A Little about us

With this year quickly coming to a close I thought I would recap it. It has been an amazing year and I can't believe how fast it has gone. We have added a nephew on one side of the family and a niece on the other. We have watched our 2 year old toddler turn into a 3 year old little boy. We finally figured out Greyson's coughing issue and while he was diagnosed with asthma we are so thankful that we have access to great care and he is doing much better. We have seen God's faithfulness in all areas of our life but especially with the adoption. We continue to work on the house and  after 3 years of living here I can finally say that the main floor is done, alhtough I will still continue to shop for house stuff. :) Ron has taken over alot more responsability at Cook's and QPP is thriving and really picking up steam. I continue to work 1 1/2 day a week and love it. We got to travel a little and take our first "mini family vacation" to the Detroit Zoo. Ron and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. We have made some new friends through the Kiwanis group Ron has joined and enjoy building relationships with them. All and all it has been a great year!

 Last year at this time was when I was really struggling with having another baby and feeling like adoption was the way to go,  Ron got me this book: An adoption Story. That book got the ball really rolling and it was less than one year ago that we decided to adopt. In that respect I think everything has gone smoothly. All of our paperwork is done and sent to Korea and we just wait for that phone call. What a difference 12 little months make! I am so curious to see what God has in store for us this coming year!

Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good,His steadfast love endures forever,and His faithfulness to all generations.

Here are a few pics from  2011:

A little unsettled

Well Kim Jong Il has paseed away. Everytime I turn on the t.v. or open my computer there is some story about him. The news says that his death could cause uproar and unrest in that part of the world. We now have to worry about China and how they will respond to this, will America show support and send a represenative if invited to the funeral? Will South Korea and North Korea meet and talk or will the division between the two countries worsen? Its unsettling to think about these things and not just because I have a little person on that side of the world that I am dying to meet. It is times like these that I think about people who do not have Jesus as their Hope - A confident expectation of good. This world has got a lot of yuck in it and yet daily I find things that amaze me and make me give praise and adoration to God. I'm not going to say that Im not a little nervous about all of these things going on in Korea, I am but I do have hope in Jesus. He sent his Son to save the world, a thought at the fore front of my mind this time of year. So I will do what I always do, pray. I will pray for my mind to have peace and rest because He truly does "Have the whole world in His hand." I will pray for N Korea's next leader and that he will not make the mistakes his father did. And as always I will pray for my sweet baby.

Thankful

At church this past Sunday our Pastor asked us to email him a list of  things we were thankful for and he was going to put them up on the screen at church during our Thanksgiving service. I put that I am thankful for my healthy family, Greyson really struggled with a terrible cough for 5 weeks and after a few doctors visit, an antibiotic and 43 scratches on his back at the allergist it was determined he has asthma. It is nothing severe and is easily controlled by his new inhaler. I am so thankful that the doctors figured this out as I was informed that 65% of asthma cases in kids under 5 go misdiagnosed. That whole "coughing all the time, no one in our house is sleeping" period was going on right when we received word  that our homestudy would need to change. It was somewhat stressful but it all worked out and life is back to normal. So I am thankful that my family is healthy once again and doing well. The second thing I put that I was thankful for was a child that I never meant but call my own. Two weeks ago we received our approval!!! HOORAY! This was the last piece of paperwork that we needed for our dossier. Everything is complete now and our paperwork is being sent to Korea. We are actually just waiting now for the phone call about our child. I am so thankful for this and that the process continues to move ahead.  Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A little Detour

