While sitting in the doctor office waiting area for an hour on November 26th (one day before Shelly's Birthday) Shelly received a call on her cell phone from the Travel Coordinator, Kristen Hussa, at America World with the WONDERFUL news that we received our Travel Approval!!! What a great birthday present! Shelly always thought that it would be nice to get the news on her birthday, but one day early is fabulous too! We are so excited for this next step because it's the last step before we get on the plane. She gave us two travel dates to choose from; the first is December 6th (10 days before travel) or December 13th (a little more than 2 weeks). We agreed that the 13th would work better for us. There is one glitch, however. Shelly and Mike's fingerprints for the USCIS expire on December 12th and we have an appointment on December 13th to get re-fingerprinted. Obviously this won't work, so now we're trying to get a hold of someone who can expedite the appointment so we can travel in a couple of weeks.
This news came so quickly! So now we're scurrying with Dr. appointments for shots and shopping for all that we'll need while we're there. Not to mention, we'll be in China for Christmas. So do we buy presents before we leave? Probably a good idea. When do we give the kids the presents? Maybe when we return home so all 4 can open the presents at the same time. So much to think about! What have we been doing all this time?
Needless to say we can't wait to bring her home so we can start adjusting to our new life as a family of 6 (among many other adjustments!). To Jiang Ting - We're coming honey and we can't wait to meet you!!!!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Grieving a Great Loss
On Tuesday, November 13th at 1:17 pm, my (Shelly) dad passed away unexpectedly. His health hasn't been the best for the past few years, but we still didn't realize how little time he had left with us. We miss his humor and his love. His greatest joy was his grandchildren Jayde, Sage, Isaiah, Kayla, Hailey, Ashlynn, and he was long awaiting to meet his newest Granddaughter, Jiang Ting. He may have never met her but she will know who her Grandpa John was. I (Shelly) wrote a letter to my dad that I read during his funeral on November 16th. I wanted to share it on this post to any that would happen to read this. I loved my dad and I miss him dearly...
Dad – As I ponder words to say today, I can only wish you were here to hear them. But I write to your memory and to my dad whom I dearly loved.
Many memories came flooding back to me when I found out you left us. Early memories such as when I was just 3 or 4 years old and I would wait with great anticipation for you to come home from work. As soon as I saw you come through the door I would jump up and grab you with wild abandonment and hug you tightly. What I wouldn’t give to do that right now.
I know, Dad that we’ve had some serious strains in our relationship during my lifetime – but right now all I can think about are the good times. Silly fun times like when you would take us kids sledding and we would stay out all day. So long that icicles would form on your moustache. You would let us ride down the icy, snowy hill on your back. We would go flying down that hill and you would end up with a face full of snow that made us laugh so hard. I’m sure you were sore, but you never said a word because we were having fun. Or the time when I was a teenager and I went for my drivers license exam. You were at home waiting to hear if I had actually passed. When I got home and told you that I did, you jumped right over our fence and swept me in a huge embrace – you were so proud. And of course the more serious times like when I had to tell you I was pregnant, I was unmarried and only 18. I was so scared to tell you the news, but when I finally did you didn’t get angry or even lecture me. You just hugged me tightly and told me it will be alright, were those tears I saw in your eyes Dad? Oh how fiercely you loved your first grandchild, Jayde. He was your pride and joy. He loved you too, Dad, I hope you knew that. I remember years later when Sage came it was the same, you couldn’t wait to see him and hold him and again when Isaiah came, you poured your love and adoration into them. I wish my boys could have spent more time getting to know you Dad. You were such a wonderful Grandpa and they could have learned so much from you. Now as we wait to bring home your granddaughter from China, I can only wish she could have known you. You were so excited to meet her. Even though little Jiang Ting cannot hear, I know that you would get her giggling. She has truly lost a wonderful part of her family. But she will know you, Dad, I promise.
I don’t believe when someone dies that’s all there is and you would know better than all of us how true this is. It says in Philippians 1:21 “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. Your journey here has ended but you have found new life. You are not only at peace but you are surrounded by unspeakable beauty and great joy. No more pain racks your body, suffering is forever gone. You will have no more lonely days and nights and you have left behind all that is evil and entered into His love.
Daddy, I miss you and the laughter that you brought. But I will hold dear the good memories that you left behind. I will not say goodbye but only goodnight because I know that we will be together again. In the morning a new day has arisen and with that new beginnings. One day, I too, will end this journey and join you in Eternity. I love you Daddy – Good Night, I’ll see you in the morning.
Dad – As I ponder words to say today, I can only wish you were here to hear them. But I write to your memory and to my dad whom I dearly loved.
