We have one more day to pack and we're doing well (we think). Tonight's sleep will likely be interrupted by things we've forgotten to consider but that's the way it goes. And tomorrow's. But no matter what, we are headed to China to meet our son.
Please keep us in your prayers as we face the inevitable jetlag that goes along with traveling such a long distance ... and the frustrations that go along with traveling such a long time. We will be in Hong Kong for a couple of days to let our bodies adjust to being on the other side of the planet ... and then on to Jacob's province. We meet him on Monday, December 9 ...
we are trying to figure out how to post from the iPhone and aren't yet sure what we will be able to do. We are already facing some obstacles so there are no promises. If we can't post here we will post on FaceBook and then get back to this as soon as we are home.
Many thanks for your support so far as we have had some big challenges to overcome to get to this point. We believe God is in this and is leading us with certainty into this adoption. We look forward to sharing the details as they unfold.
Blessings, and joy, Joan
Monday, December 2, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
TRAVEL PLANS UNDERWAY!!
We finally got our Travel Invitation from China and that sets in motion all kinds of things -- the biggest of which is the securing of airline tickets to our various destinations (and back, of course!). It was "touch and go" for a day because we are not using a credit card and, as we all know, that is about the only way the world works ... so, without one, no one seemed to know what to do! Anyway, since we were using grant money (from The Gift of Adoption, Show Hope, Hand in Hand, and His Kids Too!) it was more difficult and required our agency to step in to help. But they did (thank you Bethany!). It took a day but we got it done and the tickets are now ours ... both going to Nanning (for 3 of us) and coming back to the States from Nanning (for 4 of us). As you can imagine ... it was PRICEY (or, as my Minnesota friends might say, it was "spendy"!!!). Thank the good Lord who opened up the storehouses of heaven to provide for us! And, to many of you, thank you for opening up your storehouses to help us along the way.
So ... we are headed to China on December 4th (actually we will be in Hong Kong for a couple of days to let our bodies get used to the day being night and the night being day!) and then back to the States with Jacob on December 19th. Merry, blessed, Christmas in more ways than one!
Now, what seemed like an eternity is now less than a month away! And the little girl you see sitting on Santa's lap in the upperleft photo will have a brother. We have been calling him Jacob but know that he has been going by Xin (pronounced "Shin") his whole life (almost 12 years) ... so we don't know what he will want us to do but we will follow his lead on this. If he is happiest with Xin, then we will call him Xin. All of our documentation includes this as his middle name ... we did the same with Katie in case somewhere down the line she wanted to be known by a Chinese name rather than an American one. [For her it is "YuNing"] We have thought about all kinds of variations that might be acceptable nicknames to what we have selected ... "Jake" or "J.T." or, of course, "Xin". All that remains to be seen.
We have had some difficulty in the States using Google Blogger (sign in has been VERY frustrating and I don't find it terribly user-friendly) but we will try to get access as we travel to update this site on the latest news. We will also post updates and photos to Facebook (works like magic on our phones!) so if you are not already a "friend" of Ken or myself you might want to look us up and let us add you.
Anyway, we will do our best to keep you updated as we move along. We are so grateful for support in this adventure and we covet your continued prayers as we follow God's leading on the path of life.
Stay tuned .... there is much MUCH more to come ...
So ... we are headed to China on December 4th (actually we will be in Hong Kong for a couple of days to let our bodies get used to the day being night and the night being day!) and then back to the States with Jacob on December 19th. Merry, blessed, Christmas in more ways than one!
Now, what seemed like an eternity is now less than a month away! And the little girl you see sitting on Santa's lap in the upperleft photo will have a brother. We have been calling him Jacob but know that he has been going by Xin (pronounced "Shin") his whole life (almost 12 years) ... so we don't know what he will want us to do but we will follow his lead on this. If he is happiest with Xin, then we will call him Xin. All of our documentation includes this as his middle name ... we did the same with Katie in case somewhere down the line she wanted to be known by a Chinese name rather than an American one. [For her it is "YuNing"] We have thought about all kinds of variations that might be acceptable nicknames to what we have selected ... "Jake" or "J.T." or, of course, "Xin". All that remains to be seen.
We have had some difficulty in the States using Google Blogger (sign in has been VERY frustrating and I don't find it terribly user-friendly) but we will try to get access as we travel to update this site on the latest news. We will also post updates and photos to Facebook (works like magic on our phones!) so if you are not already a "friend" of Ken or myself you might want to look us up and let us add you.
Anyway, we will do our best to keep you updated as we move along. We are so grateful for support in this adventure and we covet your continued prayers as we follow God's leading on the path of life.
Stay tuned .... there is much MUCH more to come ...
