Tickets in hand!

Thanks for your prayers during this busy time. We have managed to find reasonably priced tickets to China for the whole family, leaving Jan. 5! We are so thankful for God's provision and all the generosity of so many that have made this possible. We will be three days in Beijing, seeing friends, and sights. Then we go to Taiyuan on the 10th and are united with FuMei on Monday the 11th. It is just over two weeks until we are with her. Please pray for her as she lives her last few weeks in China, in the setting and with the people she has known thus far. Hard to imagine what she is going through emotionally. We pray God will prepare her heart and that it will be a sweet time to be united. We will have several days in Taiyuan together and then we are off to Guangzhou in the south, where final documentation for adoptions is processed. We transit through Hong Kong on our way home on Jan. 22. We are so excited and ask that you pray for all the details to come together and for us to remain healthy. We will be updating this blog daily from China so that will be one way to know details of our days in China if you so desire.

Travel Approval has arrived!

We got the call today that we should expect our travel approval to be in the CCAI office tomorrow or Thursday. She informed me that we are free to start looking for flights and gave me some ideas on days. We have to work backward from an appointment in the US Consulate in Guangzhou. It looks like we will be able to leave Denver on the 5th of Jan. and fly to Beijing. Then after a few days there we will fly on to Taiyuan in Shanxi province. We must be in Shanxi on Sunday the 10th and will get FuMei on Monday the 11th. We are working toward this by trying to find flights for all 6 of us and 7 returning. It seems there are plenty available. We will keep you all posted when we book those flights.

Thanks to all who contributed to the LifeSong for Orphans matching grant. The full match came in and was exceeded by people's generosity. We feel very blessed to have so many friends who want to help make this possible. It appears that the flights will not exceed the amount that has come in. Praise the Lord.

Please continue to pray for us these next several days. We have to wait for confirmation on our TA before booking any flights, so in the meantime we are continuing to search for the cheapest airfare possible for those dates. We are feeling the stress. I don't think any school will happen now and my house is a mess. Meals have been sparse already due to all the events of the past few weeks. My schedule over the holidays was clear because we thought we'd be traveling. Now I will really appreciate not having it full as we pack and get ready to go.

Thanks for standing with us, supporting us and praying for us. We are close now!! Please pray for FuMei in these last few weeks she has in China. Thanks, Lynn and David

Approval from Immigration has happened!!

It's finally happened. I received e-mail confirmation this morning that our immigration paperwork has been approved! Thanks to all of you who have been covering it in prayer. I feel a huge sense of relief after feeling on edge for weeks!
I daily had to give it to the Lord as I couldn't understand why we kept getting rejected. Many of you have been praying for God's timing in all this. Keep praying as we now wait for the next step of Approval from China. This next wait could be up to 6 weeks, and then we receive travel clearance. It's only at that time that we will be able to book tickets. Thanks again.

Good News Today--Praise the Lord!

Praise God with us. Today we were notified by the Lifesong for Orphans folks with confirmation that we have been accepted for their matching funds program. They granted us $2500 in matching funds. We are thankful that gifts now will be matched as that will help a lot toward our needed travel expenses. Thanks for your prayers. We also heard from immigration today. They sent a note saying they got our paper work and are in process. This is a good sign as the last two times they just sent it back. We are hoping that the actual immigration form we are awaiting will arrive sometime this week and we can be moving forward in this whole process. Pray with us for that and for the remaining funds that we need for travel. God is good. Pray too that we can get travel clearance sooner than later so that ticket prices might be more reasonable.
To the right is a photo taken a few weeks ago when MeiLi and her mother and two Chinese siblings visited and spent the day with us. She is a sweetie and we are thrilled that she will get to see FuMei again. She loved showing us pictures that they brought and pointing out each of the friends from the orphanage and naming them by name. Pray for her too as she adjusts to a new life with her family.

My Little Sister

I'm soooooooooooooooooo excited for FuMei to come! I've always wanted a little sister, and right when I saw her beautiful picture I knew she was the one. I've learned to love her so much that I miss her. I cant wait to meet her.(even though I feel like I know her already.)I know God fit FuMei into our family perfectly. He has been providing for us all along and that is why we are able to have FuMei join our family.
Love Amy

More prayer needed

We were discouraged again today to receive for the second time, a rejected packet from US immigration. Not sure what is going on. The agency insists that we did everything right, and INS folks on the phone confirm that there should have been no problem, but the packet came back rejected. Pray we can sort this out and get approval for FuMei's immigration. Lynn sent the packet off a third time again this afternoon. This setback could delay our travel plans, which is a discouraging thought for us. Pray we can be patient and trust that God has his hands over all this as well. Perhaps there is some reason he wants to delay our travel. Appreciate your prayers so much.

