhmmmmmm

Would somebody tell this girl we are on VACATION? She is all about her work. I hope you and yours take some time to enjoy the simple pleasures of summer.

Walking in Marvelous Light.,...

Lilly and Lainie - NOW- May 2009
On Saturday the Bryant Family was coming through town and they stopped to visit with us for a few hours. If you remember, their family traveled to China at the same time we did to adopt their precious Lilly. Lilly and Lainie knew each other before they knew their own families. They heard each others first cries, witnessed each others first smiles and first steps. They were "family" for each other in their own small way. Today as our praise team at church sang these words, "Rescued from darkness, we are walking in marvelous light. For we are children of the king, sing!" I thought about these two girls. Both once living in darkness, now walking in marvelous light because of the grace of our loving God. We are all rescued from the

darkness of sin, but these girls were literally rescued from a life of darkness and

now walk in the marvelous light.

Lilly and Lainie - THEN - May 2007 - Airport in China on the way HOME!

May 14, 2009 Lainie has been home 2 years!

Changsha, China May 14 2007 Home 2 years... May 14, 2009

As I write this I am still in awe of how our lives have been transformed by this little girl. Yes, it is easy to see the transformation in her face, but I hope that those looking in from the outside can also see the transformation that she has brought to each of our lives. Many have said that we "rescued" her. Actually, it was our journey to her that rescued us. Rescued us from a life of mediocrity and complacency. Before Lainie we had grown much too comfortable in our lives. God's call in our lives to adoption took us to a place where we were totally out of our comfort zone and as a result built in us a stronger faith and a desire to know Him more.

Does she understand all this day means? Of course not, but she does already know that she was born in China and that Mommy and Daddy came to get her there. She loves to hear the bedtime story of how Mom and Dad came to get her on the big airplane. It will be years before she fully understands the beginning of her life story, but we have begun already explaining it to her in ways her three year old mind can process.

We recently had a family discussion about the color of everyone's eyes. Bobby and Will have blue eyes, Lainie has brown eyes and the rest of us have green eyes. She kept saying, "I have green eyes like you Mommy." And I kept having to tell her, "No, your eyes are brown." She kept saying, " I want green eyes like Jillian and Mommy and Trey." I just kept reminding her that God gave her beautiful brown eyes." I took her to the mirror and said, " See, look at those beautiful brown eyes." That was the end of the conversation, but apparently it was not the end of the thought process in her little mind. About a month later, when I picked her up at the sitters whom she calls MawMaw and Pawpaw (although they are not really related to us) she exclaimed, "Look Mom, I got brown eyes from Pawpaw." While it was so sweet of her to make that connection with his brown eyes, it also made me sad when I began to wonder how long she had been looking into the eyes of those around her trying to find someone who had eyes like her. So, while her adjustment as been so, so, easy, I know that there will be tough questions and tough answers down the road. It is my prayer I will have the wisdom to answer them in a way that points her to the love of her Heavenly Father and his good and perfect plan for her life.

What's going on with us??

We love that summer is now here. The kids have had a great time being able to play outside! Here they are at my mom's house on Easter Sunday. We can't be there without playing at least a few innings of wiffle ball in her backyard.

And, as if we weren't busy enough, our lab, Rosie, added 11 puppies to our family 2 weeks ago. You know you want one!!

Trey turned 13 in April. He had his friends over to our house for a small party. They are such a great bunch of kids. Most of them have known each other since preschool. We are proud of them all. Trey is second from right.

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday. I managed to get all four kids looking at the camera in one picture out of about 30.... they were so patient.

Lainie LOVED the egg hunt!

Thanks for checking in on us. I haven't blogged for quite awhile - my computer and my camera had a disagreement and weren't speaking to each other for quite a while. I think we have things patched up now.