Special Needs

I promised you a post about Hu Jing's special needs and now it's time to deliver.  Having more to write about keeps me busy while we await our I800 Approval and make our final fundraising push. Please see our Donate! tab and spread the word, people.  We're so close to our final goal!!!

Our Quiet Tiger's medical reports are glowing!  Seriously, she is one healthy little girl!  The medical report we received was quite detailed (compared to some) and included details from her first physical after she arrived at the orphanage in her province, plus an updated report when she was older.  She has been well cared for and has met all the age-related milestones.  In fact, our agency says they rarely see a referral like ours - a child so young and completely healthy yet still on the Waiting Child List.

But there is 1 special need which we will need to investigate and seek our doctor's opinion.  Hu Jing was born missing her right hand.  It might be some sort of symbrachydactyly.  There's no way to figure out how or why it happened.  It could have been from amniotic banding, it could have been from an injury her birth mom may have sustained during pregnancy, or it could have just stopped developing for some random reason.  We may never know.

Since the link won't work on blogger today (grrrrr), here's a definition for what Hu Jing may have (we'll have a doctor make a diagnosis once we're home):

What is symbrachydactyly?
Symbrachydactyly (sim-brak″e-dak´tĭ-le) occurs during normal embryonic development, the hand initially forms in the shape of a paddle, and then eventually splits into separate fingers. Symbrachydactyly results when one or more fingers fail to form properly during this time. This hand disorder characterized by abnormally short fingers that are sometimes webbed or conjoined. Most children with symbrachydactyly have the "short finger" type in which the thumb is essentially normal but the remaining fingers are short, stiff and may be webbed. In other cases, only the thumb or the thumb and little finger are present. In more severe cases, all fingers are missing and small nubbins of skin and soft-tissue (little stumps) are located where the fingers would have developed. Research continues into further understanding why this happens. [emphasis mine]

I find it really funny how we've been surrounded by folks with limb differences in the more recent past.  When I started working at our NE church's childcare ministry on Tuesday morning, they asked me where I wanted to serve.  I just said, "Put me where your greatest need is."  I find it absolutely no coincidence that I was placed in a room led by an adoptive mom.  She adopted a darling boy from China with a missing arm (not to mention a sweet, pretty girl from Vietnam.  Hi Honey Girl & Little Mister!).  I love following her blog and seeing all that her Little Mister faces in his young life. I have so much to learn from them!  She has introduced me to sites like Living One Handed, Lucky Fin Project and Born Just Right.  Amazing sites from amazing people in similar circumstances. 

And just this year, there is a teacher at C's school who also has a limb difference, missing her left arm just beneath the elbow.  I noticed her at the beginning of the year, weeks before we were matched with Hu Jing and I immediately thought maybe our daughter would have a limb difference.  Oh, God knew exactly what He was doing!  This teacher was female athlete of the year in high school and is a strong, confident, amazing woman.  We've introduced ourselves and shared our story and she's excited to meet our daughter and offer her help, advice and friendship.  I'm thankful to know her as we raise a daughter with 1 hand.

If you're at all curious, and I know you are, here is a picture of her hand, or lack thereof.  I have a close-up in her batch of referral pictures that shows some tissue where fingers started to form, but it's embedded in the document and it doesn't have good resolution for the blog.  So, you'll just get this cute version.  I can't wait to see all that she can do!

Hu Jing, you are fearfully and wonderfully made! We think you are perfect just the way God made you!

LOA!!!

IT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!  [insert sigh of relief, followed by uncontrollable sobbing, coupled with complete exhaustion]

In China's eyes, we have a daughter!  Today our agency received our LOA - Letter of Approval.  They are emailing it to us for our signatures, then we send it back so they can forward it to USCIS.  Hopefully within a month we will receive our I800 Approval.  Following that, the wait is only 7-12 weeks until we see our daughter face to face in China!

This LOA doesn't come without some drama, however.  Our agency knows Jay has a new job in CA and that he's been out there since last April.  Our Social Worker in Nebraska will have to add 2 or 3 sentences in a home study addendum stating as much.  Shouldn't take long at all and hopefully she can do that today or this weekend!

Now that we have our LOA, I am free to share her picture with you.  You've got to see this face!


This is the face of our DAUGHTER!

Her name is Hu Jing (pronounced HOO-jung) and we'll keep that as her middle name.  In Chinese her name means Quiet Tiger.  Be on the lookout for a blog post about how her name has special meaning for us.  Yes, we have chosen an English first name for her but we'll keep you in suspense.  Much like our pregnancies, we will keep her first name a secret until she's in our arms.

