It has been almost 3 years since I last blogged. 3 Years. What??? At times I can hardly believe it. At other times it takes my breathe away at how quickly the time has passed. I would love nothing more than to tell stories and catch you up on 3 years, but lets be honest I don't read all that and it would be about me.
On September 22, 2011 we arrived at the airport in Ethiopia and began to wait to have our luggage scanned only to have to our youngest announce that he had to "shint" which means pee in Amharic. I am sure you can imagine what non-Amharic speaking people thought "shint" sounded like and how we had numerous opportunities to hear both our boys tell us that loudly. But I digress, after finding Jeff and our oldest son in line to check in for our flight our youngest decided it was an excellent time to play a game of chase and he ran away from us. After successfully boarding the plane, we instructed the flight attendants that unless our hair was on fire and we were screaming help us please, you can just assume that our boys have pushed the button for you to come. And push buttons they did. In our seats, in the bathroom, and even in the car on the ride home. We arrived in the US on September 23, 2011. Then the real adventure began.
The boys were 2.5 and 6.5 when they came home. Today they are 5 and 9. A kindergartner and a third grader. Sometimes it is hard to believe they are the same boys. I can't even begun to summarize the past almost 3 years into a few short sentences. Suffice to say we have all grown, made mistakes and been stretched in amazing wonderful ways. All 4 of us have stories and scars to share about the past almost 3 years to be told another day.
So what are we doing now? Well I am glad you asked. While we were fostering(you read that right we are listened foster parents)(our experience fostering and the AWESOMELY WONDERFUL foster parents we met along the way is also part of stories for another day) so where was I? It was in the middle of that process that we knew that we wanted to add to our family. It has always been in my heart to adopt to from China. One date night I shared this vision with Jeff and he said yes, what is the process and what do we need to do? Wow, what an answer to prayer that was! We both knew we wanted to adopt a waiting child. Truthfully, I was convinced that our 3 year old child was on a waiting list. We began researching China special needs program and agencies. I met some amazing people in the process who were a huge help to me in navigating the waters of the China special needs adoption process. And then we found our girl. She is precious! We made inquiries and discovered that we could move forward in the process to adopt her without our home study completed yet, because she is what they call special focus. Which means that we move through the adoption process a little bit backwards. So we did an abbreviated short version of a the paper chase (to read more about that click here) and submitted what they call LOI or letter of intent. We then wait for China to give us PA or preliminary approval. PA means that we are approved to adopt our girl. We have 6 months to complete our home study, immigration paper work, and get our dossier to China or DTC. Sounds easy right? :)I know better.
Because our girl is with Lifeline Children's Services and they don't have an office in Illinois that means we had to get a home study agency in Illinois. Which means we get to, key words GET TO, coordinate our adoptwaiting (my word for what adoption is a great opportunity to wait) process with not 1 but 2 agencies! I am certain that this will provide numerous opportunities to trust God, surrender to God and continue to grow in my control freak recovery program.
In short we are adoptwaiting a 5 year old girl with special needs from China. We would covet your prayers for her and for us as we walk through this process. Please also pray for the financing. We will need a huge amount of money in a very short amount time. Coming soon Team Hokanson's fundraising campaign Where 1 More = 1 Less.
