Update...

Friends have asked recently how things are going with our adoption process... painstakingly slowly is what I'd like to say, is how it feels (although in reality things are moving along), when your child is halfway across the world and you are 4, 6, or even 8 months away from going to meet him to bring him home. Nothing seems to be moving quite fast enough for this impatient momma.

We are making some progress though! We have been given our fingerprint appointment by the USCIS so will be doing that next week. Woo hoo!!! Unfortunately they are processing these applications reeeeally slowly right now, taking about 90 days on average :( We sent our application in on Oct 9th so are on day 35 right now (not that I'm counting or anything), about 1/3 of the way through this particular wait.

On the bright side we received a totally unexpected update on our precious son this past week! So grateful to hear how he is doing, to get a glimpse of him in the photo they sent. So very grateful to get to 'see' him but so hard too, to see how much he has grown up, to see how much we and he has missed out on. So.so.hard.

Wouldn't you know it but the day that we received the update on WH was the day that we packed his very first care package, letting him know that he has a momma, daddy, 3 sisters and a little brother who are praying for him every day and can't wait to bring him home. Praying for his precious heart as he (hopefully) receives this package and hears about his forever family. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have lived in an orphanage, in an institution, for almost 4 years... seeing people come and go, not knowing the love of a family, and then finding out that you have a family (whatever that is?!?). WH is a lot older than either of our other two precious adopted kiddos were when we brought them home. His age has really been on my heart and mind a lot lately. Find myself wondering what all he understands about family, if its something he has consciously hoped for, or something that he longs for without even knowing it.

Here's a glimpse of what we sent to our son...

So grateful for your prayers, words of encouragement during this time. I wish I could say that its easier the third time around but its just not.

Woo hoo!!!! I800A here we come!!!

So today was kindof a big day for us. Our social worker finalized (& notarized!) our home study!! I made a quick stop off at her office (between taking JJ to his follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon & Anna's orthodontist appointment) to pick our home study up and then drop it off at the wonderful USPS office to get it on its way to the USCIS (along with about 20 others pages of documents). We are now waiting on the USCIS to approve us as an adoptive family, which is currently taking about 80 days :( After that there are a lot of other steps before we even get close to bringing WH home but that's for another post...

This adoption journey is not for the faint of heart ya'll (can't believe I actually just said ya'll!!!). This last week has been *tough* on this mommas heart. I keep telling my wonderful hubby that I'm trying to be wise, to protect my heart (because in international adoption you just never know), but this week I feel like the opposite has been happening. All I have been able to think about is this dear dear boy, who I've never met, who I don't know at all, and yet I *ache* to have him home, to have him with us, with his family... SO while I am ecstatic that our home study is done, and our I800A is somewhere in the bowels of the USPS system, my heart is heavy with how much waiting is still ahead, with how much longer our son has to go without his family.

I glanced at a blog post last night, read the title and that was about it... I couldn't get past that title 'Gods timeline to XXX'. This journey of ours to our little one (we really need to decide on a name for him!!!) and his journey to us, for sure isn't happening according to our timeline... but that's ok, that's how it should be... Am choosing to trust and believe that its happening according to Gods timeline. It doesn't ease the longing for this little one but it does bring peace, which I am fighting to cling to, knowing that while we are doing everything we can to get to our son ASAP God knows and is with him and is orchestrating things, bringing us together in his time, according to his timeline, not our timeline.

So if you think of it, this adoptive momma could use your prayers... as could a precious little one in Ch*na who has no idea what's headed his way... in 6-8 months :)

We need help... again...

We are thrilled to announce that we are in the adoption process again, preparing to bring home another beloved son!! We didn't plan or expect to find ourselves adopting again so soon after bringing JJ home (just last year) but we are so excited about our newest son and can't wait for him to be home, living and being loved in our family! We saw this precious ones profile on a waiting child listing and prayed, and prayed, and prayed, for a family for him. After about 4 months of praying for him (and his future family- haha!) we felt like God was stirring our hearts, asking us if we would be willing to be the answer to our own prayers. Would we be the family to forever call this boy our son?? And so here we are, stepping out in faith to bring home our second son with some medical needs, the extent of which we won't fully know until he is home.

And that brings us to you, our friends and family. First, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped us bring EB home in 2009, and JJ in 2012. They wouldn't be here without your generosity and support! Asking for help (and again!) is not easy for me, is not something that I do well with... but I think God must be trying to teach me something because here we are again, in a position where we really need some help, which means asking for help. We would be so grateful if you would most importantly PRAY for us, for our son who is waiting, for the process, for however you feel led to pray. We would also be super grateful to anyone who feels led to partner with us financially and help us in this journey. Adoption costs a lot... our agency has told us that we are looking at between $28-$30K USD... eeeekk!

