- We still have a lot of time left on our adoption journey. If everything goes as scheduled (doubtful) this is what our timeline could look like.
- Home Study written by 5-4
- Pre-Approval from US Citizenship and Immigration Services by 5-11
- Dossier Complete by 5-14
- Authentication process complete by 5-31 (this involves authentication in Raleigh and Washington DC). I may be off on this one -not sure. We will use a courier to speed it up.
- Dossier to China (DTC) by 6-10
- Log-in Date (LID) by 7-10
- Travel Approval by 11-10
- Travel to China by 11-30
- Home by 12-14
My original hope was to have her home by Thanksgiving but I'm trying to be realistic. There were a lot of changes in Chinese adoption that took effect 5-1 so it may cause some delays even with special needs children. We have no way of knowing at this point. Thanks for your prayers!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
When can we expect to get Lillie Mei home?
Friday, April 27, 2007
Good News! Now we Wait!
We just got an e-mail from Mei (from our agency). The orphanage director did what we asked (took new measurements) and is taking some pictures. They will then be mailed to Bejing and then to Mei in Charleston, SC. I don't know when we will get the information but we do know it's coming! Please keep praying!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The Past Week!
Okay, now to the past week. Last Wednesday (the 18th), I received an e-mail that the Special Needs list was available by e-mail (it is usually posted on the webpage). Because I recieved the e-mail at night, I knew other families would probably have already viewed the list before us and we might not be the 1st to request any child's information. In addition, there were no pictures which makes it hard to feel an emotional connection to a particular child.
We were sent the list Thursday morning. I forwarded it to Kirk and we went through it over the phone. You only receive a short paragraph about each child which includes their special need, the DOB, where they were found and a brief summary of their current situation. Kirk and I had narrowed the list down to about 5 little girls. I felt called to a little girl named Yi (last name) Mei Fei because we knew our daughter's middle name was going to be Mae and she was already Mei. We prayed about it and decided to request her medical info. We knew she had a facial deformity but had no idea what she would look like. Amazingly, we were the 1st family to request her info. so we received her picture (below). Well, I immediatley began falling in love with her sweet little face. We knew she would have some issues but felt like she belonged in our family.
On Friday we received a 2-page medical report that included her ht, wt, vision, etc. It looked like everything was normal so we planned to go ahead with her adoption (and I began shopping)!
On Tuesday, we had a friend who is a pediatrician review her chart (a requirement of our agency). He caught something we did not, her head size is very small. She is below the 3rd percentile for her age and this is a cause for great concern. My world crumbled. We began researching her condition and realized several things-
We were sent the list Thursday morning. I forwarded it to Kirk and we went through it over the phone. You only receive a short paragraph about each child which includes their special need, the DOB, where they were found and a brief summary of their current situation. Kirk and I had narrowed the list down to about 5 little girls. I felt called to a little girl named Yi (last name) Mei Fei because we knew our daughter's middle name was going to be Mae and she was already Mei. We prayed about it and decided to request her medical info. We knew she had a facial deformity but had no idea what she would look like. Amazingly, we were the 1st family to request her info. so we received her picture (below). Well, I immediatley began falling in love with her sweet little face. We knew she would have some issues but felt like she belonged in our family.
On Friday we received a 2-page medical report that included her ht, wt, vision, etc. It looked like everything was normal so we planned to go ahead with her adoption (and I began shopping)!
On Tuesday, we had a friend who is a pediatrician review her chart (a requirement of our agency). He caught something we did not, her head size is very small. She is below the 3rd percentile for her age and this is a cause for great concern. My world crumbled. We began researching her condition and realized several things-
- It was possible that there was a mistake b/c so many children are measured and the workers are sometimes poorly trained.
- If there was a mistake, it only had to be off by 2cm to make her fall in the normal category.
- If this was accurate, we could be facing serious mental and behavioral issues.
- If this was accurate, she could still be fine.