We were told that all kinds of things would come up that were out of our control and to look at them as detours and not road blocks. We have felt very blessed becasue everything has gone quite smooth... Yesterday, I received a phone call from Spence Chapin saying that we had to change our homestudy. The Korean governement has gotten themselves into a little pickle. Korea is now making all the the incoming homestudies say that the family would accept a child 24 months and younger rather than the 18 months that we had on our homestudy. They are requiring these changes because they are not giving out as many Visa's as they used to so children are waiting longe r(and getting older) to be brought home. This is so screwy to me because these kids are in foster care longer and not with their famillies and getting older by the day but becasue Korea is really promoting domestic adoption the time frame for international adoption keeps getting longer. This is not the best news for us but we are still amazed at the favor we have. Let me expain, last week are fingerprints were done and processed and we were assigned to a case worker. Once you get assigned a case worker from CIS ( homeland security office) your Visa request to bring a child into the US is just about approved. This is a good thing unless your homestudy needs to be changed. Our Spence Chapin Case worker is on the ball and called us immediantly and called CIS and told them to hold our approval until we could get an updated homestudy report. If we would have not found out about this until next week chances are that our request would have been approved already and we would have had to fill out more paperwork and request an addendum to our approval. That process could take up to 2-3 months. Thankfully we caught the paperwork in time and the homestudy is being changed as I type. The CIS caseworker has no problem holding the approval until the corrections in our homestudy are made. THANK YOU LORD!!! This is great news for us, unfortunately the famillies who have already had their Dossier sent over to Korea are now going to have to change the homestudy and get a new approval for their Visa's. How frustarting for them, my heart breaks for them as it added more work and more time onto their process. Please pray with us for these families and for my family as we pray this litle detour will go smoothly and our dossier can be sent over.

Experiencing God...No coincidences

Last winter I did a Bible Study called Experiencing God, then this spring I did it again. Ron is taking the course right now. (If you haven't ever taken this study, DO IT) It was really life changing. The first time I did the study there was a particular lesson where you had to write down things that you felt God had called you to but weren't sure when they were to come to pass. I did the lesson and put down adoption along with some other things. I did not give it a second thought. Fast forward to the second time I was completing the study. We had decided that we were actually adopting about the same time I started the course again. The study talks about alot of things but mainly everything revolves around experiencing God and getting involoved where He is already at work. There are 7 "steps" that they have you learn so you are able to reconize where God is at work and how to join Him. One of the steps is a Crisis of Belief that requires faith to move forward into what God wants you to do. Clearly this one struck a cord with us mainly because adoption is so expensive and at this point in life we cannot afford it. There comes a time when saying. "Oh we cant afford this or that" can become like a crutch and you would never move forward because you could never afford to. We could have looked at the financial cost of adoption through human terms and never been obediant to God. Instead we chose to rely on God and take a step of faith. WOW!

 Amazing things began to happen and we began to experience God! From the very beginning we were unsure of how we would pay for things. The applicaiton fee was 300$, which we had, but not much after that. While we do have money in savings, we currently have one child, a house and cars that we needed to be responsible for. If an emergency came up we needed money to cover it, so we didn't want to take from savings.  This is where things get crazy and why I say that there are no coincidences when you're listening to God.

Once we got accepted we owed $1000 right away. We received an email stating that we were accepted and that we would get the official paperwork to sign through the mail in a few days and the first bit of money was due. During the course of that week we were given our first gift by people who we had told about the adoption. Ron helped a fellow business man out and to make a long story short he basically said he wanted to thank Ron for all his help and gave him a check. WHAT? Who does that... God does. In one week we were handed $1000 exactly. By the time the agreement paperwork came we had the money we needed. That's exactly how it has gone the entire time. We needed just a little over $7000 before we even got to send the paperwork to Korea. It is amazing how much paperwork can cost. Even now as I type my eyes fill with tears thinking about how my heavenly Father prepares a way for us. Here and there we have been given financial gifts from friends and family that met a need exactly when we had one.It is so cool to think that those who gave to us were being obediant to God just as we are. (pretty cool cycle isn't it)  Ron received a bonus at work that exceeded our expectations and we opened a seperate checking account just for the adoption. Our cup truly runneth over!!!