We met MeiLi, FuMei's friend and roommate

We had an amazing afternoon last Friday. FuMei's friend and roommate in the orphanage came over with her mother and adopted Chinese sister and brother. The brother was also in the orphanage with FuMei and is pictured in some of the many photos the family has passed on to us. It was so amazing to see little MeiLi and think that just 5 weeks ago, she was with FuMei. MeiLi was quite shy and not very talkative, but she was eager to look through photo albums that her mother brought from their time in China, and point out the various friends, naming each one. She did not tire of this, and warmed up during the afternoon. The kids enjoyed playing together and Lynn had a great time getting to know Wendy, the mother, and hearing more about their experiences with three Chinese adoptions--they also have 4 of their own.

We are growing somewhat impatient these last weeks. It has been wonderful to learn more about FuMei through photos and others who have adopted from the same orphanage, but this just makes us all the more eager to have her here with us. Pray for the process. We have resubmitted the immegration forms to the INS and hope they will come through this time without any hitches. Appreciate your prayers so much for us and for FuMei as we wait to be together.

David's thoughts from Hong Kong

David here. I am in Hong Kong and my flight is delayed, so I am taking advantage of the free wireless to do a brief update and share a few prayer requests regarding Fu Mei. Thanks for praying with us. It is looking like we are going to be able to travel in December. Initially it looked like we would be able to go in the second week of Dec. and be back on Christmas day or the day after. Lynn told me today that the immigration documents we have applied for came back today and were rejected for some minor reason. Pray with us as we and the agency try to figure out where the problem is.

We have been blessed to be in touch with several other families that have adopted children from the orphanage FuMei is in. Through them and the Yahoo Group website, we have been able to track down a lot of photos of her from the last three years or so. It is amazing to have these and to be able to see some glimpses of her life and surroundings. I will upload a few more of these and ask again that you remember FuMei in your prayers.

FuMei, Xi Fang and Meili

We don't know if she has received the initial box we sent, or what she knows or how she is feeling about the upcoming transition. Pray that God will be doing a work in her heart to prepare her, that he will protect her in the coming days, and orchestrate all the details of our travel. We are sending another package this week.

We have applied to an agency that does matching grants to help folks who are adopting. Pray we will get accepted and that funds will come in for the travel expenses that we are needing. Apparently ticket prices are generally higher in December when we expect to travel. Pray we can find good prices when the time comes for booking.

FuMei in the funny hat at an orphanage activity.

We love you all and thank you for standing with us and FuMei at this time.

This one breaks my heart. She needs a mommy.

FuMei being the big sis to all these friends. 

New (old) pictures!

We had an amazing development today. I signed up for the Yangquan Orphanage Yahoo group and immediately received this e-mail...

Hi Lynn,

We just returned 3 wks ago with our daughter from YangQuan. She is almost 7 and really close like sisters with your daughter. They lived in the same room. I'm pretty certain your daughter is FuMei as we asked if she was being adopted when we got MeiLi and they told us yes. I have been sooo hoping that I would find her family because our daughters were so close. MeiLi, our daughter looks at photos of your daughter and Dang Xi Feng and really misses them. If I read your profile right you live in Denver which is a total miracle because we DO TOO!!!. I am so thrilled that she has a family and very soon. I really cannot wait to talk with you. This is sooo great.

I was able to talk with Wendy, who has met our daughter, and she shared these pictures with us. We are so numb with all this information, so happy to have a little more glimpse into Fu Mei's life. Keep praying with us!

We have Good News

We received a call from CCAI yesterday to tell us that the important paperwork we were waiting for from China arrived!! It's called the Letter of Acceptance. It starts the process rolling and means we will most likely be given clearance to travel before the end of the year. For us that probably means mid December. We are so excited about this as we have been praying for over a year to have her home with us before Christmas. It still could go in to January, but that's better than March!!

We sent a package to Fu Mei last week. We don't know if she received it or not. Please be thinking about her as she opens it and meets us for the first time. We put in some little toys, hair ribbons, clothes, a camera for her to take pictures of her friends and environment, pictures of us and a letter we wrote. Pray that her nannies will help her adjust to this new idea of moving to America to be with us.

Continue to pray for our children here. They are experiencing a lot of changes and that can be difficult. We have moved bedrooms around so that Fu Mei and Amy will be together. We bought a trundle bed and a wardrobe. The room looks lovely.

I have applied to another grant from Lifesong for Orphans. The paperwork has been sent in. Pray that they will review it quickly and offer us the grant. If they have funds available, it could be a matching grant of $4000.00, which would mean whatever we raise up to $4000.00 they would match. That would help a lot.

