Chinese Visa and Care Package Delivery

Today we filled out our Chinese Visa's.  My wife will take them down to the consulate, (you have to hand deliver them with your passport)  give them our $140 each and be one more step done.  We were looking at fast vs average time lines trying to guess when we will travel to China.  The fastest looks like we could leave May 31 and the average would be some time in late June.  We are so impatient, excited, worried it's hard to explain.  We can't believe that this whole process just started last August.  That means from beginning to end will be around 10 months.  Too crazy.  Yesterday my wife and I were talking about how much we already love this kid we never met.  Weird.  We are praying he will be open to loving us as well. 

The stuff we bought in China should have been delivered today... looks like this...she does a nice job.  She will also phone and make sure he received the stuff.  That means he will be "seeing" us for the first time today....nutty.  We sent a letter, camera, toy and picture book (the pictures were captioned in English and then translated into Chinese) right now they are laid out but she puts them into the book before sending.  duh.  We pray he enjoys the stuff and doesn't see the pictues and say "how ugly, forget them" hahah

More info from yesterday

When we got our measurements and pictures yesterday we were so excited.  I forgot to mention that apparently the lady who contacted them spoke to his foster parents or the orphanage staff.  They said he knows he is going to be adopted by a foreign family and he already knows some English words.  The foster parents are loving and support the adoption fully, knowing it is better for him and his future.  (They know in China he doesn't have much of a future at all given his orphan status and handicap). 

Well, if she didn't speak to them then she just made that up to make us feel better.  hahah  Probably not, she comes highly recommended and was very straightforward.  We are very thankful that his foster parents seem to love him and that is a major blessing. 

We had a great day as a family today, played Sorry Sliders with the kids...Kayla actually won a couple of times.  She always wants to do what Ethan is doing so she tried to copy him exactly and she was able to win a few rounds.  The weekend is going to be long.  My dad and I are putting in a tankless waterheater.  Going green you know... actually about the same price as a regular one but saves money and energy.  Actually our old one is about to die, making all kinds of clunking, wheezing, gasping noises plus it can only heat one bath and one shower.  So time to put in a new one...Little by little the house is getting finished.  Just three more projects to go until we are completely finished with all our original plans for our fixer upper.

This is for my sister!

Can't tell you how blessed we are to see him.  This was taken two days ago.

Hahahhah my dear sister. This is for you...it was late and I was trying to go to bed but the public demands!!

Sweet News

So I told you that we sent a care package.  We sent it though this Chinese lady who lives in China.  Her name is Ann and she runs a company called Red Thread China.  They provide care packages and stuff for orphans and orphanages.  Well, we gave her our info two days ago and she is already delivering our care package tomorrow.  In addition, she emailed the orphanage/foster care where Andrew lives and asked them to send recent pictures of him.  We actually got 6 new pictures today that were taken yesterday.  We are so stoked.  I can't believe how fast and amazing she was.  I can't believe how beautiful our son is and he is tall.  He is 4'10" already but only weighs 77 pounds...so he's a stick...should fit in nicely with our x slim family.  Can't tell you how excited we are...man....praise God.  What a great day! 

Introducing ourselves to Andrew

Today we got the go ahead to send Andrew a care package.  We have to send it to the orphanage he is affiliated with and they will deliver it to him.  We decided to use a care package lady in China.  She lives there and helps adopting couples get their gifts to their new kid.  We sent a disposable camera, a 25 picture album, an ultraman toy and a 400 word translated letter.  We are pretty excited.  This means Andrew could be in for the shock of his life in the next week or two.  If the orphanage allows it he will know he will be adopted soon.  We hope they allow it so he can start to prepare to come as well.  We know it is going to be really hard on him and the more time he has to prepare the better.  We think we might travel to China as early as June but maybe July, so he doesn't have that much time...just a couple of months.  It was really hard writing a letter...Hello, We are about to be your parents...I am Sam and this is Haejin... or Hello Son, nice to meet you.  We will come get you soon.  Overall lots of awkward moments but what you gonna do.  Hope he gets excited, we know he is going to be scared.  Did I mention this is a crazy process. 

We sent in our I800  (Final Petition to adopt and orphan from a foreign country) today.   It should be two weeks for approval then on to the visa process.  In about two months we should get our TA (Travel Approval) and then we can schedule our trip for about two to three weeks after that. 

Confirmation Confirmed

Well, rant and rave enough and you get what you want right?  Our LOA or Letter Seeking Confirmation arrived today.  We signed it and sent it back.  Our next step is to get Final immigration approval from our government called an I800.  This takes about two weeks then we are on to our visa's.  This is a really cool step because now we can send Andrew a care package with our pictures and some stuff for him to enjoy!  In addition, our major wait times are over.  Each step now is about two or three weeks each and so we should be traveling early June...sweet.  Can't wait.  God is good!

