Sharing another's story...

It's pretty awesome to follow the stories of all these adoptive families that I've encountered on our adventure. Tonight I read the blog of a new Facebook/adoption world friend. She and her family are currently in China and just welcomed their daughter into their family a day or two ago. 

Here is her story. It's def worth the read!

http://blog.scarletthreads.org/2014/03/fantastic-friday-hats-hearts-healing.html?m=0

With love and hope,

Jenn

Daddy's thoughts

Dear Emily and Olivia,

I have been thinking about what to write to you for quite a while, mostly trying to get my feelings together.  Years from now, I hope you read this and get an idea of what was going through your daddy's head while he was waiting to take a trip across the world.  Mommy and I are looking forward to seeing as many of the exciting sights as we can while we're there (like the Great Wall) and speaking in my broken Mandarin to the people there.  Even though those things will be fun and interesting, we are really going for one reason:  to bring you home.

I have been telling everyone who will listen about you two - showing the pictures and videos we have of you.  They all tell me how cute you are and say other well-meaning things like, "What an undertaking.  Those babies are lucky."  I have heard that a lot from very nice people who wish us the best.  One thing I haven't heard much is how blessed I am . . . blessed that God has entrusted your care to me.  I believe that He places each one of us with a family.  Most of us are placed with the parents we are born to, and some babies He places with another family.  We all belong to Him though, and He is behind it all.  I feel unworthy of that trust, but I am going to give it all I have!

I cannot imagine what your little lives have been like so far, though now I am sure you are being cared for by good people who are doing their best.  I wonder how you are doing every day.  Do you have anyone to play with or if you have ever heard, "I love you."  Anyway, you will be hearing that A LOT very soon!

People say that adopted children are "chosen" by their parents.  I feel like it is different for Mommy and me.  When we saw each one of you, we talked and prayed about you and we knew their was no choice on our part.  You two are OURS and you always have been.  Now it is just a matter of bringing you home.  I imagine you both will be scared at first with two people you don't know taking you far away from the only home you have known, but that will be the last time your world will be turned upside down.

We have waited a LONG time for you, you know.  You were both Taylor-made for us!

I love you both so much,

Daddy

Milestones.

Dear Emily and Olivia,

Today we hit a "milestone" in adoption-land.  Today, all the paperwork that we've been putting together since the beginning of October was sent to China.  WOW.  One day i'll explain the detail of what all that means. In the land of adoption... we are officially DTC!! And for ME... this is HUGE!

I know you'll find this hard to believe because i'm certain God is going to grant me the "organization" gene before you get here, but Mommy has a long history of NOT being very organized (sorry to disappoint you).  I always have the best intentions but getting organized is was a battle for me. This paperwork stuff was something I HAD to do right.  You both were waiting for us, we were waiting for you... we had to hurry!

This is our final LONGGGG wait.  I don't know if it will be 60 or 120 days until we get our Letter of Approval (This is a letter from China saying we're pretty ok people and we can come get our daughters)  Of course we HOPE it'll be less than 60 but will be grateful for every day closer we can get!

At this point, in the big city of Snyder, you guys are celebrities.  Even on Facebook!  Your pictures have been shown all over town.  People are following our blog to see how close we are to you and are SO excited to meet you! It makes my heart melt when people ask about you and I can see the excitement in their eyes.  They have fallen in love with your sweet faces just like we have!

We spend lots of time contemplating what you will be like.  Grandma thinks Emily will be our girly girl and Olivia will be our tomboy.  I said today that we might be surprised! Daddy just wants one of you at least to want to go shooting! (Don't tell him but we'll go anyway and pretend to love it! Mommy is an expert at that!) :-)  I have to say, that amidst the excitement, is some fear.  We sure hope we can be the Mommy and Daddy that you deserve.  We will give it all we have! We promise!

Babies... we can NOT wait to get to know you.  To hug you, kiss you, love you!  Until then, we are praying for you and for your transition into team Taylor! We are SO excited!  We love you girls.... more than you could ever know! We can NOT wait to show you!

With all the love in our hearts,
Mommy & Daddy

Whew.

Well today was.... a day.

I started off the day waiting... waiting for UPS to deliver our final two documents from the Chinese Consulate.  Once I got them it was first to the copy machine to make copies of the "seals" and then on to the UPS place here in Snyder. On a side note, there was a 20yo guy in front of me in line... mailing a letter.. regular USPS.. the lady there agreed to do it even though she wasn't the Post Office, BUT, this kid had NEVER.. in his life mailed a letter.  He had no idea how to address it, put a stamp on it.. etc.  CRAZY!  How the world changes.....

