Be a Piece of the Puzzle

International adoption is a trek across treacherous terrain with rocky and slippery ground, poor visibility, storms that leave destruction in their wake.

For us, the highest heights were being accepted into 2 country programs - first Nepal and then China, reading the email that our dossier had been sent to Nepal in the summer of 2010 and then to China in the summer of 2011, the phone call that announced our waiting daughter, the pictures that followed and seeing her sweet face for the first time!

But with the highs, we fell to deep lows that sweep many adoption dreams into an endless crevasse, to be lost forever.  We lost Nepal when the US government shut down the program on August 6, 2010.  With that, we lost $9000 that we had invested.  We changed careers and have been attempting to change locales and are still awaiting a buyer for our home.  We faced emergency surgery while our family was apart.  We lost a car in a car wreck on the West Coast.  What a mess!

But through it all we have been clinging to the knowledge that God will complete what He has called us to.      So many of you who have offered your prayers, thoughts and good wishes for our waiting daughter in China are forever a part of her story.  You are a puzzle piece of her journey to our family.

We want to commemorate all of you in a way that our daughter will know just how many friends it took to bring her home.  I have created a large 768 piece jigsaw puzzle of a colorful map of China and we are looking to you to sponsor one, or as many pieces as you can, to help raise our travel fees.  We will write your names on the back of your sponsored pieces so that our daughter will have the knowledge of you for the rest of her life.

Sponsor 1 piece for $15.  

There are 4 ways to donate:


1.  NEW!!!  For a tax deductible donation, go to the Donate! tab above and send your donation to LifeSong for Orphans.  They will hold all funds until our agency requests them.  LifeSong has provided us with an interest-free adoption loan but it will not cover the remaing fees or travel fees.  But this is the only tax deductible way for you to donate, so take advantage of it!  I'm grateful they will assist us in so many ways.

2.  Click on the Donate! tab above and click on the Chip In button to donate electronically (PayPal rates do apply).  Be sure to leave a comment here on this page so we know what names to write on the back of your piece(s).


3.  To avoid PayPal fees, send a check payable to La Vida International directly to our adoption agency (address and instructions on the Donate! tab above).  Again, be sure to comment here so we know how many pieces you are sponsoring and what names we are to write on the back.  Our agency will not administrate the fundraiser, but they will collect all fees since they make all our travel arrangements.


4.  Or send us a check in the mail to Jay's office (address also on the Donate! tab above) or see us in person if you are local to either one of us.

Three easy ways to donate, just take your pick!

As the days go by we will assemble the puzzle, learn a bit about China as a family, take pictures and post our progress here.  If we can get all the pieces sponsored, it will cover airfare and lodging for both Jay and I to fly to China as soon as we receive our travel approval.

Time is of the essence here folks!  We only have a matter of weeks to make this happen because once our paperwork arrives and is approved by China and US Immigration, our agency starts making travel arrangements immediately.  So rally the family, get the kids involved, share this on your blog, ask your parents, neighbors, coworkers to get behind us and help bring our daughter home.  Please help us complete the puzzle by Christmas!

There is no training to help one prepare for the adventure that is international adoption, but it is not puzzling as to how we've made it through.  We've conquered the mountain with the support, warm wishes and prayers of all of you.  We're forever grateful!

Trying to Complete the Puzzle,
Brooke, Jay, the boys and 1 waiting girl in China

Approved!

Just minutes ago I got off the phone with LifeSong for Orphans. They have approved us for an interest-free adoption loan! Praise God!!!!!

The amount we will receive will not cover the remaining expenses though. It will leave us short by $3000 plus travel fees. So, please keep us in your prayers for these final amounts. Donate if you can, pass our blog along to family and friends who might be able to help, host a fundraiser, help us get creative and find ways to come up with the remaining costs.

Still no LOA yet. Any China families out there receiving yours recently? Any clue of the current wait times? As you can see by the ticker above, we're going on 3 months and everyday I expect the call from my agency.