Many memories came flooding back to me when I found out you left us. Early memories such as when I was just 3 or 4 years old and I would wait with great anticipation for you to come home from work. As soon as I saw you come through the door I would jump up and grab you with wild abandonment and hug you tightly. What I wouldn’t give to do that right now.
I know, Dad that we’ve had some serious strains in our relationship during my lifetime – but right now all I can think about are the good times. Silly fun times like when you would take us kids sledding and we would stay out all day. So long that icicles would form on your moustache. You would let us ride down the icy, snowy hill on your back. We would go flying down that hill and you would end up with a face full of snow that made us laugh so hard. I’m sure you were sore, but you never said a word because we were having fun. Or the time when I was a teenager and I went for my drivers license exam. You were at home waiting to hear if I had actually passed. When I got home and told you that I did, you jumped right over our fence and swept me in a huge embrace – you were so proud. And of course the more serious times like when I had to tell you I was pregnant, I was unmarried and only 18. I was so scared to tell you the news, but when I finally did you didn’t get angry or even lecture me. You just hugged me tightly and told me it will be alright, were those tears I saw in your eyes Dad? Oh how fiercely you loved your first grandchild, Jayde. He was your pride and joy. He loved you too, Dad, I hope you knew that. I remember years later when Sage came it was the same, you couldn’t wait to see him and hold him and again when Isaiah came, you poured your love and adoration into them. I wish my boys could have spent more time getting to know you Dad. You were such a wonderful Grandpa and they could have learned so much from you. Now as we wait to bring home your granddaughter from China, I can only wish she could have known you. You were so excited to meet her. Even though little Jiang Ting cannot hear, I know that you would get her giggling. She has truly lost a wonderful part of her family. But she will know you, Dad, I promise.
I don’t believe when someone dies that’s all there is and you would know better than all of us how true this is. It says in Philippians 1:21 “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. Your journey here has ended but you have found new life. You are not only at peace but you are surrounded by unspeakable beauty and great joy. No more pain racks your body, suffering is forever gone. You will have no more lonely days and nights and you have left behind all that is evil and entered into His love.
Daddy, I miss you and the laughter that you brought. But I will hold dear the good memories that you left behind. I will not say goodbye but only goodnight because I know that we will be together again. In the morning a new day has arisen and with that new beginnings. One day, I too, will end this journey and join you in Eternity. I love you Daddy – Good Night, I’ll see you in the morning.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Updates and GREAT News!
We apologize for not posting recently, but there hasn't been much to report until recently ~ which is why we're posting now!
This past summer the kids did a room swap. Sage and Isaiah moved downstairs into Jayde's room and Jayde moved into the office, which means our office is in the family room now. Jiang Ting's room will be in Sage and Isaiah's old room. In September we finally ordered the boys' passports because we decided that we wanted them to come with ~ this was a HUGE decision for us.
On October 30th we received our Pre-Approval from China! Very exciting, but we're waiting for our Referral Acceptance because that means that we have been approved by China to adopt her. We didn't have wait long because our Referral Acceptance came in just this week on November 5th!!!!!!! Jiang Ting is ours!!! Now we wait for our Travel Approval and that can take 2 to 6 weeks. Once we get our TA, we get ready to leave. We can expect to leave in 2 to 4 weeks after our TA. So now we hurry up and finish her bedroom, get her furniture and bedding, fill out more paperwork, get fingerprinted (again), and order our Visa's. The time will pass quickly since we have so much to do.
Now we can post her pictures on our blog, write her letters, send gifts (we're told they must be small), and send pictures. We are so excited and can't believe the day is coming near that we can bring her home.
We will try to post more often!
This past summer the kids did a room swap. Sage and Isaiah moved downstairs into Jayde's room and Jayde moved into the office, which means our office is in the family room now. Jiang Ting's room will be in Sage and Isaiah's old room. In September we finally ordered the boys' passports because we decided that we wanted them to come with ~ this was a HUGE decision for us.
On October 30th we received our Pre-Approval from China! Very exciting, but we're waiting for our Referral Acceptance because that means that we have been approved by China to adopt her. We didn't have wait long because our Referral Acceptance came in just this week on November 5th!!!!!!! Jiang Ting is ours!!! Now we wait for our Travel Approval and that can take 2 to 6 weeks. Once we get our TA, we get ready to leave. We can expect to leave in 2 to 4 weeks after our TA. So now we hurry up and finish her bedroom, get her furniture and bedding, fill out more paperwork, get fingerprinted (again), and order our Visa's. The time will pass quickly since we have so much to do.
Now we can post her pictures on our blog, write her letters, send gifts (we're told they must be small), and send pictures. We are so excited and can't believe the day is coming near that we can bring her home.
We will try to post more often!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Another (small) step forward...