We then were put in contact with a doctor that specializes in International Adoption. He was a God send! He has 2 special needs children from China himself and has consulted with many families. We asked lots of questions and he gave us honest answers about what we could face. Towards the end of the conversation, Kirk asked him if he would go ahead with the adoption. Without hesitation he said, "ABSOLUTELY!" He said he knew God would prepare him for what he was going to face. We didn't realize he was a Christian until this point. He then asked if he could pray with us. Of course, we did and God put the peace back in my heart that we were doing the right thing. Kirk had never waivered.
As of right now, we are waiting to see if we can get more information. We are hoping for a current measurement as well as a previous measurement to see how she has developed to better determine what her needs will be. Please keep praying for her and our family!
If all goes well, we hope to have her home before Thanksgivng!
Please keep praying for her and our family!
Our Journey over the Past 4 Months
When I first set up the blog it was mostly just to see if I could do it. Now that I have a little bit of time I want to explain to everyone how our journey has evolved over the past 4 months and then the past week. It has been a roller coaster!
Kirk and I had discussed for quite a while the possibility of having another child. With my history of miscarriage, we knew we could have to face that again and Kirk just really didn't want to go down that road. I never had a real peace about it so I didn't try to convince him. He had said from the beginning of these discussions that he would be willing to adopt. I wasn't. So we decided to be happy with our two wonderful boys.
For a while now I have listened to a radio program, "Family Life Today" almost every day. Last December they ran a series on adoption and how Christians have not stepped up to the plate to do what God has called us to do--care for orphans. He began working on my heart (I realized later he had been doing this prior--I just wasn't listening). Kirk was out of town during part of this time. Late one night I talked to my friend, Donna about the programs we had both heard. We both struggled with God would have us to do. After a very long conversation with her I realized God was calling me to be open to adoption. That weekend Kirk and I talked about it and the journey began. I immediately had an overwhelming peace that this was what we were supposed to do. I no longer struggled with the decision to have another child because I knew I wasn't supposed to give birth--we were suppose to adopt--and we both knew it was from China.
Since December we have been "paperchasing." The amount of paperwork is unbelievable. During this time China changed their adoption policies and the wait time for a child stretched to a possible 3 years! We were open from the beginning to adopting a special needs child if we found one that we felt was ours. Our agency gets approximately 20 special needs children every 3 months. We knew we would look over the list and pray about it, and if we felt like our child was there we would try to adopt her. The next list was due out May 1st.
We were anxiously waiting for that day but knew it would be a long shot since so many families want these children and you have to be the first one to request their medical information or you are put on a waiting list.
That takes us up to last week when things really changed for us!
Kirk and I had discussed for quite a while the possibility of having another child. With my history of miscarriage, we knew we could have to face that again and Kirk just really didn't want to go down that road. I never had a real peace about it so I didn't try to convince him. He had said from the beginning of these discussions that he would be willing to adopt. I wasn't. So we decided to be happy with our two wonderful boys.
For a while now I have listened to a radio program, "Family Life Today" almost every day. Last December they ran a series on adoption and how Christians have not stepped up to the plate to do what God has called us to do--care for orphans. He began working on my heart (I realized later he had been doing this prior--I just wasn't listening). Kirk was out of town during part of this time. Late one night I talked to my friend, Donna about the programs we had both heard. We both struggled with God would have us to do. After a very long conversation with her I realized God was calling me to be open to adoption. That weekend Kirk and I talked about it and the journey began. I immediately had an overwhelming peace that this was what we were supposed to do. I no longer struggled with the decision to have another child because I knew I wasn't supposed to give birth--we were suppose to adopt--and we both knew it was from China.
Since December we have been "paperchasing." The amount of paperwork is unbelievable. During this time China changed their adoption policies and the wait time for a child stretched to a possible 3 years! We were open from the beginning to adopting a special needs child if we found one that we felt was ours. Our agency gets approximately 20 special needs children every 3 months. We knew we would look over the list and pray about it, and if we felt like our child was there we would try to adopt her. The next list was due out May 1st.
We were anxiously waiting for that day but knew it would be a long shot since so many families want these children and you have to be the first one to request their medical information or you are put on a waiting list.
That takes us up to last week when things really changed for us!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Harrison and Zeke have a little sister!
We have just begun the process of adopting Yi Mei Fei from China! She is 10 months old. Her birthday is June 21, 2006! Please pray for all of us!
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