Finally GOOD NEWS!!!

 This little girl is READY to go get her brother!!!

I'm so excited to update that in the last week, we received our USCIS approval, NVC approval & the PDF we needed!  Then last Friday our agency dropped off our Art 5 with an expedite request and to my utter shock and amazement, the consulate issued Art 5 last night while I was sleeping!  Wahoo!!!

Friends, we will SOON be going to China!!  So now there's one thing we are waiting for and that's our TA!  It is our official approval from China's adoption affairs to go get our son!  We are hoping that we receive a medical expedite on that as well, but if we don't, the general timeframe is 2 weeks.  However, with the new CCCWA system backup, many have waited almost twice that long. 

We pray to receive our TA as soon as possible, knowing that God's got this.  We surrender to his timeline. :)

Oh there is so much to do, I can't even begin to get into it!!  Pray for us!!  We're hoping to get a consulate appointment that allows us to travel mid-July for Ben but we need that TA before the consulate closure on July 10th!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Fannie, Matt, & Katie

NO news! Well, good news anyway...

Yep, that's the story I'm about to tell. 

I've been keeping myself busy. 

I put together a picture letter for Ben to help him understand what will happen as he becomes part of our family in China.  It will get sent off in his care package.

I've been shopping.  Buying clothes, toys, bedspreads, etc. to prepare for his arrival.  Kate's room is now Kate & Ben's room.  Half the closet is his as well!

I've been learning all I can about thalassemia, treatments, etc.

I've completed all the training required by the military for us to travel to China.

I purchased Rosetta Stone and am *trying* to learn some mandarin ahead of our trip to China.

I started a summer photography class.

I've been making plans for a final "family of 3" trip to Florida.

I've prepared for our PCS move.  Reserved movers, scheduled car shipment, planned a road trip and nailed down some time spent in Oklahoma before all the craziness that is a Coast Guard transfer season begins.

In spite of all the things I'm doing to keep busy, I have one thing on my mind. Chengbin.  His I-800 STILL isn't approved.  Extremely frustrating since I have watched so many who got their LOA the same day as us rocket past us!  On top of that, I've seen people with no medical expedite receive their I-800 approval over a week faster than us.

At the same time, CCCWA's new website is having difficulty and we've been told they are about 3 weeks behind processing Travel Approvals.

Also, the US Consulate announced that they will close for two weeks in July to move to a new facility.  This means that we need to receive our travel approval AND get our consulate appointment booked by July 10th our time or we will be delayed in getting to China.  We won't be able to make our appointment from July 11th to July 23rd.  So this basically would put us traveling in August...

So NO good news, but plenty of complications.  I know that God will take care of our boy.  I know that he still has the power to help us beat this deadline.  So, I will continue to keep busy and be ready for each step as it comes in this phase of the adoption.

Hoping my next post means that things are FINALLY moving again!!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Fannie

LOA!!!!

I wondered about it all weekend!!  I kept thinking SURELY I'll get it on Tuesday!!  So Tuesday came and I checked my phone about 20 times throughout the day and NOTHING...  Right as I had given up hope, my agency called my work phone with the good news.  They received our Letter Seeking Confirmation from China!! :)  32 days from LID w/medical expedite!  Awesome!!!

Our I-800 was already sent to the USCIS lockbox & yesterday I received notice that it has been sent to the NBC (National benefits center) for approval by our caseworker. Hopefully with our medical expedite we will see approval sometime next week.  It would be AMAZING if it could get through NBC & NVC (National visa center) and cabled to the US Consulate all next week!!  It seems nearly impossible, but I serve a God that can make impossible POSSIBLE!! :)

Once it gets to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China they will review everything, which usually take 10 full business days (another process we hope can be shortened with our medical expedite request).  If they expedite it, it could just take two or three days... Whenever they review our file they will then issue Article 5 which gets picked up by our agency and delivered to CCCWA (china children's welfare).

Then the last paperwork step, CCCWA will process our invitation to travel!  This usually takes 2-3 weeks to have in hand, but when we get it, we can then make plans to go get our boy!  WAHOO!!!

SO how much longer are we waiting?  As you can see, it will vary a bit.  Our hope is that we can receive our travel approval from China by early July and travel in late July to bring our boy HOME!!

Not only are we praying this moves fast for Ben's medical needs, we are also praying it moves fast because of our move to Alabama.  We are supposed to report into our unit in August and we really need to travel before that!!  If we have to move and haven't travelled yet we have to repeat some of these steps after getting a whole new homestudy.  This could delay us up to 4 months in going to get him!!!

Please say a quick prayer, that we will receive our approval quickly to go get Ben!! 

I think I'll send him a care package and note now!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Fannie, Matt, & Katie

Saying "no" and finding ways to say "yes"

Last week something unexpected happened. Something heart-breaking to me....

Many of us have looked at files of waiting children while looking for our child. We asked for two thalassemia files from our agency back in Dec. One was for a little boy, age 3 and the other was nearly 5 yr old Ben.

Their files were basically the same. Both had beta thal major. Both were abandoned by their birth parents when they were older than 1. How do you know which one to pick? As I looked at Ben's file and saw a video where he was silent and wouldn't interact, I knew that he needed a family as soon as possible. I also knew that he was older and more likely to not find a family. So we prayed and we chose him.

Choosing him meant saying 'no' to the other child. A beautiful little boy who was equally deserving of the love of a family.

And out of the estimated 712,000 Chinese Orphans in orphanages, I found his face in the photos from a friend's visit to her daughter's orphanage last week in Guangdong province.



I don't know if he has found his forever family yet or not.  I do know that a quote I know well resonates in a whole new way with me today.

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names.  They are easier to ignore before you see their faces... but when you do, everything changes."

I pray for this precious boy, and for so many just like him throughout China and throughout the world... And I renew my commitment to helping in any way that I can.  Right now, I can only pray for him, but I can show you faces of others who need our help right now.  Little ones that we CAN help right now.

My family sponsors three orphans from two different organizations.  Our Pearl River Outreach kids truly touch my heart and we are working hard to grow Pearl River Outreach and move more orphans out of orphanages and into foster homes where they can receive love and affection, individualized care, and understand the meaning of family.  No longer do they stand behind bars waiting to play outside.  No longer do they have to wait for love.  They have foster families who care for them until they can be with their forever families.

Pearl River Outreach has taken a leap of faith and decided to fund more than 10 more children in two more Chinese provinces, but in order to be successful, to keep our commitment and provide for these wonderful kids- We need sponsors!!


We need one more sponsor for this precious girl, Madeline.


We need four sponsors for this little boy, Jack.

There are so many children that we still need sponsor families for.  It's only $35 a month to change a precious child's life!  I hope you will join our Pearl River family by sponsoring a child.  The link to Pearl River is on my list of followed blogs.  You will find more children in need of sponsorship, information, and pictures from Diana's trip to China last month to see our kids, their foster families, and to begin new partnerships.

We sponsor the little boy below, Aiden.  Due to hearing issues, he now has an implant, but needs special education to help him catch up and reach his potential, so during a recent trip to China, our team enrolled him in a special school.  His tuition is $70 a month.  Can you help with some of his tuition?

 
I hope you will consider joining our family in changing lives!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Fannie, Matt, & Katie