I am so curious to see how God will provide the rest of the money but I know the testimony will be a wonderful one. We still need $20,000 plus (yes you read that right) more before the adoption is complete, we haven't needed to ask, the need is met before we have to think about it. I was thinking about all of this the other day and decided to write about it mainly as an encouragement. If God has called you to something, OBEY, He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it! There is nothing that He cannot do. I end this post with the story I began with in the beginning, my second time through the study when I had to do the lesson that asked what were the things that God had called you to but had not yet come to pass, I was able to cross off adoption. Thank you Lord for using us!

Waiting

From the beginning we have said that we were not going to get stressed out about the time. This is a very long process and we knew that going into it. That being said I am sick of waiting! I want the paperwork to be done! All we need is one more form from the government and get fingerprinted by Home Land Security and then everything can be sent to Korea and then we can really wait :). I just want to be on the list in South Korea. 
The other night I couldn't sleep and so I just begin to pray for our sweet baby. I cannot wait to see the face of our child and hold them in my arms. It truly excites me that with the time line we have been given our child is most likely conceived and growing inside their mother. I pray for the birth parents as well, what is that like to give up a child? Of course after I prayed I felt such peace and renewed strength for this next period of waiting. As we wait the excitement builds, someday not so long from today we will meet our second child!

Waiting to be Adopted in Korea

 The first thing we love about Korea is that they have a very good system set up for their orphans. Most children are in foster care and the guidelines to become foster parents are rigid. Adults wanting to foster must be at least 30, they must be married and the wife must be a stay at home mom and if the couple has children the youngest must be at least five. Babies that are put up for adoption typically go into a lage nursery type setting where they are given excellent round the clock care until they are adopted domestically or put into a foster home. We were told it is not unusual for a baby or child in the foster system to have a record of being hospitiliazed, multiple times, and not to be concerned about this. If a child contacts something as simple as a cold or other viral condition they will let the ailment run its course in the hospital. We are told this is done to help combat the spread of illness.

Most babies are put up for adoption because of unwed mothers. The Korean culture greatly frowns upon single mothers raising their children. Fortunately most "referrals" (this is what they call the picture and info you receive on a child) come with information about the birth parents and why the child was placed up for adoption. Although we were warned sometimes information is very limited,  whatever they have on the child we will get. We feels this is such a blessing to be able to give our child some type of information about who they came from. Our adoption agency requires that we write a letter and make a photo album for the birth parents. We were ovejoyed to do this!!! I really cannot imagine the pain that comes with putting a child up for adoption but hope that the letter and pictures might help reassure and heal the parents.

When we decided to adopt we agreed on a girl since we already have a little boy. Since learning more about Korea we have had to change our mindset. Korea is really pushing for an increase in domestic adoption and because of that 85% of children up for international adoption are boys. The reason for this is because in the Korean culture blood line is very important. It is not such a big deal to adopt a girl if you are Korean but to adopt a boy means someone from another blood line will carry your name and that does not settle well with most traditions. Either way we cannot wait to add to your family!

Since Korea is promoting more domestic adoption, eventually the country's goal is to close down international adoption completely. Unfortunately that is a big bummer for the families waiting for their children to come home. Each year Korea will decrease the number of Visa's they give out to families adopting internationally, this in turn makes the wait even longer. We were just informed that the average wait for a referral has gone up from 9 - 12 months to 12-15. I can't lie and say I wasn't sad about this but with my sadness came peace. God is in control, He has a baby for us and He will make it happen. Might take some time but eventaully we will get our little one. How Exciting!!!

How do we even get started?

