Annie Joy Morgan

Here is it December and I am way behind on this blog thing.  Getting a referral for a child is such an interesting experience.  I wasn't expecting a call on October 15th AT ALL.  My cell phone rang and the Virgina area code got my heart racing.  There was no reason for our agency to call me unless they had a file for us to look at.  So began our official journey to Annie Joy Morgan.  Justin and I consulted doctors, prayed and discussed, and studied the information we had and then I submitted our letter of intent to adopt Han Yu Lu on October 22nd.  She will be 2 years old when we get to travel for her, in January.   She will sadly have her 2nd birthday just a couple of weeks before we are there to scoop her up and tell her she is loved.  There are many hoops to jump through between that referral call and your Gotcha day..but we are slowly getting all our hoops jumped through.  We received our RA (referral approval) on October 26th.  Currently, we are waiting on TA (travel approval) which could be next week or in 4 weeks, however, the trend has been to get TA fairly quickly.

These are the referral pictures that we received from our agency.  They were taken when she was about 14 months old.  What a cutie!

It is certainly hard to not love that little face!  We struggled with her name...since we hadn't already decided what it would be before we saw her face.  Justin kept deciding on a name and then would call her by that name until I didn't like it and would throw out something else.  hahaha!  Poor Justin!  It is hard to name a person in a picture!  We finally settled on Annie Joy and haven't looked back.  Annie was born in the same city as Emma and resides at the same orphanage.  We never dreamed we would go back to the same Province but God had another idea.  We were blessed to find out that a recent mission team had spent time with Annie and were able to send some additional pictures of her.  

She maybe doesn't have the best hair cut in the world..but she has hair!  We were told she is shy and cried easily when strangers came into the room.  This is good!  We want her to be afraid of strangers, and while it will make it very difficult for her on the day we shake her world upside down, in the long term it will be so great for her attachment to us.  Once she decides we are safe...she will stick with us for safety.   Right now I am waiting for an update on her as well as more pictures!  Checking my email WAY too many times a day, hoping they will arrive even when I know it is night time in China.   

Projected travel will be January 6th or January 20th and that is what we wait for now.  So between now and then...I am the queen of lists...lists for everything....Christmas presents, menus, sporting events and outing between now and January, to do lists, shopping, Costco, and grocery lists, packing lists for EIGHT people, things to take care of lists...etc etc etc...but I am really working to not forget the most important list...my thankful list!  Thankful for this season that we celebrate our Saviors birth, thankful for God's leading us to adopt again, thankful for each of our uniquely created children, thankful for our many extended family members that are so precious to us, thankful for the memories we have of Grandpa Miller and Grandma Knox who left this earth in the last year, thankful for our church family and our community, thankful for Jesus Christ and His love for us!  There are details to work out, future doctors appointments that are scary, milestones that we will slowly reach but not without much difficulty, but we know He is in the details and He delights when we seek Him through each day, task, goal, difficulty, season, and joy we experience.   

LID

I am really so very happy to report that we are finally logged in!  LID is the 'log in date' for a dossier once it has reached the appropriate place in China.  Basically, having LID means we can now be matched!  At ANY TIME!  So exciting!

Getting to LID was not without its bumps.  Looking back it is sort of humorous, but it wasn't at the time.  Justin and I got our fingerprint appointments in record time.  Before harvest started even.  So we left early one morning and made it 1/3 of the way to Spokane when BAM...lost the transmission in our car.  Dead on the side of the road with 45 minutes to get to our appointment at the Spokane Court House.  I remembered, from last time we did all of this, that the employees at this place were less than friendly and would probably not take us late.  So commenced the panic.  We were rescued at the side of the road shortly after sending out an SOS (thanks Ben and Andy).  So we raced to Spokane in my brother-in-laws pickup.  All the way up I called and clicked through a myriad of options on the USCIS's phone system...just to find out that is was, indeed, up to the local people to take us or not.   So I walked into that room prepared to beg...25 minutes late...and was met by the nicest man.  He had even lived in Colfax in his lifetime and worked as a sheriff.  Score!  Thank you Jesus for letting that work out!!

