The past couple of months have been a wild ride!! We have seen God answer so many prayers! We are so happy to announce that today we are officially DTC!! For those outside of the realm of adoption acronyms, this means that our Dossier has been sent To China! This is one of the biggest steps throughout the entire process. At this point everything is completely out of our hands for now and we wait mercilessly for the wonderful workers at the CCCWA offices in China to do their part. This is also often described as one of the hardest parts of the wait because you move from busy, busy busy with the never-ending paper chase to a screeching halt. But it doesn't matter if the wait is a breeze for you or agonizing, any person who has been through the process knows how much we wanted to jump up and down and scream for joy at seeing those 3 letters in our inbox this morning!!
This last few weeks, we have had a few more ups and downs. After we found out that we had been awarded the $4,000 grant, we emailed our agency and asked what was next. They had to first request the money. This organization likes to wait to send the money once the family is within 4 months or less of traveling. Since we weren't DTC yet, we weren't sure if we would be considered within that time frame yet. But since we needed this money in order to be DTC, our agency said they would go ahead and request it. Thankfully, they said that they would disburse the funds now, but that it could take up to 4 weeks for the money to arrive at the agency. Cue the sound of screeching tires in our minds. We were so close, and yet these few words once again put us on edge. The agency needed the money in their account in the next 8 days in order to be able to send our paperwork "as scheduled." Whatever that means, right?! So we did what we could do. We prayed.
Fast forward those 8 days. We woke up that morning feeling a little ho-hum because the deadline had arrived and we hadn't heard anything about the money arriving. We had been checking our email almost first thing every morning just hoping to see something, but for some reason, we didn't that morning. We went ahead and had breakfast and did our morning things. And then all of a sudden, Justin says "Whoa!! Do you see this?!" We had an email informing us that we had been awarded a $10,000 grant from another grant organization that we had applied to. We sat stunned for a few minutes, and let the fact sink in that this meant we were for the most part fully funded for the rest of our adoption! Then the first person to move was actually our son Stephen. He got up, jumped up and down, and said "we are getting this boy!" while I sat there crying.
I immediately emailed our agency and told them the news and they replied back saying that they had the check 2 days before but weren't allowed to say anything until we had been notified from the organization. All we could do was laugh. Because sometimes God is just hilarious in the way that He answers prayer!!!
This was on Wednesday, May 18. Then three days later on Saturday, we woke up to an email that said "Rejection at the Embassy" in the subject line. My heart sank as I read that the Chinese embassy was rejecting 3 of our documents. In order for them to authenticate that our documents were real and legitimate, they have to be notarized by a US notary. Well, because we live overseas, we don't have access to a US notary, except for the Consulate. So back in March we had taken the 7 hour trip to our US Consulate and paid $300 USD to notarize our documents by a US notary. But the new Chinese consulate in DC said that they would not accept any documents that originated in another country, even though they were notarized at the consulate. Yeah, don't ask. It's not even worth trying to explain sometimes. Fortunately, only 3 of our documents were affected by this and they were easily reproducible. I replied to her email and ask if we needed to make a new copy and send them to our Power of Attorney in the States in order for them to be notarized there and therefore become more "legit" than if we had signed the papers ourselves here. Ha! She replied back within a few hours and said that she had heard back from the CCCWA (Chinese Adoption Association) that they would accept the documents as is, notarized by the US Consulate, without being authenticated. YAY!
So here we are, today, May 25, with three big letters hovering in our minds, and for the first time in months we feel like we are finally able to completely exhale. And we celebrate. No matter what lies ahead, because we are sure that there are plenty of other bumps waiting to be jumped over, we are incredibly grateful for today. And this whole thing is finally beginning to seem real.