Anyway, I hand over my final to documents and as I got in the car to leave, I checked my email.  There was an email from my agency.  They were letting me know that they had reviewed the portion of my Dossier that they had and it was READY to go to China.... except one thing (minus the 2 documents that will be there by 10am).. Well apparently I needed a Dr's letter about the medication I take and it wasn't there.  This is where panic starts setting in.  See, If i get these documents to the agency tomorrow.  I can be about 99% sure that my Dossier will head to China next Friday.  If I wait... until next week.. It'll most likely be another week or two.  Sigh.  

Now I understand when we're talking vacations and other misc. time frame items, a couple weeks isn't much difference, in the scheme of things.  Let me explain what goes through my head with EVERY delay I run into.  I have TWO.. BEAUTIFUL... SWEET...little angels sitting in separate orphanages thousands of miles away.  Two weeks, one week, one day... it's all time I am losing, all time, they don't know that they're loved.  All time that they don't know they have a Mommy and a Daddy that adore them! So... when I hear about another possible delay... I panic.

I went straight to the Dr.'s office and he was busy of course, spoke to the nurse that was there and begged and pleaded my case and she assured me someone would call in a bit.  The next nurse called with bad news.  Couldn't possibly be done until Monday.  *sigh* This is where my heart sinks and I start having a pity part about all the bad "luck" I've had lately (well my family has had lately).  I do the only thing i know to do, call the wife of my Dr. (sorry Luann), she didn't answer but I left a msg.  I'm welling up with tears and feeling defeated when my mom encourages me to just go back up there and explain.  So I go up and knock on the door and was pleasantly surprised by my Dr. and his nurses assuring me that they are on it! I waited about 15 min, had it in my hands, hugged the nurse, jumped for joy and went straight to the UPS office.  Thank you Dr. Burleson! You saved me from a REALLY bad day, more importantly, you saved our girls from another week away from their parents!

When I went into the UPS office I could see my envelope still in the pile for them to pick up.  They let me add this paper to it without additional charge.  Whew.  That saved us $50.  The envelope is on its way to our agency as I type.  Tomorrow, hopefully, it'll arrive by 10am and they will begin examining our final documents.  This is the end of our paper trail.  Sure, there will be a little bit here and there but this is the big one.  Our ENTIRE Dossier is done.  And I, the most disorganized person on planet earth, did it.  Amazing.  I'm crossing my fingers there's not another bit I've missed.  I'm praying I've paid attention to every little detail.  I've checked my lists twice a zillion times.  That doesn't mean I didn't miss something.  It's scary scary! Our girls are depending on me. 

So now what? We wait.  By next Friday our Dossier will be translated, bound, and express mailed to China.  Then we will enter the longest and final "wait" for LOA.  Could be quick, could be slowwww.  No telling.  After LOA, 10 weeks (approx) until we know when to go.  We are praying for a QUICK LOA.. Emily turns two August 14th.  We would REALLY like to see that birthday.  

We shall see... fingers crossed.. toes crossed... 

Rob & Jenn

A different reason...

As we watch the blogs, comments, posts, etc in the world of adoption... I see many quotes, verses, tshirts describing peoples reasons for adopting. There's lots of talk about "rescuing the orphan" or "saving one"... and seriously... NO disrespect to those that feel that way, but....

For us it's different. If anyone is being 'rescued', its US. :-) WE are the lucky ones. We are being blessed with two beautiful lives. We aren't doing the "noble" thing by adopting 2 special needs children from a far off country... we are doing what we have to, to get OUR kiddos home.

A wise woman once told me. "your kids are your kids... whether through birth or adoption... you just have to find them" She was right. After trial and error and perfect timing... we have figured out where "our" kids are... and man, we can't get there fast enough! 

I'm SO incredibly honored that God gave us this route. That we are walking this path. That we have the privilege of welcoming two sweeties into our lives. Our life is about to change in a way only possible by God's hand. I'm seriously a basket case these days. Every quote, story, blog, picture, thought... it all brings me to tears daily. Good tears! Happy tears!

We are so excited... so excited you should be reading about that excitement for the next 4-5 months. Sorry if it gets repetitive. Thanks for following our adventure. Thanks for praying us through it. it's SO. INCREDIBLY. AWESOME.

THIS week, we hope to get an update on Emily Katherine AND get the final pieces of our Dossier to our agency so we can begin the big/final wait for LOA (letter of approval)

 With Love & Wonder,
Jenn & Rob

Misc. Thoughts

I came across this picture in a website.  This artist makes jewelry, specifically jewelry for adoptive families.  Notice the verse? :-) God is cool like that.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just read the last blog post.   

