So Blessed

We held a fundraiser dinner Sunday after church and received such a blessing. The timing of the fundraiser ended up in God’s hands and coincided with our matching grant. God’s timing was perfect. We received a lot of support. We feel so blessed! Thank you to all that contributed.

There was a common question that we kept hearing at the fundraiser dinner. It was about naming the child that we are adopting. Our child will be between 12 and 36 months. She will have a Chinese name that the orphanage gave her and most likely an English name given by her first sponsor. The last name that she has will not be her actual family name, because that will not be known. The last name is also given by the orphanage and often all girls from the same province are given the same last name. 

We haven't decided what we will name her yet. We have considered giving her a new first name and keeping her Chinese name for her middle name or just using her Chinese first name. I think we will probably know as soon as we see her face and get a glimpse of her personality, but her Chinese name is part of who she is, so we will at least keep it for her middle name.

                                                                Lori

Our Dossier is On Its Way & The Deadline Is Looming

Our dossier was mailed to China yesterday. Once it’s there it will be translated before it is given to CCCWA, China’s Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption. What we are hoping for is that CCCWA receives our dossier before Oct. 1 so that we do not have to meet China’s new requirements, which for us would mean having to get a new home study agency and having our home study redone. It would almost put us back to square one. There would also be reference letters that would have to be redone, as well as additional requirements that we didn’t have to meet the first time.  Basically, it would mean additional work, costs, and wait time.

CHI's China Program Director, Tina, is confident, and I am pretty confident, at this point, that we will meet that deadline, but once again, we don't know anything for sure.  Pray that we meet the deadline.

                                                        Lori

What a Crazy Week

In order to get everything completed for our dossier so that it could be turned in this week, we had to hand carry the last two papers of the dossier to the Sec. of State’s office and then the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.

Once again we thought we knew how everything would play out, and once again we found out differently. Monday went wonderfully. Everyone that I met went out of their way to be nice and helpful. Then came Tuesday, and I was hoping for the same.

We read that if we got our papers to the Chinese Consulate by 11:00 am for authentication, we could pick them back up at 2:00pm. They opened at 9:00am, and we arrived at 10:30am. We were told to take a number. Our number was 151; they were on number 76 at the time. Noon came around, and they still hadn’t called our number. They then closed for lunch for one hour. We were back waiting at 1:00, and we were finally called at 1:30pm. We were told our papers would be ready for pickup the next afternoon. We had missed the drop off time for same day service. We decided that it would be best for us to spend the night there, rather than make the long drive home and then back the next day. 

Since we hadn’t planned on spending the  night, we did not have anything with us. We went to WalMart and got the few items that we had to have in order to spend the night.  We stayed in a suite and fixed dinner there. All that being said, we returned the next day and got our papers.

I was planning on making a trip to St. Louis Thursday to hand deliver those two papers, the corrected paper, and the requested photos for our dossier. I called ahead to make sure that Tina, the lady that handles the China adoptions at CHI, would be there. She answered but was on her way out the door. She was sick and going home. She said she wouldn’t be in Friday either. I decided to Express mail the items instead of taking them in person, since she wouldn’t be there anyway. The package should arrive there today, and she said she would mail our dossier to China Monday. She still seems confident that we will meet the Oct.1 deadline, even though our papers will still have to translated in China before arriving at their destination.

Once again this journey is out of our hands, but that is what a walk of faith is. We keep moving ahead, trusting that ever delay or push forward is part of God’s timing, and that He will provide the way.

                                                           Lori

We're Getting Closer

You know your life has changed when you enjoy getting mail from Homeland Security. We received our USCIS approval today! This is the I-797 form that we’ve been waiting, and waiting for, and waiting for….  As it turns out, having our fingerprints made early did not speed up the process for us. It seems that many families are in the same boat as us; trying to get our dossier to China by Oct.1 so that we do not have to meet additional requirements. Anyway, a copy of the I-797 will be notarized, certified, and authenticated the first part of next week and then sent on to  Children’s Hope International to become part of our dossier.