Soooo to help with the cost, we have 2 main fundraisers that we are doing. The first is simply a way to donate money for our adoption through GoFundMe. A very generous donor has agreed to match every dollar that is donated up to $3000. Right now we are at $1100, so with the donors gift we are really at $2200! So grateful! The second fundraiser we are doing is through a wonderful organization called Chrome Buffalo, which was started by some dear friends of ours. We will receive $11 for every t-shirt purchased through our drive on Chrome Buffalo. Our 10 day chrome buffalo drive is HERE and starts today sept 29th and will finish Oct 9th... so if you want a shirt be sure to get one quickly :)

Thank you to everyone who has come alongside us, prayed with us, encouraged us, and helped us bring our kiddos home. We are forever grateful, forever changed by the blessing of our kids! I'll be posting updates here on the blog about our process and also about our son as/if we get any. His 4th birthday is coming up in the spring. It would be a real miracle if we were able to travel by then, be with him for his birthday, but we are expecting that it will more likely be summer of 2014 before we get to bring him home.

Much love to you all!!!

Why adopt???

Why are we adopting??? again??? Isn't 4 kids enough??? and 2 of them adopted??? Why adopt again??? Oh I wish that I had a gift with words so that I could do this question justice... Why? because there are children who need families. Why? because I've experienced firsthand, through the adoption of my youngest brother, the difference a family can make in the life of a child. Why? because I've been blessed immeasurably by the gift of growing my own family through adoption. Why? because children with special needs are children too. They deserve to have a family who loves them and values them and accepts them, a family who can provide the care that their biological family felt unable to provide. Why? because God says in his word to care for the orphans and widows, to *show* love...

In the late 1980's my family was living in Hong Kong, which is now technically part of Ch*na. One morning my mom was reading an article in the local newspaper about girls in HK who were facing crisis pregnancies (in the chinese culture at that time sex wasn't talked about, girls often didn't know how they got pregnant, how long they had been pregnant etc)... and how these dear girls were going across the border into Ch*na to have late term (third trimester) abortions. My parents hearts were broken hearing how these young, young, and I mean *young*, girls felt they had no option but to have an abortion (that or be disowned/kicked out of home/on the streets). As a result of this, my parents started Mother's Choice... an organization that provided an alternative for girls who found themselves in this situation. It was a place where these girls could choose. They could choose life, choose to give birth to their babies, choose to parent them or choose to release them for adoption... Mother's Choice provided support, counseling, a place to live, job training... and also provided a loving home for these precious children who were waiting to be adopted. This is where I grew up. I grew up around precious girls who courageously chose life for their unborn babies, around precious girls who courageously chose to parent these little ones, around precious girls who courageously chose to release their children for adoption... This is where my heart for orphans was born.

We have adopted 2 precious children so far and are in the process of bringing home our 3rd (with 2 biological kids that makes 5 altogether! eek!)... who knows if this will be our last ;-) All we know is that we are trying to live out a life of obedience, a life of love, a life that shows that each and every life is valued, treasured, purposed. Adoption is not easy (and I'm not talking about the paperwork,or the waiting), there's lots of pain and heartache and difficulty in it but it is without a doubt oh.so.worth.it. Each of my children are worth it. 

PS If you're interested in reading more about by parent's story you can get my Dad's book HERE.
http://waitingforafather.com/

Adopting... whats invovled

So what all is involved in adopting from Ch*na? Part of that depends on which route you go, if you are in the traditional adoption program waiting for a healthy child or if you go through the waiting child program and adopt a child with special needs. This will be our third time through the waiting child program, second time with Ch*na (first time was through H*ng K*ng which while technically is part of Ch*na is a totally different adoption process) and their special focus program (which is children with more severe special needs).

First off is the Home Study which includes:
- hours of interviews with a social worker asking you questions about anything and everything personal,
- paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork (writing essays on yourself - your thoughts on adoption, your marriage and how it works, your growing up years, thoughts on your multicultural family, your parenting style, copies of everyone's birth certificates, marriage cert, green cards, final orders of adoption etc etc etc),
- a home inspection (which includes a whole host of things like illustrated fire escape plans- grateful we didn't need the fire marshal to come out and inspect our home this time around!),
- finances scrutinized,
- medical appointments for everyone (including TB skin tests which the hubby and I always fail due to having the BCG vaccine as kids in HK... so then we get to have chest xrays to ensure we dont have TB),
- background/fingerprint check to make sure we are not criminals,
- child abuse clearances from every state/country we've lived in over the age of 18,
- 6 reference letters (3 personal, 1 work, 1 school & 1 family),
- guardianship agreement document incase something were to happen to us - and these guardians must meet the minimum adoption requirement for Ch*na,
- pet vaccination records,
- documentation from our health insurance company saying they will cover our newly adopted child,
and more I'm sure, I just can't think of it right now :)

***This is where we are right now, waiting on a few of our clearances to come back and our SW to finalize our home study. We have also obtained about half of our dossier documents.***

After our home study is complete we then have to apply for and obtain an approval from the US Govt saying that we can adopt. This involves more paperwork and more fingerprinting.

