GOING TO CHINA!!!!!!!

We are going to CHINA!!!! We got our travel approval on Tuesday March 27th!!!! This week has been amazing to say the least... After getting our TA we had to put in for a consulate appointment! This appointment is the finalization of our adoption on China soil - it is the LAST step before we come home.  I asked Kelsey if she would put in for the week of April 17th because we REALLY wanted to travel to China around April 6th! Trade fair is quickly approaching and everything will cost more, so she agreed to try for that week!!! We were celebrating our amazing news that evening, when my phone rang again, it was Kelsey!!! She told me that she could not believe it but that our CA was already approved and they approved April 18th! We were elated and began dancing in the living room one more time!!! That meant that we could officially leave April 6th and meet Jackzhen for the first time April 9th! I still can't wrap my head around the fact that this is it, this is it!!!  We are finally leaving!!! It has been 9 months of a paperwork roller coaster.  It put the saying "hurry up and wait" to true meaning for our family! God's hand has been all over this adoption from the beginning! He burdened our hearts, led us to this perfect child, and has carried us through this process the entire way! There were times when I would fall on my face crying out to God, "Please hurry!".  I would remind him that Jackzhen needed us and we needed him, but He knew all that.  He would comfort me through my amazing husband, supportive family, a song on the radio, a friends kind words, and remind me to focus my eyes back on Him and let Him continue what He had started!  Though sometimes just a glimmer, my faith never failed! I chose to trust God and He indeed carried this awesome adoption through! I heard a song on the radio yesterday and again found myself blubbering away behind the steering wheel - it hit my heart and spoke to me in such a way that I could not contain myself.  The words to the song went like this....

Welcome to your life
You’re everything you’ll someday be

There’s a weight off my shoulder
There’s laughter in the air
You are the answer to every midnight prayer

You’re mine to love
We have all been waitin’ on you
You’re mine to love
Come into these open arms
It took some time to wait it out
But I see it now, you’re worth all the dreaming of
You’re mine to love

SERIOUSLY!!!! This was written for my Jackzhen, because he is mine to love!!! And he is worth all the waitin'! Thank you Jesus for loving me even in the midst of my doubt, thank you for never giving up on me, and for allowing me to mother this amazing little boy! I have heard the adoption quote many times through this process that says, "not from my womb, but born in my heart!" And I contend that this is true to the fullest meaning of the phrase!

Blessed beyond measure to be given this love in my heart~ In a few weeks there WILL be ONE LESS orphan in this world ~  Now I have to do laundry because we are going to CHINA!!!!

His pouty little lips....

I am working on some picture work tonight and much to my amazement, I got an email from Ann with more pictures! This was a great surprise as I have been daydreaming all day about our travel approval.  Seems like the travel approvals are trickling in again, a FB friend of mine that had a pick up date 3 days before me, got hers today!!! We are next... Soooo this little email is helping me pass the time and ease the anxiety.... Here is my sweet son and his pouty little lips.... He is wearing the gray vest we got him for Christmas!!! I can't WAIT until we can take those silly pink arm cuffs off of him - he will trade them for some swim trunks and arm floaties SOON!!!!

Did I mention how much I love him???

Jackzhen 101

I asked a few questions with our last package, here are the responses.... He loves soft foods so it only makes sense that he does not like hard foods right?!?! whatever that means, hahaha - I will definitely steer clear of candy canes and candy apples!!! HA

他最喜欢的食物是什么？What is his favorite food?

答：他最喜欢吃软质的食物，如：面包，蛋糕，肉碎等。

     He most likes to eat soft food, such as: bread, cake, no meat on the bones and so on

他最不喜欢的食物是什么？What food does he not like?

答：他最不喜欢吃硬质的食物，如：带骨头的肉，硬质坚实的水果。

    He doesn't like eating hard foods

他晚上睡觉时需要什么东西吗？Does he need anything to go to bed at night?

答：他晚上睡觉时喜欢吮手指，趴着睡。

He loves sucking his finger, bending over to sleep

他害怕什么东西吗？Is he afraid of anything?

答：他害怕突然被大的声响惊吓。

He was afraid that sudden noise frightened

他是害羞还是喜欢说话的？Is he shy or does he like to talk?

答：他的性格活泼，聪明；喜欢说话、唱歌。

His disposition is lively, clever; like talking, singing

他会一些英语吗？ Does he know any English?

答：他能说一点语句，如“Good morning、Thank you、I love you”

He can speak a little English, such as“Good morning、Thank you、I love you”

他最喜欢的玩具是？ What is his favorite toy?