When we started this adventure, I had no idea.  I had no idea the amount of work it would take.  I had no idea the amount of stress it would create (time lines, mistakes, etc.) I had no idea that life... regular old life would go buck-wild-crazy in the middle of it.  Would it have changed anything? NO WAY!  I figure all the craziness is just God's way of distracting me from the wait.  Between my step-dad's health, fighting cancer for the last year and now being in the hospital one month, My mom's broken knee/ surgery/ slow recovery and having to drive her back and forth to Lubbock, trying to sell our rent house, having it under contract, and that contract falling through, our house in disarray trying to get all the little things fixed and ready for two toddlers to come barreling in! :-) Lets not forget WORK...When you work at a domestic violence shelter, there's always something stressful going on. It's enough to make the most laid back person snap.  

Honestly.... when the craziness of life builds and I'm being pulled in 10 different directions, I can close my eyes, see the precious faces of these beautiful little girls that God had placed in my life and....there is PEACE.  I'm so hyper sensitive to God's presence lately.  He's here.  There's no denying it.  We are SO incredibly blessed.  Beyond anything I've ever known. 

Today I put our final two documents in the mail to the courier that will walk them in to the Chinese Consulate in Houston.  It's really stressful to let these precious documents out of your hands.  To trust them to the postal service, UPS, FEDEX, which ever the case.  I'd been waiting for 2 weeks for our final 2 documents to get back from the Texas Secretary of State.  In the previous 11 documents, they took no more than 3 days (i think i sent 2 batches).  When they arrived yesterday, I double checked them only to discover that only ONE of the TWO had been "Certified".  I was just about to lose it when they admitted fault and agreed to overnight me the necessary paperwork. I used UPS for this batch b/c the USPS doesn't offer overnight to Houston from Snyder, but UPS does.  While I'm arranging the shipment the worker at the UPS store is trying to discourage me from overnighting the documents b/c of the "cost" (if she only knew...) After explaining that every day longer it takes to get there is one day longer my children sit in an orphanage... she let me proceed with the "expensive" shipping charges.  They are on their way.  Praying all goes smoothly and next week we can get those same documents to our agency and complete our Dossier.  

When you're planning out your timeline in your mind, you really don't allow for mistakes.  When one happens it really throws you for a loop.  You start recalculating how it might affect your timeline, how much longer it might be until you hold your children. So much rides on EVERY. LITTLE.  STEP.  Yet, we really have to trust in God's timing.  That's the challenge of the decade for me! :-)

So... while we wait... we just keep trying to get things in order while helping care for our family.  Once our Dossier is complete, we have our final "wait" It could be 120 days it could be 30 days.. but will most likely fall in the 90 day range.  I really have no idea.  After that wait... we're looking at about 10 weeks until Travel approval.  After TA, 2 weeks or so until travel.  EEEEKKK! Amazing!

I'm pretty much on the brink of tears every single day.  We fall more in love with each moment and are so honored to get to have these two little lives come into ours. 

We covet your prayers through this crazy, wonderful, stressful time.

With Love and Peace,

Jenn & Rob

Amazing.

 

Dear Sweet Emily & Olivia 

Tonight we completed our first adoption fundraiser. We sold these cool tshirts that mommy designed with the help of an easy website. Don't worry, we got you both one. Basically, we had to sell 50 shirts for it to work. We sold 97. 

I hope you know, the people who bought one (or contributed to the cause) are not people that just needed a new tshirt... These were people that are excited about YOU!  These are people that are praying for you and love you. 

There's all kinds of people on the list. Some people we call family. Some people we call friend. Some people I've known most of my life and others I've only met online through the adoption process! There are even a few I've never met and don't know anything about. It's amazing girls, all these people came together to help make us a family. Amazing. 

There's many more out there too... Not everyone is helping through this avenue. Some are standing in prayer. Some are encouraging us. Some are gifting us in many other ways. 

The bottom line. EVERYONE is excited to meet you. Daddy and I are most excited of course! We search the internet daily for the tiniest bit of information about you. We search through pictures of other families that have been to your orphanage recently hoping to get a glimpse of you. Hoping for one more bit to love. 

We are confident that God is at work, sweet girls. He is doing something amazing. When mommy worked at the church in Florida, I had a verse i loved. It was one that I don't think meant as much to anyone else,and is maybe a little out of context,  but one that has stayed on my heart since. In the journey to you it takes on more meaning each day. It's Habakkuk 1:5 "Look and be amazed! Watch and be astonished! For I am doing something in your day... Something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you!" (paraphrased by my memory)

I am truly, truly amazed. We are seeing God's work in a way we never thought possible! 

We are counting the days! It won't be long! 

We love you sweet babies!

Mommy & Daddy