Friday, September 6, 2013
GRANT APPROVED!
We received notification today that we have been approved for a grant from the Gift of Adoption (http://www.giftofadoption.org). Added to the two other grants we have received (Show Hope and Hand in Hand fundraising efforts) we have EVERYTHING WE NEED to travel and pay the costs of adoption in China!
WHO wants to join us in saying "Hallelujah"?!?!?!?!
We knew that we could not do this on our own and are relying 100% on the goodness of the Lord to provide for this particular call on our lives. We did not know HOW God was going to be faithful in this endeavor but we knew He would be!
Today we also got word that a document that had been lost by the Immigration Office had been found. So we start off again with the final pages of paperwork submitted here and there, waiting for the final "Invitation to Travel" to be extended to us. That is when we know when we will travel ... until then we wait and hope for a late November or early December travel date.
HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!
WHO wants to join us in saying "Hallelujah"?!?!?!?!
We knew that we could not do this on our own and are relying 100% on the goodness of the Lord to provide for this particular call on our lives. We did not know HOW God was going to be faithful in this endeavor but we knew He would be!
Today we also got word that a document that had been lost by the Immigration Office had been found. So we start off again with the final pages of paperwork submitted here and there, waiting for the final "Invitation to Travel" to be extended to us. That is when we know when we will travel ... until then we wait and hope for a late November or early December travel date.
HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!
Friday, August 16, 2013
YEAH! IT'S OFFICIAL!!!
We received word today that we have been officially approved to adopt our son in China! We were beginning to wonder what was holding it up and if something might happen to deter us fulfilling the burden placed upon our hearts over a year ago ... but, now, there isn't much that could stop this from going through.
So now we can post a picture ... if we can manage to do so. Today it took us a LONG time to even sign in to let you know the news. This "blogging" can be tricky for those of us who don't do it daily.
I may have to get help to do it but meet Guo Xin from the Guangxi Province of China. He is 11 now and will turn 12 in February and he speaks very little English. We have named him Jacob Timothy Xin (in case he wants to hang onto his Chinese name) and we will call him whatever he wants us to call him. He may like Jacob, he may like Jake, he may like JT, he may like Xin (pronounced "Shin"). We hope that all three of us will travel to meet him in late November or early December ... the same time period in which we travelled to that very same province to adopt Katie. It would be great to celebrate Thanksgiving in China again as we did in 2007.
We'll post more details as we know them. Meanwhile we are fund-raising to cover the high cost of both adoption and travel for the three of us. We are waiting to hear from a couple of foundations and have already received $10,000 toward the adoption. We are thrilled about how God is handling the provision of yet another adoption.
"He who has promised is faithful" Hebrews 10: 23
Blessings, Joan
So now we can post a picture ... if we can manage to do so. Today it took us a LONG time to even sign in to let you know the news. This "blogging" can be tricky for those of us who don't do it daily.
I may have to get help to do it but meet Guo Xin from the Guangxi Province of China. He is 11 now and will turn 12 in February and he speaks very little English. We have named him Jacob Timothy Xin (in case he wants to hang onto his Chinese name) and we will call him whatever he wants us to call him. He may like Jacob, he may like Jake, he may like JT, he may like Xin (pronounced "Shin"). We hope that all three of us will travel to meet him in late November or early December ... the same time period in which we travelled to that very same province to adopt Katie. It would be great to celebrate Thanksgiving in China again as we did in 2007.
We'll post more details as we know them. Meanwhile we are fund-raising to cover the high cost of both adoption and travel for the three of us. We are waiting to hear from a couple of foundations and have already received $10,000 toward the adoption. We are thrilled about how God is handling the provision of yet another adoption.
"He who has promised is faithful" Hebrews 10: 23
Blessings, Joan
Monday, July 29, 2013
Still waiting for LOA
Things have been busy but we did manage to get our dossier submitted to China late in May, close to the deadline they had set. We missed it by a couple of days and so were a little worried but told by our agency that we shouldn't be. And so we set about waiting the four to five weeks that most people wait to get their official confirmation of approval for a particular child ... the LOA (Letter of Approval, I guess). Anyway, the weeks went by and then more weeks and we are now over NINE weeks from having submitted the dossier! SO I contacted our agency and asked what the problem might be ... here is their answer:
"As you may have seen in our program updates, there is a new online system implemented by the CCCWA on June 1. This system has had a lot of bugs, and the CCCWA has spent a lot of time trying to get used to the new system, answering agencies' questions, and trying to fix the glitches. Unfortunately, this means that they haven't been able to focus as much on adoption processing, so lots of agencies and families are experiencing delays."