答：他最喜欢踢球、有声响的电动玩具。

He most likes playing football   The sound of electric toys

Making a Joyful Noise.......

I was browsing on baidu.com tonight and came across an article about Jackzhen's SWI.  I was totally giddy when I scrolled down to see that part of the article mentioned Jackzhen (QiuQiu) and his outgoing spirit! He grabbed the mic from the reporter and sang his song! here is a little clip from the article... "Wu Zhenqiu prominent children 2-4 years old class, they like to sing, the teacher play the piano and will sing along to the music."  I am a proud mama and I am thrilled about teaching him new songs so he can keep making a joyful noise!!! Not much longer little one!!!

A Cable, An Article, and A Tooth ! ! !

What a day this has been! We woke up to an awesome email telling us that we have been cabled, (see the post below for what the heck that means).... Then at 9:00 tonight I received a phone call from my favorite Kelsey, that our paperwork had already been dropped off in China!!!! That means we have an Article 5 drop off date of 2/24 and our pick up date will be 3/9!!!!! This is so great, I don't have to go through another weekend without answers!!! Thank you Lord!!! AND as if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, my Mason lost his 5th tooth - Oh happy day!!!

Cabled!!!!

We've been cabled!!!! This is fancy wording for "U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and State have begun communicating electronically about our adoption case". The next step is for our agency's contact to drop off some paperwork at the U.S. embassy in China for review. This step will take two weeks and after our Article 5 pick up, we will then be in line for travel approval!!! Oh my mercy, it is really starting to hit me that we will be in china in a little over a month!!! Oh Jackzhen, we are so close baby!!! I am preparing our fifth and final box to our boy!!! Oh so happy about that!!!!

refresh..... refresh.....

That is what I have been doing all day to the email app on my phone!!! I am waiting on an email that contains a PDF letter that states that my visa petition has been forwarded to the "appropriate Embassy"

This is the last step of this process that I have any "control over" I say that SO very loosely!!! After I receive this letter I will email it to Kelsey at Faith, she will then send it to their in-country rep, it will then be dropped off at the US Consulate, seriously another approval?!!?! UGH!!!!!!!  The date that it is dropped off is known as our Article 5 drop off date! Yippee!!!  Two weeks later it will be picked up and it will be delivered directly to the CCAA for Travel Approval!!! Sounds great, but thennnnn there is about another 2-3 week wait on travel approval - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am so thankful that the first part of this process happened at a very busy time of the year, because I didn't really notice how agonizing this process is until now.........  I just want our "forever" to start right now!!! I am totally having a childish temper tantrum because I am sick of waiting on red tape and SLOW people............. But please know that through this tantrum I do trust that God really has a plan here and I know that I am whining for NOTHING - He really has taught me so much through this adoption and I will, truly, never be the same!!! I just long for my son.... to hug, hold, read, tickle, play, snuggle, laugh, and teach......... I just want him home...... refresh...... refresh............ night♥

The Best Surprise EVER!!!

We sent a box to Jackzhen in October. In the box were colored pencils, canvas coloring boards, and a few other goodies for him! We also sent a letter thanking them for taking such good care of our son and asking them to send us some of his art work! We included a self addressed stamped envelope as well. Ann, from the Red Thread, delivered our package to the orphanage. She did inform me that there was a good chance that we would not receive anything. It is not typical of orphanages to respond to families like that due to lack of time, staff, and probably even desire :( - but none the less we gave it a go! To be honest, after December I forgot about the box because it had been two months with no word. Well today I met Jason to drop the kids off with him and he had a surprise for us!!! It was a package and the sender was Zhen Qiu Wu - JACKZHEN!!!!

Oh my word, were we thrilled!!!

Attached are the pictures of our happy gift!!!

 

Thank you Lord for these small glimpses of you this week - I am so thankful that your timing is so perfect! We will wait on you and be glad in it!!!

I-800 on its way to WA and then TX !

Well we sent out our signed LOA, our last agency payment (yeeehaaaw!), our passports (for our China visa's), and a few other odds and ends!!! What a great feeling - now we wait again!!!

LOA ! ! !