Still no bites on the house either. More showings but no offers. It will only get harder come wintertime. We've had contractors in to estimate paint and trim work for the basement that we finished ourselves. I feel like my realtor wasted his time by talking to the contractors for their suggestions when nothing they would do would add any value to my home. Besides, we don't have the funds to pay for the work anyway. My mom is retiring soon and she has offered to come out and help me paint a couple of rooms to make them more neutral. I need a buyer who can look past paint colors. Keep praying because this gets more trying by the day and I'm physically and emotionally exhausted. I need this to end or I'm going to lose my mind!

Thank you, God for the blessing of an adoption loan! You continue to provide everything we need for the daughter You designed for us. Thank you! Amen.

1 Week - Keep Praying

One week behind us and still no word on the adoption loan I mentioned in my previous post or our LOA.  So please keep us in your prayers for both this week.  Pray for God's favor on our adoption finances and that He would provide every penny we need so our daughter can come home without delay!

Also, still no house sale yet.  We've been super close 3 times but the clients always choose the other house.  Maddening!  Living in limbo is getting really difficult and stressful with the approaching holidays.  Have you ever had a conversation with someone, and they are talking and you are listening and what they say takes you off guard and makes you stop in your tracks because what they are saying might just be the truth, the crazy truth, something you hadn't thought of yourself?  I had one of those moments when I called one of my best friends in MN to tell her about our referral.  She said to me, "Brooke, maybe this is why your house hasn't sold.  Maybe your daughter is coming home first."  Whoa.  Mind blowing.  Maybe she's right.  As these weeks and months drag on and on with no sale, the more and more convinced we are that our sweet girl is the priority, not the house.

A friend from our new church said to me recently, "Wouldn't it be just like God to work things out so that one of you needs to be in China picking up your daughter and the other [spouse] will need to be in NE packing up and closing on your house?"  Again, it was a stop-dead-in-your-tracks kind of statement.  I don't know if God is speaking through these 2 friends, but perhaps, just perhaps He is.  And if that's the case, then we could be just 2-3 months away from traveling to China and selling our house at the same time.  We'll see how He has it all unfold.

Keep praying, people!    Oh please, keep praying!

2 Weeks - A Call to Prayer

This morning I received a phone call from LifeSong for Orphans, an organization that provides grants and interest-free adoption loans.  They are processing our application for an interest-free loan and they had questions about our application.  I spoke with the gal for 15 minutes or so and fine tuned the numbers and dollars and timing we are facing.  She said in 2 weeks they will make their decision about our application!

Will you add us to your prayer list for the following two weeks and ask God for His favor regarding this loan application and that He would provide us the funds we need?  Our remaining expenses are:

$555 - US Consulate Fees - due upon receipt of LOA
$7367 - China adoption Fee - due upon receipt of LOA

It would be my prayer that LifeSong would provide a loan to cover the 2 costs above because they will be due when we receive our LOA from China, which should be arriving ANY DAY NOW!

After that we will very quickly owe travel fees which will be near the amount of $7800 per person.  We'll climb that mountain when we get there.  In the meantime, you can still donate!  Click on the donate tab above to find out how.  Above all...

Please pray for God's favor on our adoption finances by providing us with this interest-free loan from LifeSong, enough to cover the LOA fees above.

Thanks to one and all for praying our daughter home!  You are all a part of her story in a major way!

Pictures!

Today I got a gift I've been waiting for ever since we got our referral -- updated pictures! It's killing me to refrain from posting online, but I will continue to abide by my agency's wishes. The pictures in our referral were dated. I'm guessing they were from her intake day at the orphanage or shortly thereafter. Today's pictures are much more recent. My how she has grown!

While I was literally jumping up and down with joy and spinning circles in the living room with my iPad in hand, there is definitely a bitter side to seeing her face too. I feel the miles and oceans in between us for sure and my heart breaks that she has no clue who we are and how much we adore her. Secondly, I could tell by her sweet runny nose that she has a cold in these pictures. Oh, I should be the one with the Kleenex box cleaning that sweet face! I should be the one snuggling and cuddling that cold away!

We still await a buyer for our home.

We still live in limbo.

We still wait for our LOA.

We still wait to bring our daughter home.

But I am thankful for today's gift. Please praise God for His blessing today!

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!