Whats been happening...

I know its high time for another update!

My! Did the month of May ever fly by fast! We are all LOVING this beautiful early summer season.   We love our country land so much and are enjoying being outside a lot! I love gardening and am hoping for a good yield dispite our poor clay soil (that I'm trying to doctor up!)

Karilee has her own garden plot. I just love watching my children enjoy nature. Love seeing them get dirty, play hard all day,  then scrub them clean at bedtime and tuck them in at night. We are so enjoying this stage of life with our children. SO relieved to have school over for awhile!

Anyway, I'm getting distracted! I really came on here to give an update on the adoption! We continue to do a lot of waiting :) In the month of May our social worker completed the draft of our home study. But at that same time our family coordinator from the adoption agency got married and took off 3 weeks for her marriage & honey moon. Dose'nt she know that all adoption and social workers are never allowed to go on vacation!!? Totally joking of course! We are so happy for her, but were thrilled once she got back and was able to approve our home study. Well, at least WE were hoping she would read it and give us the big APROOVED  stamp, but instead we got a long list of additional edits that needed to be made. When I read that email I seriously felt like crying! This paperwork can be so intimidating. Wonder if anyone else feels that way. I feel like I have to proove that I will be a PERFECT parent, that I have thought through every possible scenario...This journey is very new to us, and we have no prior experiance in parenting an adopted child, but we have FAITH!
Faith that the one who called us will show us the way & give us wisdom for each decision and difficulty we may face as we integrate our China boy into our family! But China dosent want just faith, they want FACTS! So I spent most of a day on the phone with a fussy teething baby bouncing on my hip. Researching Early intervention and preschool therapies that are offered through our state, and also through our local school system.

I  needed to find out what our community has to offer in tutors for English as a second language.

I had to explain how we plan to incorporate our child's Chinese heritage into our home. How will we help him understand his culture? And who have we spoken to that have adopted older children.

That was some of the additional info I had to gather.  We have had to answer so many questions about how will we do x y and z, that it would'nt surprise me if we soon had to make a list of every item of clothing we intend to have him wear, and if its knit or cotton!  On that day, I felt like I NEVER ever want to go through all the stress of  paper work ever again, but I imagine you forget the paper work woes kind of like memories of labor pains can fade.

When I feel overwelmed, it always helps me to step away  for a bit and refocus. Drink a cup of coffee...... feel God speaking to my heart....."I will finish the work I have begun.....Do not be weary in well doing..."   AH, deep breath! God is always faithful! Soon I feel the grace to make the next phone call etc. and whats most precious of all, is that love deep in my heart for this child I'm working hard to bring home.. It's that love that reminds me to keep plodding when I'm weary.  Every step brings us closer.......

And we are moving right along..... We mailed our first set of documents to the Chinese Consulate in New York City this week. We have 18 of 20 documents Done and ready for this FINAL stamp!! First they needed notorized, then county certified, then certified by the secretary of state and then last of all authenticated by the Chinese consulate.

The consulate only accept's documents by either hand delivery or courier so we send the packet to a courier in NY City so he can walk them into the  Consulate and hand deliver them for us. It cost's $30 per document. (That includes both the Consulate & the courier fees).

The last 2 documents we are waiting on are the final home study and the I800 (immigrations). We have the paperwork for the I800 all ready to send out as soon as we have a home study packet to send along with it.

I'll update as soon as we can take the next step :)

Enjoy the beautiful sunshine!!  And remind yourself that you are deeply loved by your Father!