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.