While we are waiting on all of this we are working on the big D, our 'dossier', which is a set of papers that goes to Ch*na. Ch*na requires that all of these papers are issued within the last 6 months, which means we have to have original copies of the following documents newly created (no photocopies allowed!):

- our marriage cert (from HK - proves a little difficult to get)
- birth certs (one from HK and one from a state across the ocean... again, difficult to get)
- adoption petition
- financial statement
- police clearances from our county
- approval from the US govt
- employment letter for my hubby
- unemployment letter for me
- medical form on me
- medical form on hubby

Once we have obtained all of these documents they need to be *sealed*, which for our state means being notarized 5 times: first at a basic notary level, then by the county clerk, then by the state, then by the US sec of state, and finally by the Ch*nese Embassy in DC. Once we've done this our Dossier is reviewed by our agency and then sent on to Ch*na... Woo hoo!!! We are working hard towards this goal. Our agency has told us that its anywhere from 4-7months once our dossier goes to Ch*na to when we would travel to bring Wen home.

Here we go again!

Well, its official, we have started the adoption process again. We are thrilled to announce that we are adding another son to our crew!!!

We found out on August 15th that we have PA (Pre-Approval) from Ch*na to bring home this precious little one, our son. He is a few months older than JJ, so will be kindof like having twins, kindof...

We'll be posting more as we go along but wanted to get this up here, ask for prayers as we work our way through the adoption process. I know I must sound like a broken record but oh.my.word. the things you have to do to adopt... totally worth it in the long run, just wishing the run wasn't so long and so arduous... trying hard to keep my eyes fixed on the goal, on our precious son.

We would really covet prayers for our newest little one. We can't share many specifics on him yet but he's in a traditional orphanage... not in a foster home, not in an orphanage that has outside support...

It is so heartbreaking for this momma to know that while we are slogging our way through red tape upon red tape our precious son is without a momma to hold him and sing to him and comfort him when he's sick, without a daddy to wrestle with him and show him the world, without big sisters to love on him and teach him how to play dress up ;-), without a brother to play cars & karate with, without a forever family that is his... Precious boy we love you already and are praying for you, and praying for those who are taking care of you while we jump through the hoops.

PS Here's JJs referral pic, notice any similarities??? and they weren't at the same orphanage...

Summer Fun

Oh.my.word. I can't believe that it's been since February since I posted!!!! I wish I had time to go back and post on so many things that have happened but, yah, not likely to happen anytime soon. So in an attempt to get caught up, here are the high points:

First JJ had ear tube surgery in Feb,

Pre-op

Post op with big sis

In March EB had tube surgery,

Using the TV controller as phone ;-)

and she turned 6,

Hubby and his business partner received an addy award- so we got to go out :)

Hubby and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary (super grateful to my in-laws for coming out from N Ireland to stay with the kids)!

Then in April JJ had surgery to remove a cyst in his lip (we are SO grateful that it was not malignant!!!),

Pre-op, before he knew what was happening

Driving his car off to the OR. I *love* our childrens hospital!

Sleeping with his 'no-nos' for 3 weeks :(

hmmmm, then what??? Ah yes, a trip to Gatlinburg to spend time with sweet friends

ALL the kids... The 4 of us parents were *slightly* outnumbered ;-)

In May friends from Hong Kong came and stayed for a week

We also finished up school in May and headed off to the beach with my parents for vacation. Oh what a treat that was! So so grateful to my big sis for staying home and taking care of JLC so that my parents could come with us to FL.

And there were about 50 Speech therapy sessions, a couple of well child checks, visit to the orthopedic dr, big annual cardiology exam, post-op visits with the plastic surgeon and the ENT...

Hubby had a birthday...

Auntie & Uncle came to visit from the UK - thats the United Kingdom NOT the University of Kentucky as many have assumed ;-)... Auntie came to visit from Hong Kong... Has been a very full and wonderful few months.

I can't believe how incredibly blessed I am, married to a truly amazing man, blessed to be the momma to these 4 precious ones... AND in process to add one more sweet child to our brood!!!! Praying and paperworking our way to the newest Strachan... more to come on him soon!

School

It has been a while since I've posted... have lots on my mind, which will have to wait for another post, but wanted to at least get a few pics up from school today.