Showing posts with label Dossier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dossier. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day! I woke up this morning in a hotel because we are on our way to some meetings. In many ways, it's just another day for our family. But we also love to travel and so it's an exciting time when we get to go somewhere new. When I woke up this morning, we had a message on our phone from Justin's brother asking if we were awake. I happened to be the first and only one up. I don't sleep very well in hotels most of the time. So I replied to his message. He said that they were just so excited for us about the news! The only problem was that I had no earthly idea what the news was. We had a great friend that owns a restaurant in our hometown that had agreed to do a fundraiser for us at her restaurant and we were expecting to hear news about how that went, so that was the first thing that entered my mind. When I asked him what news? He said, are you being sarcastic or do you really not know? Now my curiosity was going crazy. I had just woken up, so I didn't know anything. Well, it turns out that they had received a letter to us from one of the grant organizations that we had applied for saying that they were pleased to inform us we had been awarded a $4,000 grant!!
Once again, I find myself humbled beyond compare before a God who sees and who cares. This is officially, the second best Mother's Day I've ever had. The first best was 7 years ago, the day that my husband and I decided to put Christ first in our lives and do whatever it took to bring healing and restoration to our family and our home. We are so thankful for His provision and how He has taken a situation that seemed like a mountain to us and has tossed it aside more like an anthill!!
Once again, I find myself humbled beyond compare before a God who sees and who cares. This is officially, the second best Mother's Day I've ever had. The first best was 7 years ago, the day that my husband and I decided to put Christ first in our lives and do whatever it took to bring healing and restoration to our family and our home. We are so thankful for His provision and how He has taken a situation that seemed like a mountain to us and has tossed it aside more like an anthill!!
Friday, May 6, 2016
Humbled and Grateful
Just an update for our family's sake and anyone who is actually interested in the process that wants to read our journey, give some details about what it looked like to get here.
We began this journey, as most families do, with a timeline in front of them and high hopes that ours would actually be smooth, unlike most other families that seem to hit huge bumps in the road. HA. First mistake. Actually, we knew that obstacles and hurdles were going to come up, and we have had our bumps. Our wiggle room is getting smaller and our next steps are feeling farther and farther away. We spent the majority of the month of March feverishly applying for grants. We applied for a total of 10 grants. To the unsuspecting eye, that may not seem like a big deal. It's just an application. In one sense, yes, that is true. But the truth is, these applications are almost just as involved, if not more on some levels, as the initial application to begin the adoption process. And while each organization asks the same general questions about finances, testimony, calling, parenting and lifestyle, the questions are worded just differently enough that you have to write your answers differently for each one. While we did copy and paste a lot, it was still a difficult task. But we got them done. We had to step out of our comfort zones and ask for even more references, often having to burden the same people again and again to fill out a reference form. Oh and it needs to be turned in like now. :/ But fortunately, we have some great friends and leaders who went above and beyond to help us out.
The next task was fundraising. The month of April we poured ourselves out completely asking anyone and everyone that we knew and even those that we didn't know if they would be willing to donate an item or service to an online auction that we were hosting. It was a TON of work, but in the end we ended up collecting over 100 items and we were able to raise about $3,500. We also sold T-shirts, which astonishingly brought in almost $900. We are overwhelmed at the generosity of friends and complete strangers!! During this time of fundraising, I think we pushed half of our Facebook followers away and I'm sure we were deleted several times. But that's ok. We also saw God provide in really big ways through people that we didn't even expect and we are so incredibly thankful!
When we started the process, we really didn't think that we would be able to fund raise money successfully. First of all, we lived overseas and so "traditional" fundraisers were obviously out of the question. And second of all, we have spent the last 3 years raising money for ministry and our circle of influence are already so incredibly generous to give to what we do. But we did fundraise and were pleasantly surprised with the success. We could not have done it without the help of our friends and family, mainly our brother and sister in law, who were themselves in the process of adopting. The biggest fee that we have had to date was certainly our agency fee of $6,000, which had to be paid before our agency would begin work on compiling our Dossier packet. This seemed almost insurmountable to us, but through our fundraising efforts, very generous donations, personal savings and an organization that awarded us a $1,000 grant, we will be able to turn that in within the next week! (During our fundraising, we also received our USCIS approval, which was so exciting!!)
