Mountains and Valleys

Mountains and valleys are both beautiful places.

On the mountaintop you can see what seems like the whole world laid out before you and the possibilities are endless. If you are on a mountaintop, you most likely have just climbed that mountain and the adrenaline is making you feel like you can conquer anything that comes your way. Nothing can shake you. The sun is shining on your face and for a moment you can almost reach out and touch heaven. Nothing is impossible on a mountaintop.

In a valley, however, you have a very limited view. You can only see the mountain in front of you and without the right perspective, it can feel isolated in a valley. When the sun goes down behind a mountain, it gets cold in a valley. And you might even begin to wonder and hope for what lies over that mountain in front of you. 

But if you take a step back, you will see the beauty, the awe and the grandeur of that mountain. You will feel how small you are against a mighty Creator and find yourself in the perfect place of humility to truly receive His grace and joy. With the right perspective.

We are blessed to live in a place where we get to experience these differences between mountains and valleys in a very real way. And it brings new insight to the circumstances in our lives that we classify as mountain or valley circumstances. I am reminded of the familiar passage in Ps. 23 where David sings to us about our Shepherd who makes us lay down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. That sounds so peaceful and refreshing, right? But let's think about it. We often separate the part of this same passage that talks about walking through the valley of death from this first part of peaceful still waters and green pastures. But it's actually the same place. You will never find still waters on a mountaintop. Water on a mountain will always be moving. Will you find green pastures on a mountaintop? This beautiful place with green pastures and still waters that refreshes our souls, is in the valley of death!

Perspective.

When we began this process, we hit the ground running. We received our home study packet on Oct. 8 and we got to work, sending in paperwork the very next day. By November 24, we had all of our paperwork turned in, minus our health checks and we had approval to wait for a little while to do those so they didn't expire. We were feeling really good about things and even though we have to wait until Justin's 30th birthday on April 1 to turn in our paperwork to China, we knew we needed that extra time to apply for grants and get our account with the adoption agency in good standing before we can submit those papers anyway. We had heard of so many people with so many bumps in the road in a never-ending paper chase, but we had also heard of people that just zipped and flew right through the process with little to no snags at all. We were really praying for the second option. 

But once we turned the paperwork in, the waiting started. The first wait was really out of anyone's control because it was the holidays and things slow down drastically around the holidays anyway. Our sweet case worker actually traveled to our house on New Years Day and did our home study in two days. But then somewhere between the time of her sending in her first draft and today, time seemed to stop. We have been waiting for a long time to see a final copy of our home study, and our case worker has been emailing every day trying to find out why it has taken so long. And we are excited to say that the final hard copy was placed in the mail yesterday and should be on it's way to the next step very soon.

Before I go further I want to say that things could be WAY worse. The other day we read about a lady whose paperwork had been destroyed in the mail. Like completely destroyed, illegible, couldn't even tell which document was which. It could be way worse. And we still have many opportunities for it to get worse. So I am very grateful. But still a little frustrated.

We are still waiting to actually receive a copy of the home study in our inbox, so that we can begin applying for grants. We received our next bill last week and we need to have $9,000 in about one month, so that we can hopefully meet our goal of sending our papers off around April 1, so we don't have to make this sweet little boy wait any longer than he has to. We are ready for him to come home!! Most grant agencies take longer than that to process applications, with many of them only awarding grants every quarter. So we are praying hard for God to lead us to the exact grants that He wants us to apply for. If you would like to donate to our adoption fund, you can click  HERE  to find out how. Please pray with us for these next few steps.

1. Mailing application for US Immigration approval for us to adopt.

2. Fingerprint appointment at US Consulate.

3. $6,000 due to continue to the next step of compiling our Dossier documents.

4. $3,100 due to authenticate and process those documents and send them to China.

In all of this, we are praying for the grace to see the beauty in the valleys of life and allow our Shepherd to refresh our souls in the way that only He can. Thank you Lord for still waters.

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.

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!

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!