Hu Jing does have special needs and we will talk about them in a future post.  Normally I would never share personal medical information with anyone in any public forum, but her special need will be clearly visible to all of you and is not correctible.  So, just in the interest of preparing family and friends, I will share that info with you in the future.  Stay tuned.

For the time being I will not share info about where she is currently living.  When we travel, I'll will tell you what province she is from because we will have to fly there to meet her for the first time.  For now, I will protect her privacy and safety by keeping that info off of the internet.

Thanks for respecting her privacy on those 2 issues!

We are thrilled, excited, ecstatic, and in love!  We love you, Hu Jing - our Quiet Tiger -- and we are coming for you!

The Call

I love reading adoption blogs and hearing how others hear their call to adopt.  It's a journey for all of us.  So, share with us the next step as we drive the roads of international adoption.  You've got shotgun.  Jump into the passenger seat of my silver SUV with Nebraska license plates and enjoy the ride.

On a Tuesday morning at the end of August, we're parked in the school parking lot, a few minutes earlier than expected, so we're just sitting waiting.  The kids have their seatbelts unbuckled and are fiddling with carseats and kids stuff in the backseat when my cell rings.  I didn't recognize the number but we had a few minutes to spare before the school bell rang, so I answered it. 

"Hello, this is Brooke," I always answer when I don't recognize the caller ID.

"Hi Brooke.  This is E at La Vida and we actually have the file of a little girl for you to consider," she said calmly.

I couldn't believe my ears.  I know I must have said, "Oh my gosh," "You're kidding," or something like that.  This was the referral call we have dreamed of for over 2 years!  I had always hoped I'd get the call when I was home, with my husband, with the camera in hand, set to video mode so I could have it record every word that I heard, every word I uttered, the reactions on our faces, the tears of joy that we shed.  No such luck.  Jay was at work.  I was in the car.  Sure, the camera was in my purse but was the battery charged?  Sadly, no. 

With awkward giggles through happy tears flooding my eyes, I listened to the details of a little darling in China who needed a forever family.  I heard her age, her birthdate, the day she was relinquished, the orphanage where she has been living, her special needs that have her on the CCCWA waiting child list. 

"Do you want me to email the file to you?" I was asked.

"Oh my gosh, yes!"  I said happily but calmly. 

I was totally on the boarder of screaming with joy and it surprised me that I wasn't shouting from the rooftops.  I just kept giggling and crying, crying and giggling, to which my case worker only laughed herself.  I swear I could hear her smile over the phone.  Oh, the joy she must feel on those days when she gets to announce a long awaited miracle for waiting parents!

Having totally lost track of time, I'm thankful we didn't miss the school bell.  The phone call was quick and I was told to expect the file in 15 minutes via email.  I waited in the school yard with my boys for the school bell to ring and then called my husband immediately as I walked back to my car in the parking lot.  Not even 5 minutes had elapsed.

"I got it," he answered. 

No, "Hello."  No, "Hi, Hun."  No, "What's up?"  He had received the email and opened it in the midst of a webinar he was listening to by himself in his office.  I'm guessing he probably didn't get much out of the session!  He just said, "I got it."

I raced to my waiting email and saw it with my own eyes.  I saw the picture of a round faced baby girl with fuzzy black hair and chubby cheeks.  I read her name and hoped I was pronouncing it correctly.  I read through the English translation of all the info our caseworker gave to me over the phone.  I read the medical report.  Then I talked to my husband, who under the circumstances of our upcoming move to California, sounded quite hesitant.

"What do we do?" he asked.

His hesitation worried me.  I couldn't say no to this child unless God closed the door.  Thankfully, Jay didn't want to say no either.  But we discussed the issue of his new job in California and our house for sale and our lives and stuff still in Nebraska.  How can we make this happen? 

We quickly decided a talk with our agency was in order.  Over the course of 24 hours while we had this little darling's medical files reviewed by our pediatrician and our doctor neighbor, our agency decided that we could pursue this sweet girl even in the midst of our move.  So, we began the preliminary paperwork, due in a quick 48 hours to our agency, to lock this little one in for our family.  What a whirlwind!  It was a twister that left us busy, hurried, exhausted with one of those "good headaches" by mid-afternoon.  Our Letter of Intent (LOI) was submitted immediately to our agency who had it translated and then sent overseas.