The next financial hurdle is a fee of $3,100 that covers the document preparation, registration and authentication. This amount had to be turned in before our agency could actually send the paperwork to China. We had been hoping that this was an amount that they could bill to our family, as they had several fees in the past. But we found out that it in fact had to be paid before they could mail the papers. This is honestly disheartening for us. We have worked so hard for two solid months, and we are flat worn out on fund raising. We know that God is the only one that can make this happen, because He is the only one that has made any of it happen so far. And deep down we know we can trust in His timing, whatever that might be. But if we are honest, we are discouraged because we feel like this just meant more waiting. More time before we could be with our son and he could be with us. We want so badly to be able to send him a message and say Mommy and Daddy are coming! But from where we were standing, already more than a month behind our timeline goal, we just know that we have to surrender our desires to God's sovereignty. We have sent out one last plea to our friends and family, and put on our best face. We are choosing to keep the faith. We still have a couple of weeks. And we know from experience that a lot can happen in a couple of weeks!
We began this journey, as most families do, with a timeline in front of them and high hopes that ours would actually be smooth, unlike most other families that seem to hit huge bumps in the road. HA. First mistake. Actually, we knew that obstacles and hurdles were going to come up, and we have had our bumps. Our wiggle room is getting smaller and our next steps are feeling farther and farther away. We spent the majority of the month of March feverishly applying for grants. We applied for a total of 10 grants. To the unsuspecting eye, that may not seem like a big deal. It's just an application. In one sense, yes, that is true. But the truth is, these applications are almost just as involved, if not more on some levels, as the initial application to begin the adoption process. And while each organization asks the same general questions about finances, testimony, calling, parenting and lifestyle, the questions are worded just differently enough that you have to write your answers differently for each one. While we did copy and paste a lot, it was still a difficult task. But we got them done. We had to step out of our comfort zones and ask for even more references, often having to burden the same people again and again to fill out a reference form. Oh and it needs to be turned in like now. :/ But fortunately, we have some great friends and leaders who went above and beyond to help us out.
The next task was fundraising. The month of April we poured ourselves out completely asking anyone and everyone that we knew and even those that we didn't know if they would be willing to donate an item or service to an online auction that we were hosting. It was a TON of work, but in the end we ended up collecting over 100 items and we were able to raise about $3,500. We also sold T-shirts, which astonishingly brought in almost $900. We are overwhelmed at the generosity of friends and complete strangers!! During this time of fundraising, I think we pushed half of our Facebook followers away and I'm sure we were deleted several times. But that's ok. We also saw God provide in really big ways through people that we didn't even expect and we are so incredibly thankful!
When we started the process, we really didn't think that we would be able to fund raise money successfully. First of all, we lived overseas and so "traditional" fundraisers were obviously out of the question. And second of all, we have spent the last 3 years raising money for ministry and our circle of influence are already so incredibly generous to give to what we do. But we did fundraise and were pleasantly surprised with the success. We could not have done it without the help of our friends and family, mainly our brother and sister in law, who were themselves in the process of adopting. The biggest fee that we have had to date was certainly our agency fee of $6,000, which had to be paid before our agency would begin work on compiling our Dossier packet. This seemed almost insurmountable to us, but through our fundraising efforts, very generous donations, personal savings and an organization that awarded us a $1,000 grant, we will be able to turn that in within the next week! (During our fundraising, we also received our USCIS approval, which was so exciting!!)
The next financial hurdle is a fee of $3,100 that covers the document preparation, registration and authentication. This amount had to be turned in before our agency could actually send the paperwork to China. We had been hoping that this was an amount that they could bill to our family, as they had several fees in the past. But we found out that it in fact had to be paid before they could mail the papers. This is honestly disheartening for us. We have worked so hard for two solid months, and we are flat worn out on fund raising. We know that God is the only one that can make this happen, because He is the only one that has made any of it happen so far. And deep down we know we can trust in His timing, whatever that might be. But if we are honest, we are discouraged because we feel like this just meant more waiting. More time before we could be with our son and he could be with us. We want so badly to be able to send him a message and say Mommy and Daddy are coming! But from where we were standing, already more than a month behind our timeline goal, we just know that we have to surrender our desires to God's sovereignty. We have sent out one last plea to our friends and family, and put on our best face. We are choosing to keep the faith. We still have a couple of weeks. And we know from experience that a lot can happen in a couple of weeks!