Home Study

We had our Home Study visit this Friday and Saturday. I can't think of a better way to ring in the New Year than to check off one of  the major to do items in our process!

Because we live overseas, our visit was a bit different. She arrived on Friday around 2:30pm and stayed through Saturday around lunch. Stephen had been sick this week and Sean, who has been an amazing sleeper for several months, had all of a sudden started having tantrums around bedtime and in the middle of the night, so we are all a little tired, aka cranky, and I was a little worried about all of that! But we were blessed to have our friends here who were able to watch the boys for us for the Friday night portion of the interviews and trainings.

Most of the questions that she asked were the same questions that we had already answered in our Home Study paperwork, but people always speak and write differently, so she said she likes to get both perspectives and then write from the combination of the two. So the questions were things we had already thought through. Some of them were hard to remember what we had said, but it was a way for her to get the best picture of what we truly felt. She asked us questions about how we met, how we decided we wanted to adopt, and a general overview of what our family life looks like. Then she went through training that was required which answered many questions about what to expect throughout the adoption process and beyond, with a lot of information about attachment and bonding, as well as some struggles that you might see come up.

Saturday morning she came back and we had a little bit more training left to cover and so we did that while the boys were occupied with a movie and then the more stressful part came when she interviewed J and me separately. This is when we got more in depth about our autobiographies that we had already written and she asked us more personal questions about our childhood experiences, our values, our strengths and weaknesses, and more specific questions about parenthood. Again, all of these questions we had already had to think through in our paperwork, but it's definitely harder when you are on the spot and you don't have a delete button. Ha.

Then she did our home inspection, which was very relaxed. She didn't bring out a white glove or anything like that. She basically just checked for safety features: no knives, chemicals or medicines in the reach of children. Do you have smoke detectors, fire extinguisher and locks on the doors? She got to enjoy a private tour performed by our boys, with each of them pointing out their favorite parts of their own rooms. Little S made sure to show her every single stuffed animal he has and Big S showed off his utility knife that he got for Christmas. I'm not sure he really understood the idea of a home study. HA! She talked with Stephen about what he liked to do and what he thought about the adoption. He told her about home school and made sure to include the fact that "we haven't done school in a really long time!" Thankfully, it's Christmas break and I have an excuse!!

Overall, we are happy that it is done and we can keep moving. It feels good to have that off of our shoulders. But more than just checking it off of the checklist, the home study really is a valuable resource for us as adoptive parents. Our case workers truly are here to help us. They WANT us to adopt. They are here to encourage, to answer questions, and to calm fears. Yes, they have a job to do to make sure we can provide a safe and loving home for a child, but your case worker is so much more than that. I truly encourage anyone who is on this journey, to take full advantage of the wisdom your case worker has to offer. And while you have her stuck in your house, ask as many questions as you can think of. Don't be afraid to let her know that you don't have all of the answers.

So now, you guessed it...we wait. She will take a few weeks to write up the report and then send it to us for review and then to a different case worker to be finalized. Once we have a finalized copy of the home study, we will be ready to fill out our application with the US Dept of Immigration to be approved to adopt by the good ol US of A.

Happy New Year and prayers for a blessed 2016 to you all!!

We Killed a Forest

We received our home study packet today! We received it all through email, but because I like checklists and to see paperwork with my own eyes to feel organized, I printed it all out. While I like to go in order of the checklist, Justin has started grabbing documents from here and there and making me scan them. We may do things differently, but we have the same end goal in mind, and for that I am so thankful for my husband. He has done more paperwork in this short month than I have ever seen him do and I am so proud of him. And after turning in our first few documents, I really don't care that we didn't go in order. We are getting it done. And that's what matters!

Also, as a side note, I have not drank any Coke in 10 days. Yep, I said 10 days. Our whole family has committed to fasting from coke and when we want to drink it, we take that moment to pray for our new kiddo. It really has been a joy.

 And I have also done my ab workout for 10 days straight. Ba-Bam!