On September 5, we received our preliminary approval that basically means at a glance, it looks like this little one will be ours.  China now pulls our dossier and goes through it with a fine toothed comb then hopefully they issue us a Letter of Approval (LOA) in the next 1-4 months.

In the meantime, we're praying for a miracle in the form of a house sale, or maybe not.  See, if our house sells quickly, then we won't have to delay our daughter for too long.  We'll have to update paperwork in California, but hopefully we can do that quickly while we await approval from China.  If the house sells after we get final approval from China, then we risk delaying her, maybe even for quite some time while we update paperwork at that time.  At the same rate, perhaps this is the reason our house hasn't sold at all.  Maybe we're going to get our daughter first.  It's hard to understand.  But it is what it is and God has it all under control.

We honestly don’t know how to pray or how to ask for help or advice.  We just need God to show up and show us the way to California and to China.  Would you pray He makes the path clear to us so that our daughter’s best interests are met?


And just as an editor's note, we will not be giving you our daughter's name, location, age, special needs or anything personal.  We will not even post a picture.  While we want to share this with you immediately, our agency has the best interests of the children in mind and asks their clients to sign a confidentiality agreement.  Rest assured, when she is legally ours and in our arms in China, we will post all the fun details!  Thanks for respecting us, our agency and our daughter!

LID!!!

My Facebook status today posted my 10 year anniversary!  And I also posted that a nice anniversary gift would be a contract on our house or our LID in China.  This evening I was shocked to actually get something we've wanted for so long...

We’re on the list!  Our dossier has been received in China and we have our Log In Date (LID)!!!!!  On August 9 our dossier was officially logged into the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption!  The “official wait” now begins and I’ve updated the ticker above.  Now it’s just a matter of time until we are matched with our daughter.  Our agency says they’ve never had a family wait longer than 6 months for a referral in this particular program.  They are hopeful we’ll go much sooner because we’re open to different age ranges and a long list of special needs.  Yet I proceed with caution because this adoption has not followed anyone's expected timeline.

So, happy 10 year anniversary to my husband!  I wonder what the next 10 years will hold, but I think it will include a trip to China at some point!

Go, No/Go

Do you remember this dialogue from Apollo 13?

-Apollo 13 flight controllers, listen up. Give me a go, no/go for launch. Booster.
- Go.

- Retro.
- Go.

- Fido.
- We're go, Flight.

- Guidance.
- Guidance go.

- Surgeon.
- Go, Flight.

- EECOM.
- We're go, Flight.

- G.N.C.
- We're go.

- TELMU.
- Go.

- Control.
- Go, Flight.

- Procedures.
- Go.

- INCO.
- Go.

- F.A.O.
- We are go.

- Network.
- Go.

- Recovery.
- Go!

- Capcom.
- We're go, Flight.

Launch control, this is Houston. We are go for launch.


I think you could just as well substitute adoption lingo in there and it would work quite fittingly. Allow me a little fun here…


La Vida this is Collins. Give me a go, no/go for Adoption.

- Application.
- Go

- Birth certificates
- Go

- Employment letters
- We’re go, Adopt

- Financials
- Financials, go

- Medicals
- Go, Adopt

- Background checks
- We’re go, Adopt

- Photos
- We’re go

- Passports
- Go

- Homestudy
- Go, Adopt

- Payments
- We are go

- I-797
- Go

- Authentication
- Go!

- DTC
- We’re go, Adopt

China, this is Collins, we are go for Adoption!

Going through my checklists just reminded me of the movie. So, anyone wondering what DTC is? In China adoption lingo, it stands for Dossier To China. Friends, we are go adoption! As of TODAY our dossier has been launched and is on its way overseas. God speed, dossier!

Our agency has already been looking at partial lists of waiting children to see if any would be a potential match.  If they find a little girl who seems like the perfect fit, they can lock her in before our dossier is even registered in China.  But in order to look at the full list of waiting children, we need to wait for our dossier to be received and logged in (estimated to take 2-4 weeks from today).  Please see our Prayer Request page for new requests!

Everyone Counts

For those of you who might want to read what I wrote for Jay’s message at church this weekend, here it is, complete with pictures that were up on the side screens.  The series they are in is about obscure Bible characters and Jay taught about Cornelius and how he was a Gentile among the Jews, someone who would have been considered an outcast.  One of our new church’s values is that everyone counts, no matter what.  Jay asked me to write a piece for him about how the value of everyone counts plays a part in our decision to adopt a child with special needs.  Jay had to cut a bit of it for timing purposes, but this is the full version below.  I hope you enjoy.