Thursday, March 31, 2016
T SHIRT FUNDRAISER
By popular demand, we have decided to re-open our Tshirt orders!!
We pray it will be a huge success because who doesn't like a new T-shirt?
Especially a Super Soft one like this one!
AND especially when the purchase of this shirt is
helping to unite a sweet little boy with his family!
But the cool thing is that this is so much more than an adoption T-shirt.
But the cool thing is that this is so much more than an adoption T-shirt.
This is one that you can apply to any area of our lives.
It's about LOVE.
It's about LOVE.
"This is real love--not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." 1 John 4:10
Let that be what fuels you. Let LOVE be your guide.
Our shirts come in 3 different styles with lots of color choices!!
but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." 1 John 4:10
Let that be what fuels you. Let LOVE be your guide.
 |
YOU KNOW YOU WANT ONE!!!
Adult Sizes: XS-4XL
Click to Enlarge
|
Our shirts come in 3 different styles with lots of color choices!!
Prices:
Super soft ADULT T's: $20 each
(add $2 for 2XL/3XL).
Super soft KIDS T's are $18 each
Super soft WOMEN'S TANKS are $24 each
 |
Click to Enlarge
|
Check out his work at www.jdreeves.com
 |
| Kids Sizes: M(10/12), L(14/16) Click to Enlarge |
 |
| Women's Tank Sizes: S, M, L, XL, 2XL(+$2) Click to Enlarge |
You can order as many as you want and shipping is one flat rate of $5 per order.
(Or if you are local to the Williamson/Maury County area, you can choose free pick up)
To place a Tshirt Order, please click on the Tshirt order form tab at the top of the page or
click here.
If you would rather make a donation in lieu of purchasing a Tshirt,
please read HERE! to find out how your generosity will
have an impact on Qi Long for years to come!
Monday, March 21, 2016
Fingerprints
We had our fingerprint appointment today! Because we live overseas, we had to travel to the closest US consulate to do this. Our closest consulate is normally a 3 hour bus ride and a 4 hour train ride away. Well, this time we were able to ride in a van, instead of a bus, and shaved 1/2 an hour off of that leg. AND the train station just opened up a second fast train that leaves in the afternoon making that train ride only 3 hours and 18 minutes! (Normally, the only non stop train leaves early in the morning and we can never make it.) Yay! We love it when things work out in our favor.
It just so happens that the consulate is in one of our favorite cities here, and also the city that Qi Long lives in. While we didn't get to see him, there is just something nice about knowing that he is near....you know, just in case. (I may or may not have tried to shamefully weasel our way in by posting fun pictures of us in the city so that the orphanage director would see we were there and maybe invite us over. She "liked" our pictures, but no invitation. She likes her rules. lol)
It rained almost the whole time we were there, but it was a great trip. We got our fingerprints done, although the machine did NOT like my fingers. After about 4 or 5 tries and it beeping it's angry beep, it finally gave us the happy beep and accepted my little prints. :) We were also able to go ahead and get our documents notarized that will go in our Dossier. Once they travel to America to be authenticated and then back to China. We were a little shocked to find out that getting 6 documents notarized at the Consulate cost us $300 USD! We didn't have to pay for the fingerprints, which normally cost $380 per adult, and we were excited about being an expat actually working in our favor for once. But then that savings was slashed in half by the notary. BUT it could have been worse.
After all of the paperwork matters, we took Little S to see his pediatrician and gave him two big ol shots. He took them like a champ! The nurse called both Justin and I in to hold him down, but he didn't even whimper. The sweet little nurse just kept saying "Amazing!" haha.
Of course, no trip to the big city would be complete without a trip to Papa Johns and it was delicious. This time we had the privilege of meeting up with a family that attends our home church, who happened to be here finalizing their adoption that week. It was so amazing to watch our paths cross and get to spend some time together. Big S totally hit it off with their boys and they had so much fun together. The adults were pretty awesome too, and of course their new princess stole the show!
