Update....but not really an update

Hey friends! This is the part of the process where a lot of things happen behind the scenes but not much DAILY excitement.

Our first big step was to get a list of documents to our home study agency.

They, in turn, copy all of that and send it to our social worker and she writes our home study update.

This home study update then goes to China as part of our dossier (AKA big stack of documents).

The good news is that we get to reuse our dossier that we used with MinLan. Can I get a big hallelujah!?!?!?!?  That thing is a BEAST to put together!!!!

Ok, so all of our documents have been delivered to our home study agency.

Last I heard, our social worker was still waiting on a few documents to be sent to her.

Once she has them, she can sit down to write and update our home study to reflect MinLan's addition to our family and to add in our desire to adopt John Preston.

Then she will send a draft to be approved by our placing agency in Delaware.  Our goal is to have that rough draft sent to our placing agency by March 31st.

Once they approve it, the official copies with be signed, notarized and ready to go.

Once our home study is done, we can also begin to apply for grants for our adoption.

Our next big hurdle is the funds due to get our dossier to China.  It is a real possibility that it will be ready to go but that they will be waiting on us to pay our balance due them in order to send it.

I think this is one part that scares me. Not that I LIKE waiting on other people to do their part, but I hate the thought that everything will be ready to go and they will be waiting on US.

To think that our precious boy has been waiting almost EIGHT YEARS already for a family and that now he will wait even longer.

We have been busy though...

We have had several fundraisers and are grateful to all of you that have supported us.

We have had several friends join our Story of 1000 and we are so thankful.

Bryan has been able to work some overtime at work so that has helped too.

On days like today, I feel like I am not doing enough. I wonder if I am wasting my time on fundraisers that might not be successful or if there is a better way that I could spend my time in order to get John Preston home more quickly.

Thanks for checking in with us. I hope that soon I am able to share with you two things:

1. We have paid our current balances with our agencies.
2. Our home study is written and our dossier is on its way to China.

Please continue to pray that our sweet boy is happy, healthy and cared for in his foster home.

Join us praying that God continues to show out in a mighty way in the area of financial resources for our adoption. I know He wants us to depend on Him. I have never felt closer to and more dependent on the Lord than I have during the adoption process.

But the uncertainty is hard.

He made a way for us to bring MinLan home and I know He is going to do the same for John Preston.

One of mine and Ethan's favorite songs is "Jesus Paid It All".....

The lyrics say:
"Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness
Watch and pray
Find in me thine all in all."

We are watching and praying...expectantly.

Love,
Jenifer

God continues to blow us away.....

Can I just tell you that I love to see God work?  I think most often we are in such a hurry that we don't even take the time to notice.  He's working IN us and right in FRONT of us and yet we are too busy....

Today I had to take all five little ones to the dentist. Our three big ones did great (except for the four cavities) but the little girls went B-A-N-A-N-A-S!  HA! But praise the Lord, their teeth are clean and the dentist was surprised at how good MinLan's looked and even bragged on Neely's "bite". YAY!!

While there, we chatted with the staff about adoption and John Preston.  You don't have to twist my arm to get me to tell our family's story.

One of the ladies in the front, asked how we had decided to adopt children with Down syndrome. I shared about our desire to adopt even before we were blessed with Neely....shared about how the Lord led us to MinLan and then shared about how our kids were CONVINCED that John Preston was going to be their brother...even before WE knew.

In the midst of sharing our story, one sweet lady says "Hold on...let me go get my checkbook!"

Then another sweet lady, grabbed her checkbook.

Then our sweet friend who works there, handed me a check.

All three wanted to be part of The Story of 1000....

God just blows me away...when we started we had no idea how we were going to make it work financially. We knew immediately that if this was the Lord's will then He was going to have to show out in a MIGHTY way.

And do you know what? HE IS!!!!

Our friends...and complete strangers...have come alongside us in our Story of 1000....you guys have bought soap and Sonic cards....you've donated chances to win a quilt, bought Tupperware.....you've sold your own belongings to help give toward our adoption...I can't even name all of the ways. You have blown us away.

And we are grateful.

And one day our son will know your name....and he will know that you helped him come home to his forever family.  He will know that he is loved by so many and most importantly he will know that he is loved by his Heavenly Father.

Thank you. We are forever grateful.

Love,
Jenifer


P.S. Take a look at these sweet videos of our little John Preston. Couldn't you just smooch those cheeks!??!?

Moving Along....

Well, the adoption process seems as slow as molasses sometimes....but right now we are in one of those times where I can affect change, depending on how quickly I get things together.

We have a few more papers to deliver to our home study agency:

• our medical reports, mine is done..the kids are scheduled for appointments this week with the new pediatrician...Bryan's appointment will be this week as well.
• one financial form 
• our references...I think they are almost all turned in...our friends and family send them in to the agency themselves.

After all of the paperwork is turned in, they will officially assign our family to our social worker. I'm excited that we will have the same one that we had with our adoption of MinLan! She feels like part of the family!  We had an already scheduled post placement visit with her the other day that hopefully will count as a needed visit for our adoption of John Preston.  I called our agency the other day to confirm all of that and they are getting back to me.

The next step after being assigned a social worker, is for her to update our home study.  She'll add in all of MinLan's information, update mine and Bryan's work information and anything else that has changed since we adopted MinLan.

Once that is written, it will be reviewed by our home study agency and then it will be reviewed by our placing agency in Delaware. Once it has their approval, then we can file our I-800A paperwork with USCIS.  This is where the United States government determines our suitability to adopt John Preston.  This paperwork is running about a month right now to come back with approval, according to our agency.  With MinLan our approval took SIXTY-FOUR days!! We are praying for a much shorter wait this time!! Please pray with us!

Once the USCIS approval is back then our dossier can be sent to China. The great news is that we get to reuse our documents from our adoption with MinLan. So getting it to China hopefully will be a quick turn around process.  

Thanks so much for continuing to pray for our family and for John Preston. Thank you for supporting the fundraisers we have had and for generously giving to our Story of 1000. We are blessed!

Love,

Jenifer