Everyone Counts

The night I first met Hilary at a Scooter’s Coffeehouse on 84^th Street in Lincoln was one that changed my family.  Introduced to her by a good friend of mine, Hilary shared pictures of her daughter adopted from Kyrgyzstan.  Oh, that sweet face with the chubby cheeks that your lips would get lost in if you kissed them!  And believe me, you wouldn’t be able to resist puckering up and laying one on each satiny cheek.  I listened to a proud mom’s story as I flipped through the photo album that she always kept in her bag for precisely these moments.  A dozen or so pictures into the album and I was alerted to the difference.  Sweet baby Anara was born missing the tips of some fingers and toes and for that reason she could have been unwelcomed in the Kyrgy society.  By the grace of God, she was placed in an orphanage, her adoption file listed online, only to be found on the other side of the globe, by my new friend who knew this little baby girl was the missing puzzle piece to their family.

From that night on, I knew my heart had been melted, destroyed, crushed by the reality that people in this world deem others as misfits. How could someone say no to such a child as this? It happens every day. Day after day I receive an email or two, sometimes 12, I kid you not, from agencies trying to place orphans with medical needs that label them unworthy in their countries of origin. How my heart agonizes over their faces. If I could only bring each of them home! Countless times I have sat on the stool in my kitchen staring at the computer screen with the image of a child I so desperately want to help, call my own and I just sit sobbing with my head in my hands, tears falling onto the keyboard. Twice I have nearly dumped our adoption plans for two of these children because I couldn’t get them out of my brain! Their faces are forever etched into my memory. All I can do for these children is pray and the awesome thing is that God answers prayer. When I’ve called back to inquire about these 2 particular children, God had found them a forever family. More sobbing. But this time, tears of gratitude for families who accept these children and give them the care and the love they absolutely deserve.

Jay and I have been surrounded by people in our lives that even our own American society would stop and stare at, completely ignore, deem useless, but in God’s eyes, they count!  We have a friend Carmie in Chicago with Tourette’s Syndrome. Carmie has a list of ticks a mile long including raising his arms above his head, jumping straight up and trying to fly like Superman, doing “the swim” dance, even flipping people the bird. You can imagine the stares he’d get for that one! But Carmie could clean and worked on the Facility Set-up crew at the church we grew up in. He had time for anyone and everyone who wanted to stop and chat. If you needed prayer for anything, Carmie would be praying for you without a doubt. Carmie counts.

I worked in our catering kitchen with a gal named Barbara Jean.  She had been born with multiple physical deformities that left her face lopsided like a Picasso painting and she had hearing and mental incapacities as well.  But Barbara Jean could serve!  She’d tray up hundreds of rolls and wrap hundreds of potatoes in foil for our evening dinner service.  She had love for the rest of the staff, a love of her Savior, and she had an echoing laugh that Jay and I have burned onto the CD of our minds.  Barbara Jean counts.

After years of struggling with unexplained infertility, our friends in North Carolina were blessed with their first biological baby boy.  But shortly after bringing home this miracle from the hospital doctors noticed something wasn’t quite right.  Months of testing led to a diagnosis of severe hearing loss.  Baby Matthew was almost completely deaf in 1 ear and suffered what the doctors diagnosed as profound hearing loss in the other ear.  Although we’ve never met him because they live so far away, we see pictures of this darling blonde haired, blue eyed boy on Facebook and in their annual Christmas letter.  Matthew has a smile that could just about make all the bad stuff about our world fade away.  He loves  anything with a steering wheel and can’t go anywhere without a fireman’s hat, a typical, normal 4 year old boy today.  Matthew counts.

My list certainly doesn’t end there and I could name probably a dozen additional people whom God has used to grow my heart.  He has clearly been preparing us for a special addition to our family by surrounding us with people who might be overlooked, judged, unloved.   While I know we will get stops and stares, whispers and even harsh words spoken about us, I will follow what God has called me to.  And I pray that my daughter’s story will open up doors of acceptance, soften hearts of insensitivity and flood our communities with compassion and love for one another because everyone counts.

Twice as Long -- Why Should I Expect Anything Different?

Oh where, oh where has my dossier gone?
Oh where, oh where can it be?