Once we decided to adopt we looked into Bethany, Holt and Dillon but not one of those agencies were letting more families into their Korean Program. Families enrolled with these companiess were already waiting so long. We stopped looking for a while until Ron said that with as busy as he was at work I was going to need to be responsible for doing some research into the matter. I started looking and didn't come up with much. We were feeling pretty beat down about the whole thing and were about to give up the whole idea. I was praying about the issue and was pretty upset because I was certian I had heard form the Lord on this and that He was calling our family to adopt. I didn't see how we could adopt if we couldn't even get into a program. I basically just said " I need some direction here and I need it soon!" Two days later I received an interesting email. My Aunt Elsie, my fathers sister, sent out an email to her family members just to let us know that her niece from the other side of the family,someone we had never met or even heard about before, was adopting from Korea. She included a blog site and some general information. I went to the blog site and there was the name of the adoption agency they were using. The agency was out of NY but worked with families from different states and had a networking agency in Kalamazoo,MI. I nearly fell off my chair. Some might consider this coincidence but we knew better, it was clear this was an answer to prayer: God's direction! We called the agency and found out they were accepting more families. It took some time and some more prayer but eventually everything fell into place. I am amazed at God and how He works, not only did we get direction but Spence Chapin has a fantastic record and have been nothing but promt and professional. We see His hand at work in every area of this adoption.

The Process so Far...

March 5, 2011 – Webinar video through Spence Chapin

March 7, 2011 – Received application from Spence Chapin

March 7-12, 2011 – Gathered info and doctors notes for application

March 14, 2011 – Sent in application to Spence Chapin

March 15 – May 15, 2011 – Work on getting financial statement that guaranteed payment for adoption

May 16, 2011 – Officially accepted into Spence Chapin –Hooray!

May 20, 2011 – Send application to FAC (local agency through which home study will be done )

May 27, 2011 – Receive acceptance from FAC along with a HUGE packet of paperwork to fill out

May 28 – June 24, 2011 – Gathered info, wrote essays, had physical exams and finished all paperwork in     packet.

June 24, 2011 - Packet sent out to FAC

June 30, 2011 – FAC informs us paperwork is completed correctly and we are assigned a social worker

July 19, 2011 – 1^st Home Study

July 21, 2011 - Korea Webinar through Spence Chapin

July 26, 2011 – Made picture book and wrote letter for birthparents

Aug 4, 2011 – 2^nd Home Study

Sept 5, 2011 - Received finished Home Study Report

Sept 7, 2011 - Sent in I-600a form with home study to governemt to obtain visa

Sept 7, 2011 -  Sent all material for dossier to Spence Chapin

Sept 14, 2011 - Received government confirmation and given date of fingerprinting ( 4 weeks YUCK!)

Oct  14, 2011 - Fingerprints Complete

Oct 18, 2011 - Received notice that our forms were being processed from government

Oct 28, 2011 - Received call from Spence - Chapin that our home study needed to be changed, changed homestudy that day and talked to our officer at Homeland Security, she held our case until she received the new homestudy.

Oct 29, 2011 - Received new homestudy

Oct 31, 2011 - Mailed out new homestudy to Homeland Security Officer

Nov 7, 2011 - We are APPROVED -I-171H form received!!! YIPEE!

Nov 9, 2011 - Faxed I-171H form to Spence Chapin

Dec 21, 2011 - Dossier sent to SWS - OFFICIALLY WAITING!

 

Why?

It seems like when you've had a child and they get to the age of two the only question you begin to hear is " when are you having another?" Every time someone asked us this question we would look at each other... We didn't know when. Soon Ron asked me "when" too? For some reason I always felt this funny pit in my stomach whenever anyone would bring it up. It wasn't that I didn't want more babies, it's hard to explain the feeling, I just knew I couldn't see myself pregnant again at the time. I didn't know why but God did. He had a baby for us, only I was not going to physically carry the child, we would carry this baby in our hearts.

Long before Ron and I were married we both knew we wanted to adopt a child one day. It was something that God placed in both our hearts. A desire to give a child a home. I think we both figured that we would look into adoption after we had a few kids of our own and were more financially secure but our timing is not God's timing. I had this "feeling" deep in my heart and I began to pray. One day while praying,I started crying and was feeling so very unsettled and I heard the Lord asked me, "Why are you crying." I said I think I wanted to adopt and I didn't know how that was going to happen. He told me to ask him for a baby, so I did. He said "OK I have one for you." Gee why didn't I talk to him sooner!!!!

So why are we adopting? God gave us the desire and told us now was time. We chose to gladly obey!