It Looks Like Summer

Our case worker from CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption agency in Atlanta) contacted Jeremiah today. They finally received everything to complete our dossier. It normally takes 9-11 days to review the dossier and make any final corrections. However, she said since ours is "good" and we've already been matched with our child, they will "rush" it. I'm not going to get my hopes up too much about anything being rushed. Our dossier should be mailed to Colorado today with a tracking number. We will receive an email once it is received in Colorado. Once it is in Colorado, it will be translated into Chinese. We will then receive another email when it is sent from Colorado to China.

Once the dossier arrives in China it takes a while to get into the correct hands. Our case worker expects it to be at least January before our "log-in" date. She said that typically in a "waiting child" case, which means an adoption like ours where a family chooses a child with special needs from the waiting child program, families travel 6 months after the log-in date. We were hoping to travel around Spring Break, but it looks like it will be June or July.

We are thankful that Jeremiah and the boys will be on Summer Break from school. This will definately make arrangements for the boys easier because we won't have to worry about carpooling too and from school. It will also mean that Jeremiah won't have to take 15 days off of work - some without pay - since he doesn't have enough leave banked up.

However, this breaks our hearts to know that baby Phillips will have to live at least 7 more months at the orphanage. I guess it is not my duty to try to understand or fix the situation. Rather, to be hopeful and know that we will travel in God's perfect timing.

Our Both Hands ministry project is well underway! We are having a big Coffee/Dessert/Volunteer party this Saturday. If you are still interested in joining in the project please call me! We will be spending about 8 hours on Sat. December 12 working on a widow's home. We'll also be sending out 600 sponsorship letters to let people know about the ministry and how it will help both a widow and an orphan.

Waiting

All of our paperwork is now in the hands of CCAI. We are patiently waiting for them to review it again. Our hope is that everything will be "right" this time and the dossier can be sent to Colorado for translation, and then onto China. Phillips will turn 2 on January 15 and oh, how we would love to bring him home before his birthday. We are being a bit more realistic and are hopeful that we can travel by the end of the school year.

We aren't sure if Phillips will want to sleep in a crib or a bed. My guess is that he is accustomed to a crib. We've set up the crib and a twin bed for him in his new room. We haven't done any decorating yet. According to his medical records he weighs just a little less than Parker Reese, so as I do laundry I place the clothes that Parker Reese has outgrown into Phillips bedroom. We don't have a dresser for Phillips so clothes are starting to pile up in there.

We had a wonderful lunch on Thanksgiving at my cousins house in Cumming, GA. Then, we went to visit the Ledford family for dinner. It was such a peaceful day. We all enjoyed seeing everyone and the food was divine. The high school boys that we mentor stayed with us and they were wonderful, as always. It was a great holiday.