I spoke with our agency today and my dossier is still out for Authentication.  They originally said it would only take a week, maybe 2, after they receive my final form from USCIS.  Once again, that time has been doubled.  We still need to get that dossier to China before we move.

But never fear… our house hasn’t sold yet.  I’m not Catholic, but I’m about ready to bury a statue of St. Joseph in my yard!  Anyone have one I can borrow?  We’ve dropped the price yet again (despite knowing we’re at the right price because other homes in my neighborhood are selling) and that hasn’t even brought in any more showings.  Not one.

And just when you think matters can’t get any worse, Jay’s back is getting bad again.  Need to find a new doctor in CA and schedule another steroid shot.  With a move pending, now is not the time for surgery.

Oh, but wait!  It can get worse!  Jay was in a car accident last weekend and our Corolla was totaled! Thankfully he’s OK, as is the other driver and his passenger.  The car engine still runs great but the entire front was crumpled – bumper, hood and both quarter panels.  I don’t even want to see a picture of it. Although it wasn’t the first car I ever had, it was the first car I bought on my own, without the help of my parents, after graduating college.  I did the test driving.  I did the negotiations.  On.  My.  Own.   So, it’s hard to see it face an ugly demise.  It was a 12 year old car and the damage done is more than the car is worth, so it's going to the junkyard.  And wouldn't luck have it, we insured it for liability only in order to cut down on monthly bills with hopes to save more for the adoption.  Adopting families, heed my warning!  It might cost more to insure your older model car with collision too, but in my very recent experience, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than digging into that savings account for a new (used) car!

The timing of this could not have been worse.  It all makes us depend on God even more.  Just when I thought I had enough in the savings account for our next adoption payment when we get our referral, we’re going to need those funds for a replacement vehicle instead.  I know God will provide for the adoption because He’s been faithful to the very penny of every amount we’ve needed to send thus far.  But gosh, this is just so unfair!  I’d really like one thing to start going right.  Is that too much to ask?  The house selling, the dossier being sent to China, my husband’s back pain to be solved (permanently), finding a house easily in CA (note the oxymoron in that statement) – I’d really love for something to go right.

OK, enough of my moaning and whining.

Stay tuned for Sunday’s post.  Jay is giving his first message at our new church.  He asked me to write a piece for it and I absolutely loved doing it.  Although for timing purposes, he had to cut parts of what I wrote, I’ll post the writing in its entirety here, complete with photos.  The subject matter ties into our adoption as well as one of our new church’s core values.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

See you Sunday.

2 Years

We’ve hit the 2 year mark in our adoption epic (thanks RM for that term – “epic” is way more fitting than “journey” at this point).  Two years ago today we started travelling this road. Two years, dreams of Nepal, one country shutdown, thousands of dollars lost, a 3-inch pink binder filled with countless pieces of paper, dozens of notarizations, and now repeat all of that all over again in a second large binder and add new dreams of China and I still haven’t seen the face of my daughter yet.

Adoptive families, friends and bloggers have told me that it will all be worth it when I hold my daughter in my arms on the other side of the globe. While I believe that to be true, I can’t quite wrap my head around that statement because that reality is just so very far, far away!

In all honesty, I really want to write about all the feelings I have today, the desperation, the desire to give up, the feeling of being at the end of my rope, let down, because that is how I’ve been feeling for months with the countless delays and chaos. While I’m quick to tell myself not to throw a pity party, an old friend of mine who is an amazing writer and speaker recently taught me that this is all a part of the grieving process. The last two years have brought us a lot of grief – the loss of a Nepali daughter, the loss of a major chunk of our savings, the loss of some good friends and even the loss of our local church. Painful to the very core of who we are and the hurts still keep coming even when I don’t think I can possibly take any more.  I'm still grieving.

I want to think positive, to press on towards something I think God has called me to, to follow Him wherever He may lead. If the month of April taught me anything, it taught me how strong I am. Does that sound braggadocios? I don’t mean it that way at all. I think all of us have hidden strength that God has given us, particularly in these times of trouble, and we need to acknowledge it and use it. So, I’ll try. Some days will be better than others. But with the tiniest shred of energy I have left inside me, I will be strong and endure the wait for my daughter. She is worth it. If God went to the ends of the earth for me, I’ll go to the ends of the earth for my little girl.