Hoping

My wife and I sit here 10:15 pm hoping that tomorrow or sometime next week we get our Letter of Approval from China.  It's hard to describe what the wait is like...even though we know there are still many steps it is an aggravatingly slow process.  We hope all week to take the next tiny step, then get to that step and hope for the next one.  We know the day is coming where we will be lying in bed saying, "I can't believe we are leaving tomorrow."  But that seems just like a dream or a non real daydream.  Well, we pray that tomorrow will be the day we take our next tiny step.  Thankfully our life is really busy or we would go crazy.  I, Sam, have even turned to blogging to try and alleviate some of the ... stress...no....worry...no...waiting?  Can't pin point it but it's just sucky (but excitingly so)  Pretty weird.  I have said before Kayla's adoption was nothing like this.  Oh well, we are trying to enjoy the ride and have a great time with Ethan and Kayla before we leave.  Things are gonna get real interesting soon. 

Here's another pic of our son. Aug-09

We picked up a picture book we ordered and can't wait to send it to Andrew.  My mom bought a camera so we can Skype with her in China...pretty cool.  She hooked it up no problem...she's a pro!  She also came by and gave Ethan and Kayla some clothes...thanks mom.

Grant Money

As many of you know we are not entirely rich.  We refinanced our house so we are sure to have enough money for the adoption but it is just borrowed money.  Well, we applied for a bunch of grants but were turned down by them all.  Until today!  We received a $3000 grant from Show Hope a non-profit that helps people who are adopting.  This organization was started by Steven Curtis Chapman, a famous Christian musician, after the death of his daughter, who was also adopted from China. 

We are really stoked about this grant.  We have had some of our friends and family help financially as well.  In total people have given us $7,344.50 toward bringing Andrew home.  Because Andrew has a physical handicap our adoption agency gave us a grant of $4,200 to help place him.  We have been extremely blessed throughout this process.  We appreciate everyone who has helped make bringing our son home a reality. 

In case you don't know International adoption runs from $25k to $35k and domestic adoption from $10k to $30k depending on circumstances...it's an expensive process.

Thanks to everyone and thanks to Show Hope.  Now we have to buy Steven Curtis Chapman CD's instead of stealing them on Limewire...hhahahah

To Andrew

If you read this someday Andrew, we want you to know that we love you already.

Hard time waiting

We feel like when you're a kid waiting for Christmas and it seems painfully slow in coming.  This adoption is very much different then our first.  With Kayla we didn't have a picture and for most of the time paperwork was being processed she wasn't even born and we knew it.  We got her when she was only 7 months so we knew that we weren't missing that much time with her.  With Andrew it seems like everyday longer it takes is a day we are missing him and not able to love and connect with him.  Our heart aches to be with him.  So everyday we check email for any word that our paperwork has been approved.  Usually 10-100 times a day, you know, pretty normal right?  It feels like a sick addiction to check and check hoping to hear something.  We were not like this with Kayla but again this is totally different

We don't have any worries over the process.  We feel prepared for the worst and pray for the best.  We know God is faithful.  Our only concern is that he will want to be with us.  What a hard place for a young boy to be...his whole world is about to change.  Our agency emailed his orphanage this week and we requested updated photos and measurements.  We also requested that they ask him if he still wished to be adopted.  We think the Chinese government ask all older kids if they want to be adopted or not but we thought we would try again.  Hopefully we will have great news for everyone later this week about our China Approval...pray for speedy paperwork. 

Next Step

serious face...

Just to keep everyone updated because I am sure you are as interested as we are...hmmm ok probably not but perhaps it helps pass your day to read this and hopefully you are blessed and praying for us.  Our next step in this process is our LOA (Letter of Approval), the adoption process has as many acronyms as the army.  Anyway this is document from China saying we have permission to adopt our son, Andrew or Xue Cheng.  We have been waiting for this approval since Feb. 17th when our dossier (adoption documents package) was LID (Log In Date or date China received our official request for Andrew)  So needless to say it is very difficult to wait.  We read adoption books and watch videos on line and check Adoption Blogs and Forums trying to pass the time and prepare for our new son.  We have never parented an 11 year old Chinese boy so we are trying to get as prepared as possible.  So keep us in prayer this week as we are hoping our LOA will arrive sometime (Monday would be nice).

On another note, we had a great time at church today and really do love our church family so much!!!  Also had a good time with my family who all came to our house for several birthday wishes...stepmom, sister and Haejin (only a month late).  Well off to bed for us old folks.  Have a blessed day tomorrow.

Walmart

Today my wife and I are going to go to Walmart and pick up some of the things we are taking to Andrew and for Andrew.  Thanks Rich for watching the kids otherwise they would get jealous that we aren't buying them stuff too.  We are thinking DSI (big ballers I know) but he is 11 so he'll probably like that.  Hope his lack of fingers doesn't diminish his game playing desire.  I am sure he will figure out how to play it no matter what the obstacle.  Gotta buy some new sheets for his bed, goodie bag for meeting him, and some fun stuff to play together the first few days after we meet him.  Bonding time you know. So we are off!!!

First Post

Trying to figure this out prior to going to China to get Andrew.