I realized when all this was over, that I should totally be taking pictures of this process! You know we always take a picture every step of the way of pregnancy. Adoption should be no different! Our little guy deserves pictures of his family preparing for his arrival too! I will do a better job of that from now on! (Even if it is only a picture of me sitting in front of the computer at 1 am with blood shot eyes as I type up yet another paragraph answering "What makes you want to adopt" for our grant applications! :/ )
One more check off the list, one more step closer to Qi Long being in our arms! It's worth every last bit of craziness to get there!
It just so happens that the consulate is in one of our favorite cities here, and also the city that Qi Long lives in. While we didn't get to see him, there is just something nice about knowing that he is near....you know, just in case. (I may or may not have tried to shamefully weasel our way in by posting fun pictures of us in the city so that the orphanage director would see we were there and maybe invite us over. She "liked" our pictures, but no invitation. She likes her rules. lol)
It rained almost the whole time we were there, but it was a great trip. We got our fingerprints done, although the machine did NOT like my fingers. After about 4 or 5 tries and it beeping it's angry beep, it finally gave us the happy beep and accepted my little prints. :) We were also able to go ahead and get our documents notarized that will go in our Dossier. Once they travel to America to be authenticated and then back to China. We were a little shocked to find out that getting 6 documents notarized at the Consulate cost us $300 USD! We didn't have to pay for the fingerprints, which normally cost $380 per adult, and we were excited about being an expat actually working in our favor for once. But then that savings was slashed in half by the notary. BUT it could have been worse.
After all of the paperwork matters, we took Little S to see his pediatrician and gave him two big ol shots. He took them like a champ! The nurse called both Justin and I in to hold him down, but he didn't even whimper. The sweet little nurse just kept saying "Amazing!" haha.
Of course, no trip to the big city would be complete without a trip to Papa Johns and it was delicious. This time we had the privilege of meeting up with a family that attends our home church, who happened to be here finalizing their adoption that week. It was so amazing to watch our paths cross and get to spend some time together. Big S totally hit it off with their boys and they had so much fun together. The adults were pretty awesome too, and of course their new princess stole the show!
I realized when all this was over, that I should totally be taking pictures of this process! You know we always take a picture every step of the way of pregnancy. Adoption should be no different! Our little guy deserves pictures of his family preparing for his arrival too! I will do a better job of that from now on! (Even if it is only a picture of me sitting in front of the computer at 1 am with blood shot eyes as I type up yet another paragraph answering "What makes you want to adopt" for our grant applications! :/ )
One more check off the list, one more step closer to Qi Long being in our arms! It's worth every last bit of craziness to get there!
Friday, January 22, 2016
70 days!
We have 70 days to go until April 1, when we will hopefully be submitting our Dossier to China!!
Please pray with us as we wait for Father to provide the finances needed for that next big step in the process.
In the meantime, here are some pictures we received a couple of weeks ago. Wednesday, January 13, to be exact. We had woken up feeling pretty chilly and aggravated because our power had been off since dinner the night before and it was still not back on when we got up. But as I was checking my messages on my phone, it started to ding. A lot. And as I looked, my frustration melted away with the joy I saw on this little face.
Joy is what we have been praying for him. We sent a package to him and in it we included a hat for him and all of his friends in his class. I was in bed cuddling with all of my boys and we were able to look at these pictures together and pray that we are already making a difference in Qi Long's life.
We also sent a picture album that contained a few pictures of our family, including all 4 of us wearing a hat like we sent and a note and a few other things for him in the package. We don't know if they gave it to him. We don't know if they even told him that the hats were from us, but either way, he knows that someone cares for him enough to let him have a new hat and for that we are thankful. We can't wait until we get to snuggle him up in the bed with us.
Just 70 days until we are one giant step closer to that day!
Thank you for your love, support and prayers!
Saturday, January 2, 2016
90 Days!
Today, we officially begin our countdown to J's 30th birthday! You don't normally hear of people counting down to a 30th birthday, but for us, being 30 means we are eligible to adopt from China. The exact rule states that both applicants must be 30 years old at the time the Dossier is submitted. So we have been working to get up to that point, so that on April 1, we can have that packet in the mail.
Before April 1, we have 4 parts to complete.
1. Homestudy: We have been working since Oct. 8, on this. Our paperwork was for the most part completed at the end of November, but because of the business of Christmas time, we were not able to meet with the case worker until January 1. Now, that is complete, but we will still be waiting for 2-3 more weeks for that to be finalized.
