Something a Little Different

 
                 This entry is going to be vastly different from any of my other entries so far.  I also am choosing not put a link to this on Facebook.  I believe those that truly love and know us will check for new entries on their own.  This is fairly new for me to post something like this so I just don't know that I'm ready to advertise yet. ha  So God put something on my heart today and many days before this, but especially today.  Today God reminded me that as Christians we are to be DIFFERENT than non-believers.  If we aren't that different, or our only difference is how we spend our Sunday mornings, I believe we are DECEIVED!  The way to Heaven is narrow and few will enter! 
                         " Forgive me Lord for being sucked in to things the world says is ok or normal.  Help me not to judge others lifestyle choices without condoning them.  Help me to be a RADICAL Christian and not luke warm.  For no man can serve two masters.  Help me to be a light in this dark world and let my life never hinder another believer or justify a non-believer.  Help me to remember that I am but an ALIEN in this world and my true home is in Heaven with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. "  Amen
                            Today I was also reminded that we are truly in the middle of a mission field right here in Holmes county.  I ask that all of my fellow believers join me in praying for those among us who don't believe, or those who profess Christianity but whose lives don't reflect that.  May God have mercy on us all.

Just Us


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My youngest baby:)



Baby Steps

Greetings on this somewhat gloomy, but nice and warm February 1st!  Hard to believe its really February already.  Once again its been a while since my last entry.  I really just did'nt have anything to write and still don't have anything just overly exciting but we have made a few baby steps;)  Reuben and I got our date in the mail from homeland security to go to Cleveland and get fingerprinted at the Federal Building.  The date and time is given to you by them and is non-negotiable.  If you fail to show up your entire application is void and you have to re-apply. Well the date was on a Friday morning at 8am which just happened to be the morning of the worst snow storm of the season so far. So we left at 5:30 in the morning and inched our way up there me chugging coffee all the way.  We finally made it to downtown Cleveland in about zero visibility roads totally covered and discovered that apparently folks that live and work in Cleveland don't go to the bathroom!  Ha!  Not a public restroom to be had.  It's funny now but wasn't at all at the time.  So anyway we made it to the building and my lovely husband decided to try and take a pocket knife through security.  nice.  Needless to say he no longer is the owner of a pocket knife.  Other than that it was un-eventfull and we got home safely. 
          So yesterday we got a letter in the mail from homeland security saying our I-800 imigration form is approved! yay So next we work on getting all the seals from the County, state, and federal goverment as well as the Chinese consulat.  It is so complicated even I dont understand so I wont try to explain it but once that is done we should be ready to send our Dossier to China to be approved!  Once that is approved we will be"logged in" with China and our agency can officially start looking for a baby for us!!!  This sounds like a few short steps but really is months away.
             While we wait we are trying to fill our time doing things to prepare for bringing our little one home!  We got the baby's room ready to be re-modeled which Reuben will hopefully work on tonight:)  Also we are planning a trip to Florida the end of this month.  It's exciting to think that, Lord willing, this will be our last vacation as a family of two.
             I also wanted to add that Reuben and I have been dicovering just how many local people have added to their families through adoption!  We are excted to get to know some of these special people and their children.
                            I will keep you all posted if and when we make any more progress! 

Don't trust the post office

Well I'm sorry to say there has been another setback.  A few weeks ago we sent our final paperwork into the agency.  This was to be the last of our preliminary paperwork including those medical forms we did and re-did quite a few times as well as a LARGE personal check to the agency and who knows what all.  The next step after these papers was up to the agency and we had a hard time adjusting to this process finally being out of our hands and up to someone else to take it and run with it.  But oh what a RELIEF  to be just waiting and excitedly imagining how things are going!  Reuben mentioned a few times that the check he wrote still hadn't cleared and he wondered why.  We let it go for a while thinking that they must be sooo busy working on our stuff the just hadn't thought to cash it yet.  Last week Reuben finally got suspicious and e-mailed the agency.   To our horror they said the never received a thing!  Our precious packet of final paperwork is officially lost in the mail!  We are crushed to say the least.  It took me a while to even be able to write this blog post.  We have lost at least 4-5 weeks in our adoption process not to mention having to re-do some papers including the infamous medical forms!ahhhhh  Can this really be happening??  Don't worry we canceled that check.  So you may be asking yourself why we aren't trying to track that package.  Well unfortunately in his hurry to get that mailed Reuben said "priority"  instead of "certified" when he mailed it and the promptly lost the receipt he got.  Oh well we all make mistakes.  So back to the paperwork.  We just decided we need to just get over the shock and get back to it.  I really don't like seeming like a negative Nellie on this blog and it was never meant to be a place to vent or complain but at the same time I want it to be"real" and this process is not always happy happy happy so I hope you all will bear with me as I hope to have positive things to say soon!  Thank you all for your prayers for us through this crazy but worth it ride!

