Our China Adoption: Thurday's Things To Pray For:

9.09.2010

Thurday's Things To Pray For:

1. Pray for Olivia aka Lili that she continues to adjust so well like she has been.

2. Pray for Ava who has started soccer season and has started 4th grade & has joined the Art Club.

3. Pray for Noah who will be starting baseball and has started 5th grade, and also running for Vice-Prez for Student Council

4. Pray for Leila to adjust to her new little sister.

5. Pray for Leo who has been sick since we arrived from China, and found out today that he has a terrible ear infection.

6. Pray for me: that i find the patience to deal with 4 kids; a new little one that is learning her new world surrounding her. And that i am able to juggle everything that comes with the job title: Wife, Mom, Sister, Daughter, Friend::: WOMAN.

7. And most of all: pray for those in our adoption community who are home with new babies, are in China or any other country picking up new babies; and those who are thinking of adopting. That God can pave the road for you to new adjustment & patience, or the path to giving love to a child that needs a forever family.

2 comments:

Shannon said...: Praying for you!!!!!!
Shannon; September 9, 2010 8:20 PM
The Raudenbush Family said...: Praying for your adjustment in particular--I know it's a big leap from 3 to 4. Praying for supernatural grace and mercy to pour over you like rain....
Kelly; September 10, 2010 4:51 AM

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Time Line of Events

7/22/2010: Adoption Shower for Olivia by wonderful friends.
7/19/2010: Went Shopping w/sister in law Amy for clothes for Olivia
7/15/2010: Picked Up Visas
7/13/2010: Went and had VISAS done
7/6/2010: We received TA while in Destin
6/17/2010: Sent off our LOA to agency.
6/2/2010: Received our LOA from China!!!
5/5/2010: Received our Pre Approval from China!!!
4/23/2010: Sent in our Letter of Intent to Adopt Shen Wen-Li
4/22/2010: Went to Texas Childrens and Met w Dr. Montgomery to review medical file
4/21/2010: 10:33PM We GOT THE CALL!!!
4/21/2010: Nervously awaiting til evening to see if we hear from agency.
4/20/2010: Received email that the list was coming out the next day, NOT may 1
4/2/2010:Immigration received homestudy
3/26/2010: Updated Homestudy once again
3/15/2010: We decided to move over to Child Waiting List.
3/1/2010: Not so great news: timeline has been pushed to 4 years...
1/1/2009-12/31/2009: Just Waiting
12/31/2008: Received call that we are finally logged in!!! Our date is 12/24/08
12/1/2008: Waiting to hear on LID
11/17/2008: Dossier has been sent off to China!!
11/12/2008: Agency Preparing Dossier to send off to China
11/3/2008: Received fedex AND missing permission to release information....She emailed it to me, and we signed and again I fedexed to them overnight delivery
10/31/2008: Agency counselor was out on Friday, working from home, will see our fedex on Monday.
10/29/2008: Recd UPS, had Leo sign, I signed and out it right back in FEDEX pack for 2nd day delivery.
10/27/2008: Received email that we forgot to sign financial page, they are sending back to us UPS 2nd day air.
10/24/2008: Sent dossier by Fedex to agency
10/24/2008: Test results came in, we are good...Prepared dossier to send to agency
10/10/-10/24: Education class took longer than expected.
10/9/2008: My sister had my certificate authenticated
9/29/2008: Sister received package in NY
9/26/2008: Sent off fedex with my birth cert to my sister in NY, it needs to be authenticated by the NY China Consulate
9/25/2008: We received our paperwork from Embassy authenticated!! I am so happy!!
9/12/2008: HURRICAN IKE HITS GALVESTON AND HURTS SURROUNDING AREAS. So of course Houston was shut down for a week, so how does that affect our adoption....it delayed my first week at Embassy by a week! I am waiting patiently, but its really hard.
9/9/2008: My package was delivered to CHinese Embassy, and signed by a T TONG. So now we wait 2 weeks for this to come back to me.
9/8/2008: Found out Chinese Embassy doesnt accept FEDEX, certified mail, registered mail for technical reasons....ummm okay? So i sent it PRIORITY MAIL. Here we go again.
9/5/2008: 715PM. Asked Leo if we can go by their house again just to check if they spoke with her mom. We arrived and Leo went to speak to neighbors, i knocked on the door, husband answered: Told me my packet was there! I started crying: the wife got it for me, and it was opened. She claims that is the way it was delivered..i think otherwise. But i am not here to talk bad, i am just happy that we got it back!!!!
9/5/2008: 6:00PM An old, very close friend of mine called me (HAD NOT TALKED TO HER IN SEEMED AGES), told her what happened, and as always, gave me the reassurance that all will be okay. Have faith in our God, and he will bring it back to us and we will continue on with our path to our daughter. SHe definitely made me feel better....she never fails at that.
9/5/2008: 5:15 PM: Fedex sent driver to other address: NO ONE HOME. I told Leo we would go by there to pick up, we met the current renters couple times. Went by there, wife was home, she said there was no package, she didnt see anything. She was going to ask her mom and then call us. We left to take Ava to Tae, i was bawling the whole way; our whole life existence was in that packet, didnt know what i was going to do!
9/4/2008:My returned package never arrived at my doorstep. Called Fedex and they left at door step of our PREVIOUS ADDRESS!!!! Our life was now in a strangers hands! I was franctic now!
9/3/2008: Checked FEDEX tracking to check on package delivery: RETURNED TO SENDER!! RECEIPIANT REFUSED DELIVERY. Now why the heck would they refuse my delivery! I was furious and worried...
9/2/2008: Sent our whole life in a packet to Chinese Embassy by Fedex...it will take 2 weeks to get back
8/29/2008: Made copies of everything that was going to the Chinese Embassy for authentication.Sending in originals and 1 set of copies.
8/29/2008: Received Leo's paperwork certified.
8/20/2008: Resent Leo's paperwork to state for certification. I just lost another week
8/19/2008: Had to go ALL THE WAY back to DT to redo Leo's criminal letter for lack of notary stamp!
8/1/2008: Sent off our criminal clearance, passport photos, marriage liscense to get certified
8/1/2208: went to county clerk office got certified copy of marriage liscense
7/24/2008: Received first stack of paperwork all certified
7/24/2008: Received our letter of approval on our orphan petition letter. This is what we use to bring in our daughter from China
7/15/2008: just sent off the first set of paperwork to the state for certification. This should take a week or so.
July 2008: waiting for our blood results, dr letters, fingerprints to come back. So i can send it all to state
7/3/2008:We finally went to get our fingerprints done.....Went back to DT for criminal background letter.
7/1/2008:Went back to dr to get physicals done again
JUNE: Very busy work month, closing a house takes up alot of our time
5/23/2008: My sister was able to get all my ceritificates done...i should have them in 2 days
5/19/2008: Fedexed my sister my certificate so she can get it certified and authenticated for me. THANK GOODNESS FOR HER living in NY! love her!
5/16/2007: Received my birth certificate from NY, funny things is, now i have to send it back to NY to get it state certified and authenticated
5/12/2008: received our letter from Homeland with our appointment to go get fingerprinted again for the national datebase this time
5/6/2008: had my dossier consult with Allison (1 hour phone call) going over EVERY SINGLE pieces of paper i have collected. Just to find out i need to redo our medicals, criminal search all over again due to the fact they are over 6 months old. Now i have to send all over to Austion for state certification.
5/2/2008: Sent off notarized and final homestudy to Homeland Security, waiting patiently for appt
4/24/2008: just waiting patiently to hear form HOMELAND security for our fingerprint appointment.
4/17/2008: Gave the ok on our homestudy, sent in copies of taxes, finacials letter. now i need to give them all our physical addresss that we lived at in the past 10 years in houston, and how long we were there for.
4/13/2008: received our homestudy to review and accept
4/1/2008: Received letter from Homeland Security that they recd our application with fee, but they are missing homestudy
3/31/2008: Turned in Leo's biography, one more thing to turn in to move forward
3/29/2008: Had our second ladybug sighting
3/24/2008: Announced to the rest of our friends about our adoption
3/24/2008: need to resend i600a form with certified funds/money order. they dont accept personal checks; not according to the paperwork!!
3/22/2008: Had certified request form waiting at home from USCIS office, need to to be present to sign
3/21/2008: Had our first ladybug sighting in our car
3/20/2008:Received letter from our tax guy
3/19/2008: Sent off 1660A form, petition for orphan
3/18/2008: Met with tax accountant to get letter from him
2/28/2008: Kids met with Rochelle for home study
2/28/2008: Had to announce to family & refrences about adoption
2/22/2008: called by brother in law, Marcelo to share the news also
2/22/2008: Christy (sister in law) called me asking why she received a letter of reference for adoption
1/22/2008: I met with Rochelle for individual home study interview
11/29/2007: Leo & I met with Rochelle, our home study social worker
9/20/2007: Leo & I headed to downtown to get fingerprinted
9/17/2007: Leo & I got our physicals
SEPT 2007: With much discussion, we decided to move forward to continue on with our adoption
7/13/2007: Father in Law Hugo, passed away. Our lives changed for ever
MAY 2007: Father in law diagnosed with Lymphoma...Everything at a standstill
4/24/2007: Requested medical letter from kids' doctor
1/23/2007: Letter from Criminal history check
1/23/2007: Found/Made copy of marriage license
1/22/2007: Found/Made copies of birth certificates for the whole family
1/10/2007: Recdd letter to start our paper chase & home study process
12/06/2006: Received our first approval for adoption!
11/20/2006: Mailed in application for Adoption from China
11/13/2006: Requested Application from CHI

