Racing Against Time

Dear Friends,

Yes, I am writing about this again. Yes, this time I am pleading.

This little one is aging out in less than one year. 10 months to be exact. 10 months.

We desperately want him to be adopted. He desperately needs a family.

I recently read that the average life-span of a aged-out child in China is 10 years from the time they age out. Ten years. We cannot let this happen to this boy. We cannot. It is unjust. It is wrong.

Please consider, seriously, adopting this boy. Yes, you. Do not let finances deter you. This is a child's life we are talking about. Finances will come. God provides. Do not let a feeling of ineptness deter you. This is a child's life. God will enable you.

Please, please get the word out about this boy! Please help us find a family to adopt him!

And please pray! This is a race against time. God alone can send a family for this child.

Dear Blog Friends,

For the last several weeks, we have had no news. We completed our homestudy and spent several weeks having it reviewed. This process took longer than expected. Finally, though, we sent off for USCIS approval. This is the approval from the American government to immigrate our children from China. Then we waited again. A letter from USCIS came stating that everything looked alright after the preliminary review. Whew. That meant very little to us, but at least it wasn't bad news.

A week passed. On Wednesday we received our finger-printing appointment letters in the mail. The appointments were scheduled for the week we are on vacation many hours away from the office we must go to. Thankfully, my husband took over and called USCIS to reschedule (I personally was opting for just missing vacation, but he is braver than I). They told us we could come any day. We went this morning nearly two weeks before our scheduled appointment. Those are two weeks of extra time we need. I am thankful we could go early. Tensely, I am counting the days until August 7th, the date China has given us by which we must have all of our paperwork in China.

Even though I know there isn't anything on anyone's record, it still it nerve-wracking to have our history reviewed by the federal government, especially when two boys in China are depending on us. If anything goes wrong, it affects Daniel and Matthew who are nervously waiting for Mama and Baba just as we are nervously waiting to go get them.

On the other side of things, my two youngest are laboring faithfully to raise money so they can go to China too. The older ones want to go, but, unless we travel before September (which is humanely impossible), college and work will prevent this. Julia and Joshua are selling things on Amazon and Craigslist and doing chores around the house. Julia also keeps us stocked with printed pictures of Daniel and Matthew to hang around the house. It is hard, even with the pictures, to wrap my head around the fact that these two are our sons.

Please pray that we will receive our approval quickly. This step in the process can take as long as three months, three months we don't have to spare. 

We're Waiting, They're Waiting

We are in the process of...waiting. Waiting on things we don't have the power to speed up. It is hard to wait. But, we're using our time as wisely as possible. We have Chinese to (attempt to) learn. Our first box of books about Chinese just came in.

But, this blog post is not about us. Not this time. It isn't even about Daniel and Matthew. It's about them:

Foster brothers to our Daniel and Matthew, these two boys are 13 and 12. The older one has external ear deformities and some hearing loss, though someone who recently visited the orphanage said he was perfectly able to keep up with the conversation. The other one (the 12 year old) has second degree cleft lip/palate with a nose deformity. Both are healthy, happy boys. The older is more quiet and reserved. The younger is described as funny.

Let me reiterate, they are 13 and 12, which means they will age out soon. At age fourteen they will be unadoptable and will be put to work in factories or put on the street...at fourteen. They will have no future and no family. Because of their facial deformities, they will be social outcasts. This is their reality. It isn't a bad dream, it isn't a "maybe", it is what the future has in store for them and this future is one year away for the first boy and two years away for the second. Don't be fooled by what sounds like a long time, it is a short, short time for an adoption to be completed.

They need a family. Desperately.

They need hope. Desperately.

They are running out of time.

Do not walk away from these pictures, look at those faces, look hard. They are real little boys. They are real little children who have never had a mother and a father. They are real boys who have never had a family all their own. And, what's more, they might never have a family. What we take for granted, they might never, ever have.

Let your heart break for them. Don't close it to those boys. Your heart needs to be broken. This is injustice. No child should live without a family. This is a tragedy and just because it happens to millions of children, doesn't make it any less wrong or any less painful for the children themselves.

Please consider these boys. I mean exactly that, consider adopting one or both of them. Consider whether your family could be their family. Consider this prayerfully and carefully. You can contact me for more information. If you do not feel called to adopt these boys, please, please pray to God for these boys. Pray they will come into a loving, Christian family and please pass the information about these boys on to anyone and everyone.

