REFERRAL

Today I behold in my own hand, the formal Referal of my waiting daughter. A letter stating "Based on your application and in accordance with the Adoption of Law of the People's Republic of China, the China Center for Adoption Affairs match a child with you. ......Name: Gau Er Gou, From: Xi'an, Shaanxi Province"

Decision of Adopter:
~We accept the adoptee mentioned above
~We cannot accept the adoptee mentioned above

AND, what do you think we checked!!! Yes, of course, WE ACCEPT, WE ACCEPT, WE ACCEPT.

We accept you Joy, just the way you are, just the way your Maker made you, with open arms, open hearts, without expectations, with no conditions, we accept you Joy.

Goods news from a distant land!

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.
Proverbs 25:25

After 68 days.....we have.....

Glor-glor-glorious news!!!! Our adoption agency received our Final Approval from China today. (It's called a Letter Seeking Confirmation, which is a document with Joy's information on it and we "check" the "yes" box that we want her, sign it and send it back.)

Now...
We start processing the Immigration papers with the US government getting permission for Joy to enter the country...

After that....
The approval from China and the US immigrations are sent to the US Consulate in China, which starts processing a visa for Joy...

Then...
The Consulate lets the Chinese government know they are ready to process Joy's visa....

And Finally....
The Chinese government invites us to come to China to complete the adoption.

The entire above process take about 8 weeks. SO, in about 8 weeks we will be setting our travel dates. We will not travel in 8 weeks but we will start planning the dates and things will start to firm up here pretty soon.

Restless

I am Restless.

Restless from Anticipation.

Restless with the Hope.



I move around a lot. I try to sit but my mind can't focus on any one thing. I move around more. I can focus on little projects but not big ones. My mind wonders from one thing to the next without finishing the previous thought. I have lots of little to-do's each day that I forget all about.

It's a good thing.

Really.

It means we are expecting news of our sweet Joy.

It means the time is getting closer.

It means I am getting excited.

Restless.

This is the best restless I know of. Let me relish in it for just a while.

~ Day 63 of waiting on our formal referral (average wait 42-72 days) ~

49 days & happily waiting

Today is 49 days since our dossier was logged in. LOA's (Letter of Approval) have come in this time frame. Which makes me so excited to be so close. At maximum we should just have another 2 to 3 weeks.

It's exciting!

China is closed next week for Chinese New Year but I sure hope to be emailing & posting good news the week after that!

Keep praying for quick processing but most important 'God's Timing!' - I am so blessed to serve SUCH an awesome God who would choose ME (of all people!) to be the mom to our 4 children and then again he chooses me to be Joy's mom!!!! ME???!! The woman who wanted 1 child & a career?! Me?! He is an awesome God.



Waiting....

All Logged In

As posted previously, our dossier was sent to China on November 28th. ~ We have been waiting and waiting (6 weeks weeks of waiting) to hear that our dossier was "logged in" to the database at China's Adoption Affairs office in Beijing. Thankfully, today we heard. It has been logged in and logged in for quite some time.

Our LID was December 2, 2011

We are now waiting on China to send us our formal referral of Ms. Joy. We hope to receive that in February. We'll sign it and send it back pronto. After that, we'll be waiting on China to issue us our Travel Approval.

All I want for Christmas....

Christmas is here. I love Christmas. Most folks do. I love presents. I love making my wish list months in advance. I love the anticipation of the gifs I'll receive. I love opening my gifts and seeing which ones from my wish list made it under the tree.

But not this year.

As I shop for others, I'm not inclined at all to wish for myself.

I've lost that desire to have a material possession under my tree this year.

All I want for Christmas is JOY.

The 'joy' that comes from the Lord.

Both the 'spiritual joy'


....and....

the Living-breathing-gonna-be-my-daughter-JOY!



I am so glad the Lord is bringing this JOY into our life. So thrilled she will change our lives. So happy that we are coming down to our last few months of waiting. So elated that 2012 will see her home.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

and

May the JOY of the Lord be your Strength this year.

Happily Waiting on LID

LID = Log In Date

This is the date that China takes our dossier off the stack on someones desk and "logs" it into their computer system. That date is so very important. Because then they start processing our adoption. :-) That's a happy-happy day. I really feel like our LID will be this week. We won't hear from China or our agency for several more weeks but when we do hear from them, the dossier usually has already been logged in for about 3 weeks. It just takes that long to hear back from them. So this should be the week. I'm excited.

After the LID, then we wait about 45-60 days (or so) to get the Formal Referral of Ms. Joy. How very exciting!!!

It's all really happening.

She's really coming home in a few months.

Happy-happy!