It was very exciting to see that Jiang Ting's picture has been removed from the Special Needs wait list! Can't help but feel that it's one more confirmation that she will soon be home with us. It's so exciting to see everything moving forward. All we can do now is stare at her pictures. We can't wait to hold her in our arms!!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
A visit to a school possibility...
We went and visited the Metro Deaf School in St. Paul yesterday. We were VERY impressed with the technology they used and overall very impressed with the school. Most of the instructors are deaf themselves and hold very high teaching degrees. The class sizes are very small which should help a little deaf Chinese girl feel more comfortable. We were put to ease knowing there are options out there to help her learn besides just us. It can be more than a little overwhelming to think we need to do it all alone. The Metro Deaf School has been around since 1992 and was the second charter school in the nation to open it's doors. It's still the only deaf charter school in Minnesota. Families with deaf children have moved to Minnesota just to bring their kids there. It goes up to 8th grade, so maybe we can start homeschooling her then or there are other deaf school options at that point for high school.
I'm looking at curriculum options for the boys to teach them some ASL. I was surprised to find some very good resources. Much to the boys' chagrin, school will be starting very soon!
I'm looking at curriculum options for the boys to teach them some ASL. I was surprised to find some very good resources. Much to the boys' chagrin, school will be starting very soon!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Half Way to Approval!
Our home study went very well and we are now officially approved to adopt Jiang Ting on this side of the globe! Now we wait for our Referral Approval (RA) from China. It just means that China has approved us to adopt her. This could take 2-4 months. Could we have her by Christmas?! That would be awesome. Next Tuesday on August 14th we are meeting with the Director at the Metro Deaf School in St. Paul. We'll be discussing what programs they have to offer. We homeschool our boys and the thought of putting her in a school setting gives us pause...apparently we have a lot more digging to do to see if we can possibly do this from home.
I (Shelly) started learning some ASL online. There is a great online course that teaches you conversation, words, fingerspelling, and numbers. Plus there's a glossary and some info on deaf culture. We'll be learning this together and so far it's been fun showing the boys the different signs to go with what they are communicating. They enjoy it too.
I want to show pictures of Jiang Ting but I think I should wait until we get our RA. But as soon as that happens she'll be posted! We were told at that point we can send her photo's, small gifts, and even letters! Mike works with a guy from China who can translate our letters for her. God is so good!
I (Shelly) started learning some ASL online. There is a great online course that teaches you conversation, words, fingerspelling, and numbers. Plus there's a glossary and some info on deaf culture. We'll be learning this together and so far it's been fun showing the boys the different signs to go with what they are communicating. They enjoy it too.
I want to show pictures of Jiang Ting but I think I should wait until we get our RA. But as soon as that happens she'll be posted! We were told at that point we can send her photo's, small gifts, and even letters! Mike works with a guy from China who can translate our letters for her. God is so good!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
About us...
Right now our family consists of Mike (dad), Shelly (mom), Jayde (16), Sage (9), and Isaiah (7). We have 3 dogs, Lacy (our whippet), Happy (our Italian Greyhound), and Armani (our 2nd Italian Greyhound), and two cats Enoch and Joey. Oh, I almost forgot our two little hermit crabs Sage and Isaiah got for their birthday last June.
We are excited to be in process of adopting a sweet girl by the name of Jiang Ting from China. She is 11 years old and is deaf. When we started the adoption process in June of 2006, we thought we were going to be bringing home a little girl of toddler years by Christmas 2007. By the time all the paperchasing was done it was December 4th, 2006. Why does that take so long? We weren't logged in from China until January 4th, 2007. At this point the wait time increased from 12 months to 15 months. We thought...bummer, but we could wait the extra 3 months. By the next month the wait increased to 18 months...okay now we're up to 6 months longer, but we thought...okay...guess we wait. Then in April it was up to 20 months and still increasing...this is not okay anymore! That's when the thoughts came. Why in the world are we waiting for the "perfect" little baby when there are sooo many children in China waiting for a home RIGHT now? We have had 3 healthy beautiful boys, why not adopt a child who has been waiting for a loving home. So we filled out an application for a special needs child. Apparently with the longer wait more and more families are filling out special needs applications. Then we were told that we probably would receive a healthy referral before a Special Needs Referral. What??? That did not make sense to us in the least. So we wait...