The big girls doing some fraction fun with mommas 'special' homemade manipulatives

EBs daily sheet... purchased here but slightly modified for our needs

 

Something to keep JJ out of trouble - and learning too. Little man is sorting his bugs by color

JJs newest skill - cutting! He concentrates SO hard when he's working with his scissors!

It really is such a joy and privilege to be able to teach my kiddos, to watch them learn and grow... There are definitely days that are challenging (most recently due to a sweet little 2 year old - who is just that, a toddler who is curious about *everything* which means that sitting still/staying out of trouble for more than 1 minute is not part of his skill set - yet!), but overall I love having this time with them... getting to be the one who sees the light-bulb come on as they grasp a certain concept, or master a new skill... getting to hear their hearts and see God growing them, developing their character.

Tomorrow is a bigger day than normal... JJ is having 'surgery' to have ear tubes put in (again- his first pair have fallen out). This will be our first time with this particular surgery, his first set of tubes were put in in China... We know this is a short, easy, and not very risky surgery (all things considered) but this momma is starting to feel anxious, cant wait to have my son in my arms in recovery.

CNY 2013 - year of the snake

We are trying to maintain some of our kids Chinese cultural heritage while living here in the deep south, not an easy task, but something we are working at... To celebrate Chinese New Year we attended an event that was put on by a local group that we are a part of, Families with Children from China. The kids had a blast! The highlight for them was of course the lion dance (they now know the difference between the lion and dragon dances). In the past EB has been terrified of the lions and the drums, clinging tightly to momma but this year she couldnt get close enough! JJ loved it too!

On the way home afterwards hubby was asking the girls to tell us their favorite part of the night... JJ interrupted saying "uh guh, uh guh" (what he calls himself). We then asked him what his favorite part was and he responded by roaring, of course it was the lions! Super cute and SO smart. Even though he is a man of little words he still works hard to communicate, making sure that he is a part of it all :)

Not the greatest pic - but grateful to at least have us all in it together

They LOVED getting all dressed up in their new cheongsams

JJ just cracks me up in this one!

Front row seat at the lion dance

Daddy! The lions are over there - turn around!

AG giving her lai see to the lion.

So excited that they 'fed' the lion ;-)

Captivated!

Not too bad for the deep down south ;-)

Ack!

I cant believe that its been this long since I posted!!!!! I'll try to catch up a few events later but for now... We had the most wonderful Christmas, JJs first Christmas home. It was so amazing having him here with us this year, so very different from last year, when we were in the painful waiting stage of adoption.

We took the kids to Colorado for Christmas, had a really special time with all of mommas family - Grammy & Pop-pop and all the aunties & uncles were there (was their first time meeting JJ with the exception of Grammy & Pop-pop). Some of the highlights for the kids (and mom & dad) include our tradition of chopping down the Christmas tree with the ax (everyone gets a swing, some more supervised than others ;-) ), lots and lots of sledding, skiing, mushroom juice (aka hot chocolate), fondu, plowing the driveway with Pop-pop, decorating (or desecrating????) Pop-pops elk - turning him into Rudolph, bowling, a non-eventful event, snowballs down auntie K's pants ;-)... the list is endless! It was such a wonderful time with family, came home feeling oh so grateful for my parents, my siblings (& their spouses)... so blessed by their love for my kiddos!

Now we are back to the grind, the girls were back at their tutorial today, JJ had his developmental screening for Early Intervention Services (speech therapy is the real need right now), and we've only got 3 drs appointments on the calendar so far for this month ;-) well, those and a vet visit for a certain canine ;-) but on to some pics...

First time traveling since his big trip home from China

3.5hr layover....

This is what traveling with 4 kids will do to ya ;-)

First time in the snow- had to borrow sisters old snowpants & boots until we made it to the store the next day

Headed up the mountain to get the tree!

Off for some serious fun - sledding & 4wheeling!

AG and her Ungoo

Lunch break for the skiiers!

Before their first run down the slopes

Mmmmm making lemon meringue pie with Auntie A... Thanks for the inspiration Amelia Bedelia!

Forget snowball down the pants - just dump Auntie K in the snow ;-)

AG and her English uncle

Woo hoo!!!!!

One of the only pics of EB *not* eating snow ;-)

Gorgeous!

Getting Dada with some big snow

JJ was in the heaven - snow, noisy machines, dada, what more could a boy want!

The desecration

Sweet sweet decorating

EB with her fav Ungoo

AG and Auntie A

Multi-purpose gifts! Lounge wear AND pajamas! Bonus!

Matching jammies

Auntie K & Uncle B

Cuddle time!

Plowing the driveway with Pop-pop

Incredibly blessed!