I know I said the next post would be about the nursery, and it will be coming soon, but I had something my heart I just needed to write.
I have known from the beginning that this adoption journey is not about me. We decided to adopt because we wanted to respond to God's calling to us, to bring a child into this family we are so very blessed to have been given.
But somewhere in all the paperwork and the preparation and the fingerprints and the adoption acronyms, I feel like I've gotten lost. I've become so caught up in the details of traveling and completing forms that I think the gravity of our mission has been buried.
And it just hit me again....
Charlie is our son. He needs a family. He needs a mom to kiss his boo boos when he falls down and rock him to sleep at night. He needs a dad to do tickle fights with him on the floor and tell him he's so proud to have him as a son. He could care less what types of pants I pack or international cell phone plan I have.....
This is all about our son, Charlie.
This is all about our Savior who made adoption possible to fix what the world has broken. God will give me the patience I need to become a mom of two toddlers 10 months apart, the wisdom to answer my children's tough questions when they come and the ability to complete everything we need to get done before we travel.
I just need to hand all the details and anxiety to Him and keep my focus on what this is really about...
Father, please help me to keep my eyes on you. Help me to trust you've got the important stuff covered. I want to shine your light into the life of this child and let him know how greatly he is loved. Thank you for Charlie and for adoption and help the time to pass quickly until we can bring him home. Amen.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
We're moving along....
Things have been moving forward since our last update when we got our LOA! In
the last month, we have completed several milestones including receiving our
I-800 provisional approval, filing our DS-260, starting our Article 5 process
and submitting our Visa applications. I know these steps mean nothing to most
of you, but they are important to being able to get to our son. These steps
have definitely been the most confusing part so far!
Here's the super simple explanation of each of these documents:
- The I-800 is an immigration document filed with the U.S. government to approve our adoption. We receive provisional approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and then our Case is forwarded to the National Visa Center who sends that approval to China for us. We are provisionally approved until our Visa documents are received and approved.
- We can then file the DS-260 online which is basically a visa application for Charlie
- Our Article 5 is a letter that tells China the U.S. has determined we are eligible and suited to adopt, that Charlie may enter and reside permanently in the United States, and that the U.S. Central Authority agrees that the adoption may proceed. It takes about two weeks to process this and we should receive approval on 8/26.
We also filed for our Visa documents to enter China. This step requires that we send our passports, our actual physical passports, to a courier to take to the Chinese Consulate. They will actually stamp our passports and send them back to us so we can enter China. I don't think I've been so nervous shipping anything! If anything happens to those passports...
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According to our Agency, assuming everything continues on schedule, this
means we should travel October 15 to China. If you haven’t looked at a calendar
lately, that is TWO MONTHS away. Holy moly!
October seems like forever away and so soon at the same time. Everything has been process, process, process up to this point and the "process" part is almost over. Charlie will be here and in our lives forever in no time at all. I am also realizing that so much in my life will change, too, which is overwhelming at times. I can't imagine how overwhelming this must be for him considering everything in his life is about to change. Please pray for his little heart. He will be experiencing so much loss and we will have to help him process through it all.
Next Update...Nursery pictures!!
Here's the super simple explanation of each of these documents:
- The I-800 is an immigration document filed with the U.S. government to approve our adoption. We receive provisional approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and then our Case is forwarded to the National Visa Center who sends that approval to China for us. We are provisionally approved until our Visa documents are received and approved.
- We can then file the DS-260 online which is basically a visa application for Charlie
- Our Article 5 is a letter that tells China the U.S. has determined we are eligible and suited to adopt, that Charlie may enter and reside permanently in the United States, and that the U.S. Central Authority agrees that the adoption may proceed. It takes about two weeks to process this and we should receive approval on 8/26.
We also filed for our Visa documents to enter China. This step requires that we send our passports, our actual physical passports, to a courier to take to the Chinese Consulate. They will actually stamp our passports and send them back to us so we can enter China. I don't think I've been so nervous shipping anything! If anything happens to those passports...
October seems like forever away and so soon at the same time. Everything has been process, process, process up to this point and the "process" part is almost over. Charlie will be here and in our lives forever in no time at all. I am also realizing that so much in my life will change, too, which is overwhelming at times. I can't imagine how overwhelming this must be for him considering everything in his life is about to change. Please pray for his little heart. He will be experiencing so much loss and we will have to help him process through it all.
Next Update...Nursery pictures!!
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