So ... there ... that's our update. We are still waiting. We have been told we can't post pictures until we get this valuable LOA so hopefully it won't be long before we can do that.
Meanwhile we are working hard and trying to save every penny we can. We received a $5000 grant from Show Hope and have been approved for a matching grant up to $5000 (we have to raise $2500 for that to happen and so we may be sending out letters soon!). After that we will still have about $8000 - $10,000 to raise -- and we are waiting to hear on some applications for grants that we have submitted already.
Thanks for following along ... we look forward to sharing some great news and pictures with you soon!
Blessings! Joan
"As you may have seen in our program updates, there is a new online system implemented by the CCCWA on June 1. This system has had a lot of bugs, and the CCCWA has spent a lot of time trying to get used to the new system, answering agencies' questions, and trying to fix the glitches. Unfortunately, this means that they haven't been able to focus as much on adoption processing, so lots of agencies and families are experiencing delays."
So ... there ... that's our update. We are still waiting. We have been told we can't post pictures until we get this valuable LOA so hopefully it won't be long before we can do that.
Meanwhile we are working hard and trying to save every penny we can. We received a $5000 grant from Show Hope and have been approved for a matching grant up to $5000 (we have to raise $2500 for that to happen and so we may be sending out letters soon!). After that we will still have about $8000 - $10,000 to raise -- and we are waiting to hear on some applications for grants that we have submitted already.
Thanks for following along ... we look forward to sharing some great news and pictures with you soon!
Blessings! Joan
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Dossier Nearing Completion
"Kate is getting a big brother!!!" That post is directly from Kate who is VERY excited about this whole adventure. I'm sure the reality of meeting and getting to know Jacob will have its own challenges but at least at this point, theoretically, she is thrilled with the idea.
We are getting closer and closer to completing our dossier. We are also still waiting for the completion of our home study! We have gone about this whole thing backwards but that is what we needed to do in order to "guarantee" that we would be approved for adoption, since we are older than the age limits set forward. We were given "preliminary" approval which, in effect, put our papers together with Jacob's paperwork and set us on course to becoming family.
Typically a family wanting to adopt does the home study, then complete the dossier which is sent in and a match made. Info on the child is sent back to the family and they can decide to accept the referral or seek another. For us, it is almost the opposite ... we got matched with a child and then began the home study. And now that the home study is close to completion, we begin the collection of paperwork for the dossier.
We have been told that we should try to have all the paperwork submitted by the end of April so that it can be cleared and submitted by May 22nd. We want to try to do it before then but we do have to wait for documents to be "validated" for the various states--proving that the notaries we chose had valid notary licenses. And so we have sent off paperwork to Missouri (for Joan's birth and our marriage certificates) hoping to get it back as speedily as possible. Other documents can be authenticated here in CA so it shouldn't take as long (ha, ha!). One of the other requirements is an immigration document and so no one know how log that might take. THen they all have to be "authenticated" by the international embassy involved (still can't mention the name of the country because it seems presumptive to them before getting the official word from them).
And so we work and wait ... hopeful that we will have sufficient time and energy to take care of everything efficiently. It looks like we probably won't travel until July or AUgust ... ugh. But whenever it is, we will be grateful.
Thanks for your support!
We are getting closer and closer to completing our dossier. We are also still waiting for the completion of our home study! We have gone about this whole thing backwards but that is what we needed to do in order to "guarantee" that we would be approved for adoption, since we are older than the age limits set forward. We were given "preliminary" approval which, in effect, put our papers together with Jacob's paperwork and set us on course to becoming family.
Typically a family wanting to adopt does the home study, then complete the dossier which is sent in and a match made. Info on the child is sent back to the family and they can decide to accept the referral or seek another. For us, it is almost the opposite ... we got matched with a child and then began the home study. And now that the home study is close to completion, we begin the collection of paperwork for the dossier.
We have been told that we should try to have all the paperwork submitted by the end of April so that it can be cleared and submitted by May 22nd. We want to try to do it before then but we do have to wait for documents to be "validated" for the various states--proving that the notaries we chose had valid notary licenses. And so we have sent off paperwork to Missouri (for Joan's birth and our marriage certificates) hoping to get it back as speedily as possible. Other documents can be authenticated here in CA so it shouldn't take as long (ha, ha!). One of the other requirements is an immigration document and so no one know how log that might take. THen they all have to be "authenticated" by the international embassy involved (still can't mention the name of the country because it seems presumptive to them before getting the official word from them).
And so we work and wait ... hopeful that we will have sufficient time and energy to take care of everything efficiently. It looks like we probably won't travel until July or AUgust ... ugh. But whenever it is, we will be grateful.
Thanks for your support!
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