While we Wait

 "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Isaiah 40:30-31

Joshua's "Famliy Picther" with Ling Jun

In the adoption process, there is a lot of waiting!  Whenever we're not filling out the next set of paperwork or heading to FedEx to mail it, we're waiting.  The wait is one of the hardest parts of the process but it gets especially difficult once you know who your child is and your heart longs to meet them and bring them home.  The wait is challenging as well for older siblings.  But, while we wait, we are able to prepare in many ways as well.  Nathan, Brooke, and Joshua have each been preparing; praying for their little sister, learning about thalassemia, drawing pictures, journaling, writing notes, researching, and learning, even writing a few words in Mandarin.  Here are a few things Joshua, our 7 year old, has done while he waits.

 "Looking Back on 2017 and 

Looking Ahead to 2018"

 One Happy Moment from 2017..."when I went to Desten Florda"

 Two things I like about myself: "I am... gowin to Cinan and I am from Korea"

For my family, I will... "clen the tolits"

Oh the places I'll go!  In 2018 I want to go to... "Cina"

  For another school project, Joshua was able to choose a country to research.  He couldn't decide between China and South Korea, so he asked to research both!

A note from Joshua to introduce himself...





 





...and the first page of his journal.







I love that the first sentence is "We got ecspdid."  (Expedited!!!)  That's our latest news!  We, and many of you, have joined us in praying that we would be expedited so that we can bring LingJun home sooner in order to get her great medical care.  Our dossier was sent on a Friday, arrived either Tuesday or Wednesday, was logged into their system on Wednesday, went through translation and multiple reviews and was completely approved on Friday.  Three days when it typically takes 6 to 8 weeks!  This was quicker than we knew was possible even with an expedite!

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!"  Ephesians 3:20-21

Ephesians 3:20-21 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  Our Lord is able to do more than we can imagine, immeasurably more!  Sometimes it may take much longer than a few days, and it may not always be in the way we think or desire at the time.  But, I am amazed again and again as I watch what God does in my life and the lives of others because of his power at work in us.  To him be the glory in Christ Jesus forever and ever!  We have a few more steps to go through in the paperwork/waiting process.  We are waiting for another step to be completed by USCIS, and we are waiting for passports while working on our visa applications.  We will continue to pray for these steps and the Lord's timing.  But, our bigger prayer is that God would prepare each of our hearts for LingJun to join our family and that He would prepare her for this huge adjustment and time of grieving all that she's known as she becomes a part of our family forever.  We are praying for the Lord's grace and his protection on her little body and spirit, that she would soon feel our love and be able to develop a healthy attachment to us and ultimately learn of God's great love for her that she may follow him and be adopted into his truly forever family!   To God be the glory!

DTC!!!

 
In the China adoption world, that means Dossier To China!  This is an important step, and we’ve been working toward this and waiting for it for a long time.  There are a couple of different processes that can occur in different orders when adopting from China.  Some families send their dossier to China, and then it’s reviewed and accepted, and then later on they are matched with a child.  Since we chose a special focus child, who has medical needs and is older, we got preliminary approval to adopt her earlier in our process.  Now that we have all the paperwork needed for our entire dossier, it has been sent to China for them to review thoroughly and then officially grant our acceptance. 

Another step of the process, on the U.S. side, is the I800a and then later, the I800.  One of our kids asked, with sincerity, “Is that because it’s 800 pages?”  It’s not, but sometimes it has seemed like we’re getting close to 800 as we’ve prepared our dossier!  We have over 165 emails in our adoption email folder and 98 adoption files saved (and growing!).  This is, hopefully, at least most or all of the important ones.  In the beginning of the process, I kept a log of each step we completed, but after a couple of pages, we just did it and didn’t take the additional time to document every step of the way.  I think we’ve gotten 11 background checks/clearances between the two of us since we needed one from every state we’ve lived in as well as letters from our local police/sheriff’s office.  Those were in addition to getting fingerprinted (two times each).  One of our fingerprinting appointments was scheduled early in the morning in Des Moines.  It happened to be a couple of days before our anniversary, so we turned it into an overnight get-away to celebrate 16 years of marriage and get one step closer to bringing our little one home!  We’ve also had multiple documents notarized, made numerous photocopies, and answered over 1,250 questions.  Some were true/false for our psychological inventory, others were about a long list of potential medical needs, and others were more like essays.  This gives a little idea of what we’ve been doing in our spare time these last few months.  But, no matter how much paper work, how many phone calls, emails, or questions, we’d do it all again so we can bring our little girl home!


So, what’s next?  We wait some more, and fill out our next forms so they’re ready when we get approval from China.  The wait is so much harder once we know who are child is. This was the case for Joshua, and now for our daughter as well.  But, I also love that we know more about her and are able to pray more specifically for her while we wait.  And this time around, since our other kids are older, I love hearing and seeing their hearts as they pray for their little sister and wait expectantly for God to answer.  We’d love for you to be praying with us!  We have submitted a request for a medical expedite.  Since our daughter has thalassemia and needs regular blood transfusions as well as medication, the sooner we bring her home and she starts receiving the medical care she needs, the better.  In China, children with thalassemia often get so anemic that they are unable to play or even get out of bed.  And, not getting the medication she needs can be detrimental to her organs.  If we are granted a medical expedite, we may be able to bring her home a few months sooner than we would otherwise.  This decision in China will likely be made next week.  So, we’d appreciate prayer for each person involved in making the decision along the way.  And, we’d love prayer for our daughter’s heart (emotionally) and each of ours as well, as we prepare for her to become a part of our family.  We’ll share more in future updates (whenever we’re able to take a break from paperwork!)