2. US Dept of Immigration: Once our home study is finalized, we will apply with the USCIS for approval to adopt from our government in America. This approval is generally the last document that you will be waiting on in order to submit the Dossier.
3. Document authentication. All 11 (I think it's 11. Don't quote me on that.) documents that are contained in your Dossier packet must be certified, notarized and authenticated by the US government, and then stamped with a final seal from the Chinese embassy stating that they are true and valid documents. This takes time with lots of back and forth work with important documents usually in D.C. Fortunately, our agency takes care of all of this for us, so it's not necessarily a stress for me, but it does equal time and money.
4. And finally the 4th part is money. We have to submit our agency fee (ours is $6,000, not including the cost for immigration and document authentication, and other fees already paid) in order for them to process our Dossier and get it in the mail for us. So even if the time works out and our packet is ready before April 1, if we don't have that money ready, we will still be waiting.
There are many grants available, but there are a few problems with grants.
1. You have to have a completed Home Study in order to apply for a grant.
2. Most organizations that provide grants only process their applications during specific time frames, for example, once per quarter, and they issue their grants all at once for that time period. The average grant application process takes around 90 days.
SO...I know that is probably a lot of boring information for most of you, but for those of you who are interested about the process, there you go! This is where we are and the goals we have in front of us for the next 90 days. I don't know that I can call them goals because a large percentage of these 4 parts don't actually include our involvement. I guess I should say this is our prayer points for the next 90 days.
In the meantime, if you have any ground shaking fundraising ideas, please share! We would love to hear about ideas that have worked well for you, or an idea that you would be interested in participating in! Click here to see our Puzzle Fundraiser!
Before April 1, we have 4 parts to complete.
1. Homestudy: We have been working since Oct. 8, on this. Our paperwork was for the most part completed at the end of November, but because of the business of Christmas time, we were not able to meet with the case worker until January 1. Now, that is complete, but we will still be waiting for 2-3 more weeks for that to be finalized.
2. US Dept of Immigration: Once our home study is finalized, we will apply with the USCIS for approval to adopt from our government in America. This approval is generally the last document that you will be waiting on in order to submit the Dossier.
3. Document authentication. All 11 (I think it's 11. Don't quote me on that.) documents that are contained in your Dossier packet must be certified, notarized and authenticated by the US government, and then stamped with a final seal from the Chinese embassy stating that they are true and valid documents. This takes time with lots of back and forth work with important documents usually in D.C. Fortunately, our agency takes care of all of this for us, so it's not necessarily a stress for me, but it does equal time and money.
4. And finally the 4th part is money. We have to submit our agency fee (ours is $6,000, not including the cost for immigration and document authentication, and other fees already paid) in order for them to process our Dossier and get it in the mail for us. So even if the time works out and our packet is ready before April 1, if we don't have that money ready, we will still be waiting.
There are many grants available, but there are a few problems with grants.
1. You have to have a completed Home Study in order to apply for a grant.
2. Most organizations that provide grants only process their applications during specific time frames, for example, once per quarter, and they issue their grants all at once for that time period. The average grant application process takes around 90 days.
SO...I know that is probably a lot of boring information for most of you, but for those of you who are interested about the process, there you go! This is where we are and the goals we have in front of us for the next 90 days. I don't know that I can call them goals because a large percentage of these 4 parts don't actually include our involvement. I guess I should say this is our prayer points for the next 90 days.
Because this is so boring, here is a little thank you for making it to the end!
(Hint: Click Twice)
This was the day that we visited QL at the orphanage.
As he turns around he keeps an eye on his dad back there by the door.
What we would give to know what was going through is little mind that day!
(Hint: Click Twice)
This was the day that we visited QL at the orphanage.
As he turns around he keeps an eye on his dad back there by the door.
What we would give to know what was going through is little mind that day!
I KNOW, RIGHT?!
In the meantime, if you have any ground shaking fundraising ideas, please share! We would love to hear about ideas that have worked well for you, or an idea that you would be interested in participating in! Click here to see our Puzzle Fundraiser!
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