WHY ADOPTION?
Well Leo and I before having our 3 kids, always had talked about adopting. It has always been in our hearts to do this; we needed to see when and at what point do we stop having our own kids to do this. We decided to have a total of 4 kids in all; we also decided to have 2 kids first then decide if to adopt first then have another or vice versa. Well the versa came first, Leila....that is when we decided to stop and look into adopting. That is when our path began, in 2006.

WHY CHINA?
For some reason we have always pulled towards China. Unfortunately their government have this ridiculous law about one child per family. They are completed over populated , and they do not want to have a food shortage like they did in the past (this is when they applied this law). And unfortunately girls are given up on, abanonded for the sake that they can conceive. We did look at other countries (Colombia & Uruguay) but their requirements were extremely difficult for us to be able to adopt there; so back to China.
How did the kids react? Leila is still too young to understand. The other two have been amazing! They are excited about their sister in China. They pray for her every night, they asked a lot of questions: why doesn't she have a family; will we know what she is saying if she only speaks Chinese (this one is from Ava); how long will it take; how old will she be; will they go to China to pick her up....it was endless, but they are very excited.

WHY NOW?
We can never be 100% ready to do anything in life. If you wait 'til everything is 100%, you won't live life. Now, you can prepare yourself for things in life. And we have been preparing ourselves for this since we have been married. I had our agency picked out and all the information for over 3 years; just sitting in my files waiting, waiting for us to be ready. And we have to thank our Lord for blessing us with courage, love and the ability to do this now. Plus, we would like for Leila and our forever daughter to be somewhat close in age.