So in response to my previous post (Decisions – May 25), we are still adopting and not giving up. Our social worker has sent in her addendum and once again we continue the wait for our final form from USCIS. Once we are officially out on the West Coast we will update our home study and dossier with all that new information. If any of you bloggers know a good social worker in the Sacramento area, I’d love a reference!

Hang in there, Sweet Girl. Mommy loves you! Mommy is STILL dreaming of you. And I WILL come to get you and bring you HOME!

Allow Me To Explain

My apologies for the blog hiatus.  I’ve truly missed all your adoption updates and have taken a random glance every now and then at your amazing stories.

You know how a new year contains so much hope and wishes for prosperity?  That’s what we planned after giving 2010 a swift kick in its big ol’ behind and closing the door on its sorry face.  But this year has been worse, perhaps, than all of 2010 had been.

I’m not going into the details here because they aren’t important.  Those of you family and friends know it all already.  The good news is that my husband has gone through a job change and we are now expecting a move to Northern California.  We are trying to sell our house and we’re going to try and sell it ourselves with hopes that the money we save by selling by owner can go towards our adoption.

I’ve spoken with our social worker as well as our agency this morning and of course, this delays our adoption process.  It IS POSSIBLE to move while adopting. [YAY!]  It just means more delays and more money. [BOO!]   Right now we are waiting on our final forms from USCIS and still need to get our college basement renter fingerprinted (yes, he still needs to be included even though he won’t be moving to CA with us).  We will have to update our home study in our new locale.  With that come new police clearances, new forms, more money and more time.

I still do not hear God telling us to stop the adoption even though at this point, I'm exhausted.  But I still feel the call to live out Psalms 82:3 in a very tangible, personal way.  I will not give up.

The biggest concern we have right now is getting our dossier to China BEFORE we move out west!  If the 3 of us adults can get finger printed and if we can receive that final form from USCIS before we sell the house, then our dossier can go overseas and we can just submit a home study update once we arrive in California. This is a HUGE prayer request!  Please pray that we get this last form within the month of April and that our dossier can be submitted to China!!!

Additional prayer requests on the tab above.

Checklists

I love lists!  I’m one of those people who would have lists to organize all my lists!  Seriously.  I have grocery lists.  Clean out my purse and you’ll probably find many old crumpled grocery lists from past trips to Walmart and Super Target.  Actually, I just cleaned out my purse and it’s now empty, but there were at least 6 old, scribbled lists, trust me!  I have library book lists for all the books I want to check out for the kids, including a list of children’s books on adoption for my boys to read now and my future daughter to read as she grows up (blog post on this in the near future).  I have lists of all the things we’d like for the house like kitchen floor refinishing, snow blower, water softener, down payment for a minivan.  I have started on lists of things we’ll need for a little girl because let’s face it; the last 7 years have been all about boys and I have nothing pink or girly in my house.  I have Christmas card lists and adoption fundraising lists.  The list of lists is endless.  And I just received 2 more this week.

We have been in contact with our home study social worker she emailed me the checklist for updating our home study:

o   Get fingerprinted for our FBI criminal background checks (this report takes 6-8 weeks)

o   Order all of our background checks from states we have lived in since turning 18 (not costly but time consuming)

o   Update our medical reports for both Jay and I and the boys as well

We have also received our checklist from our adoption agency.  Our agency reviewed our Nepal dossier, contrasted it with what is needed for China and found out that almost every single piece of paperwork needs to be re-done because our Nepal dossier is over 12 months old.  So, we have the following to complete for the dossier:

o   Change our country immigration from Nepal to China via the USCIS (could be a lengthy wait)

o   Purchase new birth certificates and marriage certificates. 

o   Rewrite our employment letters, power of attorney documents, financial worksheet, education and employment history documents

o   Update our Match Form regarding which special needs we’re open to. 

One other thing.  We'll also have a small stack of paperwork to complete for the college kid who lives in our basement.  He's a great guy who works for my husband at church and he needed a quieter place to stay while he finished school.  Because he'll still most likely live here after our home study is complete for China, we need to include him.  So, background checks, fingerprints, et cetera are due for him as well.  Hopefully it won't be a big deal.

Where are we now?  I’ve created a new timeline to the right.  I’ve kept our Nepal timeline way at the bottom just as a reminder of where we’ve been on this loopy journey.  It’s all a part of our story!  But China has its own new timeline in the right column. 

I’ll start tackling the list as quickly as I can but the governmental paperwork is totally out of my hands.  We’d appreciate prayers for a timely paperwork process.  My goal would be to finish everything by Christmas.