Letter of Acceptance-And God moves...

Overwhelmed.  That is a huge understatement for the way I am feeling today.  The basic rule of thumb in Andrew and my married life is this-we pray, we wait, and God moves.  And when He moves, He rocks our world!  Yesterday I was enjoying a play date with some of David's preschool friends and their moms when I got a very unexpected call from Villa Hope.  They had received our Letter of Acceptance!  (This is an official document from the China Center of Adoption Affairs stating that we have officially been matched with Kailyn and we can sign to say officially that we still want to adopt her!)  We were expecting a wait of two months from the time we got our pre-approval on April 8-but I guess we'll take 3 weeks!  This moves our expected travel date up from Septemberish to sometime in July!!! (we are still at the mercy of when China says to come).  But I cannot put enough !!!! at the end of that statement and at this very moment I have butterflies.  And as if that weren't enough, God is also in the process of answering another HUGE prayer that involves family members.  I do not feel at liberty to say what that is yet, but it is a good thing-not necessarily easy-but good.  And God's provision for that came yesterday as well!!

It is funny (ok, not funny, but a God thing) that the timing of all this worked out the way it did.  Ideally, before we accepted a referral at the end of March, we had hoped to travel in July.   That just fixes the issues of taking the boys out of school and then dealing with extreme exhaustion, jet lag, and a newly adopted child in the middle of school.   There are no coincidences, only God.   Next it is the boys passports (expedited now,) visas for us all, planning, packing, planning, packing...get boys ready for school before travel, planning, packing...   I am reminded of a verse that God gave me a while back and it was in my post of March 1:

Isaiah 60:22  "I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it."

And He certainly has...

So anyway, I was taking my time getting our care package together for Kailyn-but not anymore!  I will be getting it out the door pronto!  But first I have to wait for our Agency to get her name in Chinese letters so that the package will for sure be delivered to her because it was supposed to be on the referral paperwork and wasn't.  

So here is the care package that we will send just as soon as we get the characters for her name:

The bear and blanket have been hanging out with my pj's and in our bed during the day so that they smell like mommy and daddy.  Then there is also a letter to the caregiver, the little heart voice message accessory that I altered so that she doesn't attach to it with the bear and keep herself up all night.   That is also for the caregiver's sanity!  There is also a couple of outfits, some pjs, socks, a bag to put all this stuff in when we get her, a ladybug rattle that David and Joseph picked out (and wouldn't you know- ladybugs are a symbol of good luck in China), a baby photo album with picks of our family, some Pink Chiffon Bath and Body works (and some Chinese tea to be added) for the foster family (which we have a good hunch is just one of the elderly ladies who also lives at the SWI).  I stole the big picture idea from another adoptive family's blog.  We will request for Kailyn's caregiver to hang this one over her crib until we come!

These are some of the pics we included in Kailyn's little photo album!

Of course, you know I must leave you with a song!  Enjoy!

My Hope is In You by Aaron Shust

Amy

A Bear for Kailyn:)

Just a short post today-last Tuesday a sweet friend who is also in our home group joined me for a first experience (hers and mine:) at Build a Bear!  If I were a little girl I would have been in heaven in that store!  And what a great place to keep in mind for a future birthday party!  Anyway, Andrew and I decided to go ahead and put together a care package here to send to Kailyn rather than order one from Red Threads (a shop in China that will put together care packages that you can choose) even though we will be using them to forward it onto the orphanage for us.  The little bear in the picture below has been hanging out  with my pjs so that it can "smell like me" when Kailyn gets it.  I also added the heart accessory which has a little gadget inside it that I was able to record a message from our family to Kailyn-in English and Chinese!  The main point of a care package is to help with transition for Kailyn.  So along with her getting a whiff of our smell, getting used to the sound of my voice, we will also be sending pictures of our family that she can look at until we get her.  With Kailyn being so young-going on only 14 months old now-both my social worker and I agreed that it would be best not to be in too big of a hurry to get this package to her so that too much time doesn't lapse between the package and when she meets us.  But I do intend to get it out the door in the next couple of weeks because it will likely take 3-4 weeks for it to actually get to her once I ship it.  Until then, I am trying to work on getting a good variety of pictures of our family and our house for the little photo album we are sending.   I'll post these photos as well as the whole care package when I get that done.   In the next week or so I'll be working on some immigration paperwork that has to be ready when we get the Letter of Acceptance-paperwork from China that we'll sign officially that WE WANT KAILYN!  

Amy

Pre Approval!!

Just a quick post today!  We got a call from our social worker this morning saying that we have been pre-approved for our referral.  That just means that China has officially matched us with Shangguan Ming Hui -Kailyn:)  We are so thrilled to be at this point!  So we can expect to travel for her within 5 or 6 months! Yeah!! Next step-care package and work on immigration paperwork until we get our letter of acceptance.  The LOA is an official documentation where we sign to accept her officially so that she will be ours!

Amy

Everything is not ok...

Dear readers,

I am writing this post for no other reason than the stirring that God has put in my heart.  God has used this adoption process to waken our hearts and minds to the millions of children growing up alone like nothing else could.  Now I know that there are multitudes of orphans throughout the world, but God has grown in my heart a burden and overwhelming compassion for the children in China.  I am soooo thankful to live in an area where there are so many adoptive families and have really gained a wealth of wisdom from many of these in our preparation for our own little girl.  I hope this trend continues, particularly from among those who follow Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  I don't want to make this post a book to read, as I have a tendency to do, but I just want to say that Andrew and I are praying earnestly for God to move mightily in the hearts of his believers, to open eyes and hearts to the reality of the orphan crisis in the world, and to give courage and equipping by His Holy Spirit, enabling and moving His people to display His character of Rescuer to these children, as we ourselves have been rescued.     One question that I had for a long time about Chinese orphans is what is there opportunity for education and what becomes of them without it?  Children do age out of orphan care as do our foster children here and then what?  I found a couple of charities that address this issue and I am overjoyed to find that they exist.

One last thought that I feel I must share that God has almost daily reminded me of-because of the experience I have with my own two children.  Special medical needs or physically healthy, for every time my children have needed the care of a mother, and for every time I have nurtured and given love to my children, these children have needed the same love, and it has not been there for them.

Charitable Organizations for education and hope
Global Giving

Echo in China

Love without Boundaries


"Kings and Queens" by Audio Adrenaline

Little hands, shoeless feet, lonely eyes looking back at me
Will we leave behind the innocent too brief
On their own, on the run when their lives have only begun
These could be our daughters and our sons
And just like a drum I can hear their hearts beating
I know my God won’t let them be defeated
Every child has a dream to belong and be loved

[Chorus:]
Boys become kings, girls will be queens
Wrapped in Your majesty
When we love, when we love the least of these
Then they will be brave and free
Shout your name in victory
When we love when we love the least of these
When we love the least of these

Break our hearts once again
Help us to remember when
We were only children hoping for a friend
Won’t you look around these are the lives that the world has forgotten
Waiting for doors of our hearts and our homes to open

[Chorus]

If not us who will be like Jesus
To the least of these
If not us tell me who will be like Jesus
Like Jesus to the least of these

Boys become kings, girls will be queens
Wrapped in your majesty
When we love, when we love the least of these
Then they will be brave and free shout your name in victory
We will love we will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these
We will love the least of these

Amy