Our Children in China

Sonia Martin is back from China! We are blessed beyond measure that Sonia was able to take Daniel and Matthew our packages and take us some new pictures.

Sonia with our boys 

The boys look at their gifts from Mama and Baba in America

We are so blessed to know more about our boys. Sonia described Matthew as fun-loving and nice, cute and playful. I can totally see that! Look at his face, precious, absolutely precious!

Matthew Roe

Sonia describes Daniel as easy-going, a man of few words, an old soul, generous and kind. Daniel (we have heard from many sources) is artistic and makes amazing things out of paper. I can see that too. He looks like the ideal older brother. Wise, handsome, thoughtful, gentle.

Daniel Roe

They are precious, aren't they? They are beautiful, aren't they? They are wonderful, aren't they?

They are 8,000 miles, away.

They are many months away. Yet...

they are so, so very close to our hearts.


A few facts about our boys:

Daniel

Favorite food is hot dog

Favorite colors are black and red

Favorite subject in school is computers

Loves music


Matthew

Favorite color is red

Favorite food is hamburger

Favorite toy is a yo-yo

Is maybe a little competitive?

Our handsome, handsome boys. Please pray that they will be able to come soon! We have completed the homestudy and are having it reviewed. We will soon be sending off for USCIS approval.

Three Amazing Families

This week our family has been enormously blessed by three very special families we have met in this blessed journey of adoption.

The Hurst Family contacted us after we became the official family for "Edward and Percy." Katie Hurst was the one who started the Edward and Percy Fund on Facebook and advocated faithfully for them and all this, mind you, while in the hectic process to bring home her own precious child from China. Yesterday was "gotcha" day in China for little Simon Hurst. The Hurst family has been a blessing to us and we are thankful for the effort they have made for our little ones. We are rejoicing over Simon's adoption!
If you're interested in their story, here's the blog: http://riversandmiles.blogspot.com/ 

Actually, there's more to this story, the Hurst Family found little Simon on the blog of The Martins. Sonia  Martin posted information on her blog about little Simon hoping some family would become his forever family. Sonia is in China right now accompanying another friend on her adoption journey to China. She was able to meet the Hursts and be there to photograph when the Hurst family received little Simon into their lives...Amazing, right? Yes, but it gets better...

The Martins have adopted three precious boys from China. Two from the same orphanage as Daniel and Matthew. One of these just happens to be Matthew's best friend and the Martins just happen to live near us!  We met them and they were wonderful. Joshua enjoyed getting to hang out with Chinese boys! While it took a bit for them to warm up, the ice was smashed into smithereens when one of the Chinese Martin boys bridged the question:

"Are you adopted?" To which Joshua graciously responded:

"Yeah. I'm from China." Three pairs of surprised Chinese eyes stared at the other set of Chinese eyes.

"You're Chinese!?!"

"Yes." Yes, the great meltdown. No more barriers. They had a great time, and the little Martin whose best friend we are adopting was willing to tell us a little about Matthew.

Us with the Martins (the little one in red is Matthew's best friend)

Oh, wait, it gets better...Sonia is going to visit Daniel and Matthew's foster home on Wednesday and is taking a package from us! Sonia will be the one to tell our little boys that they have a forever family! She will be taking pictures of them and videoing them when they open our package. This time next week, we should be able to show you all updated pictures of our dear little boys.
You can follow Sonia's journey in China at http://www.cheaperbythehalfdozens.blogspot.com/

The last family we had the opportunity to meet is the Seitz family. They also live very near us! They have 20 children- 4 biological and 16 adopted. They have adopted from the US, Vietnam, Ethiopia and China. Morgan and I had the opportunity to eat dinner with them last week and talk to them about their adoption journeys. Most of their children are grown, but we did meet a few. We were touched by their dependence on God for all things, their humility, their faithfulness, their wisdom and their love. They are a treasure chest of information for us! They brought their last two (13 year old girls from China) home in December.

We are very thankful for these families and what they mean to our family! And, just to close with two very precious faces (well, I think they're unbelievably precious).

Daniel-our handsome son

Matthew-our handsome son

Because You Asked...

Many of you have asked about the process involved in our adoption. We thought we would give an outline of the process so you all can rejoice with us when we say things like "Got USCIS approval! Waiting for TA so we can fly to China and get our TAKs!" Within the next few moments of instruction, you will be able to understand the above sentence.