Happy Chinese New Year, we received our LOA - Hoooooooooooray!!!! Jason stayed home today because he was supposed to have jury duty, but it was canceled. I was happy that he was home, but we went about our school morning anyways.  It was about 3:00 when I started giving up hope on a phone call for the day.  It wasn't a total loss, I scrubbed toilets and blasted some Big Daddy Weave in my ear buds!  Jason went to Target with the older two monkeys.  Then at 4:54 my phone rang and it said "Kelsey Melvin" I started freaking OUT!!! Kelsey promised she wouldn't call unless she had some good news!!! But I couldn't answer - I wanted Jason and the kids home and I also wanted to video tape the phone call so that we could play it back forever and ever!!! soooooooooo I jumped up and down and kept asking Jillian (the 5 year old) do you think she has good news? do you think she got our approval? Jillian just said "I don't know Mommy!!!" I called Jason 3 times but he didn't answer!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh didn't he know that Kelsey Melvin just called us?!?!?! Finally, he called me and said that he was on his way home!!! We all sat around the kitchen table and played the call - We heard the words that we had been waiting 89 days to hear! " I have your letter of confirmation!" ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is what we did next!!! Soooo what does that mean? To answer the question asked most today, no this is not our travel approval. This is just the approval of our homestudy by China. We will now move forward with our I-800 approval, visas, Article 5 approval, then our travel approval. These steps will roughly take two months, but time is relative to this process - THAT'S FOR SURE! So thankful to have this step behind us, considering it is the worst wait!!! On to the next step and more importantly one step CLOSER to our little panda bear, Jackzhen!!! We love you baby............ xoxox

54 minutes......

Had a little bump in our road tonight! We are currently on day 75 of waiting on our LOA from China... I spoke with Kelsey and she said that the CCAA was requesting an extra paper in our dossier.... This doesn't seem like such a big deal, except the only reason we knew about it is because we have an amazing lady in charge of our adoption!!! Within 54 minutes she sent a paper to our homestudy social worker in Florida, she sent it back to Kelsey in Washington state, who then emailed it to the China liason, who will deliver it to the CCAA today.... 54 minutes!!! Thank you Lord for knitting this process together so perfectly with selfless people who love my Jackzhen so deeply!!!! Get thee behind me satan, I will not be moved!!!

tick tock tick tock..........

We are currently on day 70 of our wait for our LOA (Letter of acceptance)... I was thankful that we had the holidays to keep us busy, but they are now a memory.... Although, we started back to school today so that will keep us all bustling as we wait on the Lord to move... In my moment of wonderment today, I thought about the fact that our adoption is completely funded and what an amazing feeling that is... So instead of despair today, I am thankful that we can move forward when ever GOD sees it fit!!! And rest assure I will blog and let you all know when that is..... xo

I am thankful for a bus station......

This weekend is off to a great start!!! I have been so encouraged by amazing people lately! I met a sister in Christ who is adopting a little girl from, you'll never guess, THE SOCIAL WELFARE INSTITUTE OF WUZHOU CITY!!!! Yes the same orphanage that Jackzhen is in! We had an awesome converstaion tonight and she shared a ton of resources with me - I never knew they existed!!! Thank you Lord for Alisa!!! The first was a Chinese website and also how to articulate the search for his find ad.  It only took 10 minutes but I found it!

I had to take a deep breath before I read it.... I mean, until now, I have just accepted that he was abandoned... But reading his find ad would tell me where he was left, it was a puzzle piece and a visual to the start of his little life... This is what I found....

2008年9月25日在梧州市河东客车站候车室捡拾到一名男婴，2008年9月4日出生（估），入院时姓名不详，福利院取名：吴振秋。
September 25, 2008 in Wuzhou City, east bus station waiting room to pick up a baby boy, September 4, 2008 born (estimated), admission unnamed, orphanage named: Wuzhen Qiu

The waiting room at a bus station.... To some this may seem so cruel - but honestly I think it tells a much bigger story... You see Jackzhen was left when he was 3 weeks old - that means he spent the first three weeks of his life with his birth mom.  My new outlook is this; I believe that he was cared for and loved, for three weeks... A lot of newborns are abandoned immediately after birth, with their umbilical cord still attached, most don't make it through the first month of life. But there was a reason that he was 3 weeks old when he was left by his birth mother.   Wuzhou is a very impoverished region of China.  It is a very mountainous and there are a lot of poor farm workers that live there.  She could have very easily left him in a field, but I think she chose a place that was warm, indoors, and highly populated by people, because she truly cared for him.    There are stories of babies being left in gas stations, alleys, and sadly even dumpsters, I am thankful for a bus station...........

One day we will have to answer tough questions for Jackzhen and today was a revelation to the story we will share with him, then........