Meanwhile, there is this sweet girl Shelly keeps going back to on the wait list of our adoption agency. She looks at her picture and thinks "could I be your mama?" She's deaf and we don't have any experience with the deaf culture or ASL or anything. Shelly's Uncle, who was deaf, died when she was young and didn't get to know him very well. We had to find out if we should even be thinking of adopting her since we might be looked at as inadequate anyway :). On July 18th, we contacted the Special Needs Coordinator and asked her if we could even be considered to be her forever family. She said that we didn't need experience with deaf children or know ASL to adopt her! What great news! Now we needed to pray, talk to our boys, pray, talk to the rest of our family, and pray. As we suspected, some family members were not as receptive to the idea of an older deaf child. But the majority believed because we are a solid, loving family we could be exactly what she needs. And many were brought to tears when they looked at her picture and read the information about her. Most importantly our three boys are VERY excited about the prospect of having a sister (even if she is older than our younger two!).
Tomorrow we meet with our social worker to see if she can approve us for our prospective daughter. We are looking forward to talking with her and discussing some thoughts and ideas that we haven't thought about yet.
Today we spent the day at the furniture store buying a new bedroom set for her and a bigger kitchen table to fit all of us. We are so excited to be on this wonderful journey. Even though our plans were different when this process started, we couldn't be more thrilled as to where it's heading! We can't help but believe that she will fit perfectly in our family because there are things that seem to just...fit. Her birthday is June 25th. Sage's birthday is June 21st and Isaiah's birthday is June 23rd. So that makes the birth years 96, 98 and 00. The June birthdays are 21, 23, and 25. Pretty cool if you ask us! Shelly has been wanting to adopt since she was pregnant with Sage 9 years ago. Couldn't figure out why when she hadn't even had the baby yet, but she just had to check into what it takes to adopt even back then. Crazy thing is this is the exact time that our little China doll was being abandoned at the age of 2. Timing didn't work out for us to start the adoption process until last summer, which leads us to where we are right now. Can't wait to see what the future holds!
...more to come...
We are excited to be in process of adopting a sweet girl by the name of Jiang Ting from China. She is 11 years old and is deaf. When we started the adoption process in June of 2006, we thought we were going to be bringing home a little girl of toddler years by Christmas 2007. By the time all the paperchasing was done it was December 4th, 2006. Why does that take so long? We weren't logged in from China until January 4th, 2007. At this point the wait time increased from 12 months to 15 months. We thought...bummer, but we could wait the extra 3 months. By the next month the wait increased to 18 months...okay now we're up to 6 months longer, but we thought...okay...guess we wait. Then in April it was up to 20 months and still increasing...this is not okay anymore! That's when the thoughts came. Why in the world are we waiting for the "perfect" little baby when there are sooo many children in China waiting for a home RIGHT now? We have had 3 healthy beautiful boys, why not adopt a child who has been waiting for a loving home. So we filled out an application for a special needs child. Apparently with the longer wait more and more families are filling out special needs applications. Then we were told that we probably would receive a healthy referral before a Special Needs Referral. What??? That did not make sense to us in the least. So we wait...
Meanwhile, there is this sweet girl Shelly keeps going back to on the wait list of our adoption agency. She looks at her picture and thinks "could I be your mama?" She's deaf and we don't have any experience with the deaf culture or ASL or anything. Shelly's Uncle, who was deaf, died when she was young and didn't get to know him very well. We had to find out if we should even be thinking of adopting her since we might be looked at as inadequate anyway :). On July 18th, we contacted the Special Needs Coordinator and asked her if we could even be considered to be her forever family. She said that we didn't need experience with deaf children or know ASL to adopt her! What great news! Now we needed to pray, talk to our boys, pray, talk to the rest of our family, and pray. As we suspected, some family members were not as receptive to the idea of an older deaf child. But the majority believed because we are a solid, loving family we could be exactly what she needs. And many were brought to tears when they looked at her picture and read the information about her. Most importantly our three boys are VERY excited about the prospect of having a sister (even if she is older than our younger two!).
Tomorrow we meet with our social worker to see if she can approve us for our prospective daughter. We are looking forward to talking with her and discussing some thoughts and ideas that we haven't thought about yet.
Today we spent the day at the furniture store buying a new bedroom set for her and a bigger kitchen table to fit all of us. We are so excited to be on this wonderful journey. Even though our plans were different when this process started, we couldn't be more thrilled as to where it's heading! We can't help but believe that she will fit perfectly in our family because there are things that seem to just...fit. Her birthday is June 25th. Sage's birthday is June 21st and Isaiah's birthday is June 23rd. So that makes the birth years 96, 98 and 00. The June birthdays are 21, 23, and 25. Pretty cool if you ask us! Shelly has been wanting to adopt since she was pregnant with Sage 9 years ago. Couldn't figure out why when she hadn't even had the baby yet, but she just had to check into what it takes to adopt even back then. Crazy thing is this is the exact time that our little China doll was being abandoned at the age of 2. Timing didn't work out for us to start the adoption process until last summer, which leads us to where we are right now. Can't wait to see what the future holds!
...more to come...
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