For us, the beginning of the process (told in the last post) was falling head-over-heels in love with two perfectly adorable boys. We chose them, applied to the agency, and became officially matched with Edward and Percy. Edward and Percy (their agency assigned names) then got re-named (though as of now, unofficially) with names we chose, Daniel and Matthew. For their middle names we will be using their Chinese names. 

After that, we had to gather some paperwork and rush it off to China to get our pre-approvals (PAs). That basically means China was giving us permission to adopt these children if and when we completed all the other steps required. 

After this we gathered paperwork like crazy for our homestudy. Birth and marriage certificates, background checks and police clearances, character references and medical forms (which required doctor's appointments for everyone and blood work for all our legal adults), etc. etc. etc.  We have had one of the four required homestudy visits. The next one is happening downstairs now (interviews with my kids). 

In the meantime, we have gathered some of the documents needed to go in our dossier (the packet of documents going to China) together and rushed them off to be state certified in Tallahassee and then on to the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas where they will be authenticated by China. 

The dossier is not complete, though, until the homestudy is complete and...

we become USCIS fingerprinted and approved. This means the United States is giving us permission to bring Daniel and Matthew home. Which can't happen until our homestudy is complete. This background check can take a long time, 6-8 weeks. 

After the USCIS approval and the homestudy are authenticated in the Houston Consulate (and added to the other documents we already sent), our dossier is complete and is sent to China.

We then wait for travel approval (TA). How long we'll wait is in the hands of Providence and the Chinese Government (and sometimes it seems much more like the latter than the former). 

When we get travel approval, we can, well...travel. We will travel to China and get our TAKs (totally awesome kids)! 

Right now we're having our home studied (a fascinating science, I'm sure) and then we will wait for our USCIS background checks. 

You should now fully comprehend the sentence: Got USCIS approval! Waiting for TA so we can fly to China and get our TAKs!

Yes, it's a lot of work, but I have my faithful "secondary" (secretary) Joshua, who camps out with pillows and blankets by the printer and makes copies of documents into the wee hours of the night. Not to mention, how could we give it up when we have these faces calling us to China? (Daniel is in the top video and Matthew the bottom).

                                                                     

The Beginning

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 


We have been asked to keep a blog of our journey to Daniel and Matthew (Edward and Percy) and so we begin.  Please join us here for adoption updates and prayer requests.

In 2005 we adopted our youngest son, Joshua, from northern China. It was an incredible adventure but  for the most part we were very alone in our excitement.  How things have changed! We have already been contacted by some amazing people who have adopted children from the same orphanage as Daniel and Matthew. They have pictures and videos of them that they have shared with us. Some have spent the day with our children and have insights to share. This is an incredible blessing! Many of you have asked how we came to know of and desire to adopt these boys. This is the story.

It started innocently enough. We received an email from The Shepherd's Crook ministry about their situation.  We looked at their picture, read their story, and prayed they would find a family. We didn't think to pray about adopting them. That was out of the question.

A month passed. Another email. Edward and Percy still didn't have a family. This time, still not thinking about adoption, I mentioned it to my husband. His response surprised me:

"You've inquired, right?"

That was all it took. I inquired and found out that there was no one else. My husband called from work to find out how the conversation had gone.

"What did you find out about our boys?" he asked. I almost didn't need to answer. The fact that he said "our"  was a greater answer than any response from an agency. God was preparing all of our hearts for these boys.

That evening we had a family meeting. The decision was unanimous and adamant. The answers were given before the question was out. We all completely and eagerly wanted to pursue this adoption.

It was a few days later that Joshua, our 12 year old son- adopted from China in 2005- came to me. Seeing his concerned face, I immediately made an assumption that is common for moms of little boys:

"Did you break something, Joshua?"

"No, well, sort of. I kinda broke a promise."

"What  promise?"

"Well, do you remember when you told me I could pray for a Chinese brother?"

"Yes." It was a long time ago, over a year.

"Well, I didn't pray for one. I have been praying for two."

Two boys. Two boys waiting for us in China. Daniel and Matthew. Our sons.

Daniel

Matthew

Aren't they beautiful? And they're our sons!

This video has our beautiful boys in it. The boy who makes a face at the McDonald's food (and waves his hand like he doesn't like it) is our handsome son Daniel and the little boy who is standing above the table with the outstretched arms and giant, beautiful smile is our precious Matthew. But the ending scene is what warms and breaks our hearts. Look at the big smile on our Daniel's face!

Please pray for our sons Daniel and Matthew! Pray the Lord will prepare their hearts for knowledge of Him and will prepare them to be in a family.