The phone call

Today was the day we had "the phone call".  It's a conference call with the China team and its purpose is to go over the "openness list".  What is that?

It's a list of special need conditions that you are asked to check a YES or NO or Willing to discuss box.    It lists things such as brain conditions, missing limbs, cleft palate, blood disorders, autism, down syndrome, and on and on.  It's tough.  

You are basically asked to "chose" your openness to such.  This is the 3rd time we've had to go over this, and this call was to confirm those decisions as YES or NO.   Bottom line:  It SUCKS!
We will love our child unconditionally, without a doubt, but this form is asking us to chose special needs in a way that determines which children we will get referred to.   

I ask any of you reading this to continue to PRAY over all the waiting children.  Pray for our little one, and that we will have a peace in knowing that THIS child is the one God brought to us.

May His plan unfold according to His will.  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord...." Phill 4: 5-6

Stay closely tuned.  

The wait is on

We are waiting.   

How our adoption process works is that every step we are now taking is leading us to a:  referral.  This means that once our (dossier), documents we just completed, gets sent to China,  it gets translated and authenticated and reviewed.   This takes about 3 weeks.  After that, we are ready to get matched with our child.

Our files get assigned to a team that will go through all the waiting children and they will "match us" with a little boy.  

However, we cannot get to this point, until we have the money owed, raised.  We currently need:  $2556.00

Our paperwork will stay at the global headquarters in Michigan until the money is raised.  This is hard, because we want so badly to see our little boy.  Who is he?  Who has God chosen for us to be son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin and friend?

Current Fundraiser:   We are collecting TENNIS SHOES( teen & adult sizes ONLY) .  We get money raised by the weight of the shoes we collect.  If we collect 500 shoes, we could raise $750!  This is HUGE for us.  Please consider donating.  Shoes must be clean, good condition.  We have a drop box at my store, or you can contact me and we would be willing to come and collect them from you.   If you have a unique way you can help us collect, please do!   The more it weighs, the more we raise.  

We  only have 5 more weeks to collect 10 boxes or 500 pair!  We need to have shoes put in U-Haul style shipping boxes (extra large).   If you want to purchase a box and put it in a location to collect for us, we would gladly come and pick it up.    

Thank you for following our journey, praying for us and our little boy, and supporting us.   

Soon, we will be able to see his precious little face.  

Waiting for our referral

Where we currently are:
Our dossier (paperwork to China) will be sent off this week and goes to Michigan to the global agency where it is reviewed.  It cannot be sent off to China unless we pay $3100 that is due for this part of the process.
It's very hard at this point, because we cannot get our referral (picture and file of our little boy) until this amount is paid.
Today, I woke up to a message on our go fund me account that said we had just received a donation of $530!   Praise God.

We long to see a pic of this beautiful little boy we dream of calling our son and brother.  As I looked back on what we've raised from the start of this journey, I saw God's work at hand because up until now, we've had all the money raised through fundraisers and the generosity of many people we call friends and family.

Please continue to pray for this entire journey and pray for our little boy.  We cannot wait to hold him in our arms.  We feel like we are finally getting closer to seeing him.  We trust that the funds will just show up when perhaps we least expect it.  God is capable no doubt!

Thanks for following.

Stay tuned.

Another Approval!

To catch everyone up on what's been happening with our journey.   For the past few months, I have been working on gathering a multitude of paperwork to complete the requirements for our dossier:  which is all the paperwork so we can be registered to adopt in another country.

The last thing I have been waiting for so our dossier can be sent off to China is our next approval called the 1-797 which officially approves our 1800-A application.  Are you confused yet?  (:   

I called to check on our status and after getting a recording most times, TODAY I talked to a real person!   She said that our 1800-A was approved yesterday.  Our official approval letter (needed to complete our dossier), is on it's way to our mailbox.  

Our petition has been accepted by our government, which is awesome news.

What's next?

It's exciting, because now we get ready for our referral.  Once our dossier packet is sent to China and reviewed, we will have a long conference call with the China team to go over our special needs openness form (which goes through all the medical needs and such that our child could potential have) and we have a detailed discussion of what our specific openness is for our child.  It will be a tough phone call, but for us, we totally trust in God to prepare us and prepare our little boy for what is best for everyone.  It may seem odd to some that we are asked to "chose our child's special need", but it's just how it has to be in this situation where the children are in orphanages with many unknowns.   We have to trust what we know we can best provide for and commit ourselves 100% to his needs and care.  

Once we are "matched' with a potential child, we have 24-48 hours in which to access his medical care needs and review it with a our medical team.  

 This is an exciting, but cautious time, as you are making a decision on who will be this child you will call your own.  Can you believe it?  Soon, we could be sharing with you a picture of this precious boy .  Amazing to think about.

We ask our friends and family to PRAY.  Pray for us as we make this decision.  Pray for all the waiting children.  Pray specifically for our little boy, that we will have peace in our hearts and know he is the one meant to be ours.  

I'm also on Instrgram now, for quick updates, so follow me on:  Instagram/theprairiemama