We found out yesterday that one of the papers we had already turned in for our dossier needs an affirmation statement added by the notary. This should be an easy fix; I hope. Along with the I-797 copy and the corrected paper, we still need to send passport size photos of each of us and a family photo as well as our letter of petition. This is a letter that we’ve written to the Officials of the People’s Republic of China requesting to adopt a child from China. In the letter we request a girl 12-36 months with a minor correctible need. We are anxiously waiting for our referral; maybe we’ll have one by next month. I can’t wait to see my baby girl’s face.

Lori

Dear Friends and Family

As most of you know we feel that God has called us on this journey to provide a “forever” family to a child through the process of adoption. We have started down this path of adoption and will be excited to bring a child into our home within the next six months or so. We have felt led to pursue a child from China, and we are now waiting for the specific child God has for us.

This road to adoption is full of many joys as well as challenges, the greatest joy being that we will soon have another child join our family, and the greatest challenge being finances. The costs of adoption include the expense of a home study, adoption agency, in-country fees, travel, etc., with the total cost ending up somewhere around $29,000.

We were recently awarded a matching funds grant to help with the expenses of our adoption through Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc. , a non-profit operating foundation. Hand in Hand will match funds that are donated through our friends and family for the expenses of our adoption. All funds received through our friends and family will be matched dollar for dollar by Hand in Hand up to our awarded grant amount of $5,000. That means that if we raise $2,500 from friends and family, Hand in Hand will match those funds for a total grant of $5,000.  All donations are tax-deductible. Funds received over the grant amount will also go toward our adoption as long as they are postmarked by Oct. 14, 2011.

You may click on the link to the right of this post to view our grant award letter that will explain more about the matching grant program from Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc. You can find out more about Hand in Hand through their website at www.handinhandadopt.org. If you have further questions about our Hand in Hand matching grant, please feel free to email us at adoptionjourneytochina@gmail.com.

Please send all donations made payable to “Hand in Hand Christian Adoption” postmarked by Oct. 14 to: (for tax purposes please include our name on the outside of the envelope only…do not put our name on the check itself)

          Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.

          James Brent and Lori Lance

18524 Juniper Street

Gardner, KS 66030-9147

Thank you for your prayerful consideration in helping a child find a “forever” family.

Walking Hand in Hand,

J. Brent and Lori Lance

USCIS Approval!

It’s been awhile since I last posted. We did not get USCIS approval by Sept. 1  as we had hoped, but our adoption agency is now saying that if we get our dossier to them by the week of Sept. 12, we will probably still be ok. OK, as in make the Oct. 1 deadline for having our dossier in China. I've already sent our agency most of the papers that make up the dossier. 

That being said, we got our approval today! I spoke with the agent handling our case this afternoon; she was working on our application at the time. She then emailed me later to say that we were approved. This is a big moment in the process. We should have the form we need from them by Friday. It will go to China with us, but a copy of it has to be notarized, certified, and authenticated. It will then be turned in to Children’s Hope as part of our dossier.  This piece of paper will have to be hand carried to Springfield for certification at the Sec. of State’s office, then hand carried to Chicago to the Chinese Consulate, and then to St. Louis to our adoption agency. This will obviously take more than one day because of travel time and business hours.

On another note,  $4,650 will be due when we turn in the final papers of our dossier. Sadly, we did not receive the interest-free adoption loan that we applied for; we were told that they simply did not have the funds available. I sent off an application to another interest-free adoption loan provider today. We did, however, receive a matching grant from Hand In Hand. They are a Christian organization, and they are willing to match dollar for dollar donations up to $2,500. I will post more info. on  that tomorrow.

So far God has provided the money that we've needed for this adoption. My family has been a huge help as well. We have to believe that God will continue to provide us with the ability to do what He's called us to do.

Keep praying on our little one's behalf.

                                                                         Lori