So then we waited for our fingerprints to be approved...and waited...and waited!  Our family coordinator assured me that the wait time is variable (four words that are a constant companion in the adoption world).  Not to worry.  Just wait.  It should come within a week or two.   But at week 3 I was tired of waiting.  I called the USCIS and was told we weren't even in the system!  Our finger prints were lost.  What?  All worked out in the end, thankfully, because the nice man in Spokane had stamped my papers and I had them as proof.  So our documents were sent through a case worker and we received approval the next week.   All the documents went smoothly from my hands to the Washington State Secretary of State for approval (called certification) back to my hands.  Then everything went, again smoothly, to the San Francisco Chinese Consulate (Authentication), and back to my hands!  The same day I received those back...they made their way to our agency in Virginia and 2 days later...they were Fed-exed to China.  Long story short, as of 9/7/15 we are LID and our file will next head to translation!  Translation is also a 'variable wait'!  Surprise!

Now begins the very VERY 'variable' wait for "THE CALL"!   Praying for 'Little Sister' wherever she may be.  For His hand to be upon her, for her health and well-being, for loving arms to be holding her, and for the hearts of our other children to be prepared for her.   For insight into how and when to introduce her to our family & friends.   For my own heart and Justin's as we expand upon the already busy house we have here.  For joy to be ever-present in the mundane and difficult.  For each evenings dinner to always be full of laughter and love.  For the grace and wisdom to parent our children from hard places.  Thankful for the path we are on, for the bumps along the way, and trying to embrace the 'variable wait'!

check, check

May 26th our home study was finalized, signed, and notarized by our social worker.  YAY!  I received it in the mail on June 4th and high tailed it to the Fed-Ex office to send it off to the US Department of Homeland Security.  It arrived there today!  At this location in Texas, the paperwork and application called the I800-A get processed. It is called "Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country".   A case worker will be assigned and will run through our paperwork with a fine toothed comb and then schedule us at a federal government office (Spokane Court house) to have fingerprinting done.   This can take 1 1/2 -2 months time.   So that is where we are at...beginning, today, a 1 1/2-2 month wait for fingerprinting!  Hoping it goes quickly!!

Our agency sent an email today saying that the China program is moving quickly and they are expecting many new files in the coming months!  How exciting!  Never know when we might get a call!  We are probably 2-3 months out before we are logged in with China.

..And then there were SIX!

We are thrilled to announce our 2nd adoption!!  While we were never sure or committed to a timeline, we always knew from day one of Emma's adoption, that we would return for another daughter!  So after much prayer, discussion, and re-adjusting what we *thought* were our plans this year...we applied to America World Adoption Association on February 9th.  

So now we are in the "paper pregnancy" phase of the adoption.  This paper chasing part of an adoption can be so scary and daunting but I must say the 2nd time around it is much easier.  We have collected all of the required documents and have completed our home study process.  We are currently waiting for our home study to be finalized by the director in our adoption agency.  Once that is complete, we will be given a notarized copy of the document and the next phase of getting authorization begins.   The home study gets sent to Homeland Security to be processed and we apply for permission to bring an orphan into the US.  After that..we send all our documents for verification in two separate places.  More on that later...

Starting a 2nd adoption has been very different for me.  Just like being pregnant the 2nd time you know what to expect in a way...and spend a lot of time thinking of the labor part.  It is painful and hard.  It requires more of you than you think you can give.  It requires a mind set on the 'bigger picture'.  Adoption is like that.  It is labor.  Although not the physical 'give me an epidural' type of labor..it is a labor of love nonetheless.  One that requires more of me than I think I can give at times.  The waiting is hard...right now we are on the fourth week of waiting on other people to get our home study completed.  Each of the next phases are waiting games as well.  The ultimate "WAIT" is that phone call we will eventually get from our agency saying "we have a referral for you, are you interested in seeing it?"  Emma's referral came so unexpectedly, so who knows what will happen this time?  We wait to see the face of who we are waiting for, is she born yet?  Is she in a safe place?  Are her caregivers answering her cries?  Will her needs be something that scare me or will they be on the list of "I can handle that"?  My comfort in all of this is that I don't have wait and worry.  I am only called to wait.  I can't claim control over any of this...but I can rest in the Hands of He who is in control.   Justin and I are so excited to add this special little one to our family and we are resting in the fact that she is precious in the sight of our Father and He is watching over her.   We are excited for the day when all the waiting will unite us with her and she will have a family.  What a day that will be!  Praying for the grace to wait patiently.  Praying for her little heart and health.  Praying for the hearts of my five at home that they would be prepared for her brokenness and the love it will take to restore her heart.  Praying for my fear of driving a passenger van!!  hahahaha!  Seriously!   Can't wait to post our home study is complete...perhaps today??