Thanks for standing by us! I'm feeling emotional about all this and overwhelmed. The next 3 months will be busy, as school continues, activities continue and now adding in travel preparations. We value your prayers and thoughts. I'm also collecting up greetings from friends and family to put in to Fu Mei's file. If you would like to send a greeting please feel free to do that. That would be lovely for her to read some day.

We have a match!

We are so excited to introduce you to FuMei! She's a 7 year old from Shanxi Province in northern China. She's introverted, shy and timid and loves to dance and color. She has a repaired cleft lip and palate. She's very little by American growth charts! Only the 3rd percentile. So she will look like a 5 year old. She has spent all 7 of her years in the orphanage as she was abandoned soon after birth at a nearby hospital.

We got the call on Friday from CCAI and because she was a little older than we had said we were willing to take they gave us a few days to look at her file, talk with our social worker and our pediatrician, dentist and the Cleft Lip/Palate Clinic down at Children's Hospital. We spent a lot of time on the phone and in prayer over her and this decision. After praying and considering all the pros and cons of adopting an older child, we really feel that this was the girl the Lord has for us. One huge blessing is that her orphanage is in the north where Mandarin Chinese is the main dialect, which is what David and I speak fluently.

So, what is the next step? We are waiting to find out! I know that soon we will be able to put together a little care package filled with pictures of her new family and little gifts for her. We should also receive more information from the orphanage and hopefully some more pictures of her. We have a lot of preparations before we are able to travel and they still say that we won't be traveling to get her for 3-5 months!

We would appreciate your continued prayers for all of this. Pray that the orphanage would really start preparing her for this transition, which will probably be the hardest thing she has done. The more they talk to her about us and show her our pictures the better it will be. They have said that she will start school on Sept. 1st. Pray that the other kids around her will treat her well and not tease her about the cleft lip. Pray for us as we wait patiently now. I especially will need more time to complete the preparations. Pray that I will be able to prioritize my activities this fall. And please cover our family in prayers! The kids are all excited and have completely come to love her already. Each of us feel that she is the one for us, even after hoping for an infant. We have unity amongst us and a sense of peace. But it will be a big change for our family and we value your continued prayers.

We are still really hoping to bring our 4 children with us when we go get her. They are old enough to really enjoy the trip and want to be a part of bringing her home. Because of the grant from Shoahannah's Hope, we have enough to pay for 4 tickets. Please continue to pray for God's provision for the rest.

We will keep you posted more frequently now since we have a face to go with the hope! Blessings, Lynn

Waiting for a match

Just a few thoughts to update you all on where we are in the process. Our dossier has been sent to China and is logged in. That gives us a log-in-date of March, 2009. If we were in the traditional program, waiting for a healthy infant, that would mean a 3 year wait from that date! Since we are looking for a girl up to the age of 5 with some minor physical disability we are told the average wait is one year from when our medical checklist went in. We filed our medical checklist August of 2008. So this August marks one year that we have been waiting. We are told that we could get a call any day! And every day I wake wondering if today will be the day. We know God is in control of timing. But that doesn't make it easier to wait. Knowing that there is a little girl in China who doesn't have a home and family and we wait with loving arms, can be difficult. Please continue to pray for His timing, for His protection on her and loving people around her.

About a month ago we did have an opportunity to view a file of a little 4 and a half year old girl. She had cleft lip and palate, but also had other significant problems that we hadn't said we felt able to take, such as near complete deafness. It was very difficult to look at her medical file, with numerous pictures and lots of information and then say no. As you can imagine from a mother's heart, refusing any child is hard. We really had to fall back on the fact that we had prayed over our medical checklist last August and felt God had helped us choose what we feel able to deal with. Please pray for her to find a family as I noticed she is still on the waiting child website.

We had some good news this week. Our application for a grant from Shaohannah's Hope was accepted. They granted us $4000.00 toward the adoption. We felt honored to be chosen as they had told us that they receive 100 applications a month and only 30 can be filled. It really is a blessing. Please thank the Lord for this blessing and continue to pray with us for the remainder of the funds.

Where are we in the process?

We praise God we have finished with our application for adoption with Chinese Children's Adoption International (CCAI). Our dossier is being reviewed and translated by the agency and will then be sent on to China to be reviewed and "OK"ed. We are in the process of taking the State-required 24 hours of adoption classes and finding this a good step in helping us prepare our hearts for our new addition. Please pray for her, where ever she is--that God will place loving persons around her who will care for, nurture and protect her. In talking with other adoptive parents, we realize that the process is very unpredictable. Some couples were contacted with a potential match before they even finished their paperwork. So it really could be any time that we get news. It also could be many months. Pray for the right timing and for us to be patient. Thanks for your concern for us and for your precious prayers. We will keep you posted on developments and drop you a note when we post an update if you request us to do so.

Blessings,

David & Lynn, Mary, Amy, Andrew and James