a bit discouraged...

Hello to everyone on this cloudy, but relaxing Tuesday afternoon.   I am sorry to say that I am feeling just a little bit discouraged about our adoption process today.   We got a copy of our homestudy in the mail the other day for us to read and sign and realized there were quite a few errors in it.  Reuben and I went through and fixed everything and let the agency know, no biggie right?  Right.  We also got OUR medical exam sheets back AGAIN with some missing or mixed up information that needed fixed.  We fixed that.  So Reuben talked to the lady from the agency today who is helping us with the dossier process and we realized that it's looking like its going to be towards the middle or even end of January until we are ready to send our dossier to China!  It takes 2-3 months after that to get logged in with China and then we can officially start waiting.  So I start doing the math.  I'm thinking to myself that it could technically be another year until we travel to get our little one! What!  And that is why I'm discouraged.  But I remind myself that God's timing is perfect and we keep saying we are not in a hurry anyway.  We need time to get the financial end of this in order so what am I freaking out about.  Just being impatient I guess:)  On a happier note we have been checking out some travel tips from other families who have adopted from China and got some good ideas!  Like what to bring lots of and what not to worry about because it's easy to get over there or you don't really need it.  If any of you have travel tips you'd like to share with us please do!  Send it to facebook or e-mail me:)  Also we would appreciate your prayers for us during this exciting but trying time.  There are so many ups and downs through all of this.  I hope Reuben will start working on the baby's room soon so maybe I will figure out how to post some pics.  He is also planning on building a super cute toy box!  Can't wait!!! 

A very interesting weekend.

Well I've been itching to write an update on our blog but to be honest I didnt really have any updates to report! But, Reuben and I went to Ravenna over the weekend to have our adoption training classes.  It was Saturday from 8:45am to 5:00pm with a lunch break and Sunday from 8:45am to 1:00pm.  We heard so much good information I don't know where to start and what to share and what not to share.  The main thing that sticks out in my mind I guess was the information on bonding and attachment especially in the first days and weeks after getting home from China.  The social workers from the agency couldn't get done saying how important it is to have family time for those weeks and to "hibernate" as they put it avoiding lots of visitors and comotion.  As you can imagine social workers are not very popular with Grandparents and other family members! ha They also told us not to push our child toward independence or doing things like giving up bottles and potty training and just let them be a baby and even regress if necessary.  Also the importance of an adoption clinic vs a regular pediatrition.  Today we got to hear from a birth mother who gave her baby up for adoption when she was fifteen and also a couple who adopted two girls from China.  All in all it was soooo interesting however it was a lot of information to process so I may update with thoughts or if I remember something I want to share.  Well to say the least I'm exhasted so until another time...

Everythings coming together:)

                                       Once again its been quite a while since my last entry.   We have finished our part of our homestudy except for Reuben needing to email the dog's shot records to the social worker.  I'm so relieved that the interview stuff is officially done as far as I know!  We recieved the paperwork for our Dossier a couple weeks ago and are working on that.  A lot of what we did for our formal application carries over to the Dossier so that is nice!  I had to write a letter of intent to the Chinese Goverment saying that we will not abuse or abandon the child and such, I totally procrastinated on that but finally wrote it tonight in about five minutes.  We both applied for and recieved our passports in the mail. yay!  So we are reallly hoping that by monday we could be prettty much ready to send in our papers to the adgency:)  Next step, waiting to get logged in with China and after we are logged in we are officailly "waiting"  for a child to be reffered to us!  Sorry if a lost anyone with all this mumbo jumbo. Ha, just wanted to give an update.  It's definetly starting to feel more real :D