Update...three weeks in....first cleft appointment done.

I'm not sure how to encapsulate what life is like here now. Some days are hard, some are easier, some moments are eternally precious. I haven't been able to put it into words yet, so I won't bore you with what I don't know and tell you what I do. Grace is incredibly sweet and she is trying really hard to learn a new language and a new life and I am so happy to be her Mama. And I feel so blessed to have such good friends who have loved us so well during this journey. From notes and posts on Facebook, to food and gifts, to phone calls and texts, you have all made us feel very loved. And now, about our day...

Today we spent the day at the Children's Hospital Cleft Unit. We saw everyone from the speech pathologist to the ENT to the surgeon, plus three other medical professionals. We learned more of what we already know. Grace's cleft is wide. It should have been repaired before she turned nine months old. Her nose is a problem, but in the surgeon's opinion, the cleft needs fixed first. Every sound she makes in her speech is incorrect. She has had to adjust where she makes sounds in her mouth because of the missing palate and all of that will need to be relearned, the sooner the better for her long term speech clarity. He is generally booked a few months out, and is going to note us as ASAP with the schedulers. I also told him we would be up for filling in a cancellation if one should come up sooner because we have such great support from family and friends.

So, we are trusting God for the correct timing for her surgery. Later would give us more communication and bonding time. Sooner would give her opportunity to start learning her speech patterns correctly and give her more time before she starts in school. As scary as any surgery is for your child, I am really hoping to get this done sonner so that we can help Gracie move forward in her speech.

Thanks for your prayers and your friendships, your food and your love!

With a grateful heart.

Christine

The "rules" post

So many of you have loved us. Prayed for us. Cried with us. Bought us things. Cleaned our house. Helped with our kids. We love you! For that and just for being who you are. And we know you are anxious to meet Grace and show her how excited you are that she is here. We cannot wait until she is installed as a fully functioning member of the Klemstine family, running the halls of Crossroads Church, MAOG, First Baptist, and Heritage Elementary as well as many of your houses. But before that can happen, we need to help Grace fully understand who we (her family) are and who she can always come to for comfort, guidance, appropriate love, food, and security. And for this, the rules of engagement with Grace must be a little different at first.

Why are the rules different for Grace? What can you expect from us and with Grace for the next few months? Throughout this process we have done a lot of training about orphan care. We have learned and processed a lot. Some of the next two paragraphs comes from my friend Kelli’s blog, with Grace’s info inserted. It may help you to remember/learn what she has been through.

Grace was born approximately May 15, 2007. On May 15, 2008, she was found beside a road near the entrance to a village. Most likely her parents could not afford the costs of surgery to fix her lip and palate and were no longer able to keep her healthy. We are forever grateful that her mother chose to conceive her when other options were available and that she kept her for that first year, when eye contact and love is so important in forming those basic brain pathways. When her parents could not be ascertained, she was sent to an orphanage, where she spent approximately 2 years. We know nothing about that institution, other than what we know about all orphanages, which is that there are too many kids and too few nannies. When a child is in an institution they don’t learn how to function in a family. How could they? All nannies are called “mamas”. She was then sent to a foster home, which is a good thing. She learned what a family was like, and we hope they loved her. We did not meet them and will never know for sure, other than that she seems very happy and contented, which probably speaks volumes for them. And then, the day she came to us, the most trusted people in her life handed her over to complete strangers who handed her to us. That is a lot of loss.

 The rules we have are very important in helping Grace know who her family is so she attaches to us. Healthy attachment makes healthy children and adults. Attachment is so very important. Adoption is borne out of loss, so the minute she met us, her life suddenly didn’t become sunshine and rainbows. In her short life, Grace lost her birth parents, her family, her friends and since we arrived she lost her foster parents and grandparents, and now all the smells, sights, sounds and language of China that she has known for nearly five and a half years.

Grace still struggles with appropriate boundaries. She will walk up to anyone and grab anything that interests her. It’s cute sometimes, but ultimately inappropriate. She becomes easily overstimulated and starts acting wildly. She still has some very affected behaviors when she thinks she needs to please. She has adjusted relatively well to us. This could be a good thing, or not. We need to make sure she knows that we are her forever family, not just some transitional situation. For these reasons and others we will be staying home mostly for a few weeks, other than doctor appointments and other necessary trips or outings locally to the playground because that is something she loves. We will ask that you not pick her up, feed her or try to kiss her. This will not be a forever rule for my concerned, very affectionate friends (you know who you are RobynJ). Just for now. She is pretty independent (which is something I strive for in my bio kids but in institutionalized children can be caused because no one was every trustworthy in their lives) but we will most likely not be very far from her at any time, so if she needs comfort or food or potty help, find us. We must do that for her to imprint ourselves into her psyche as the provider of her earthly needs. Please don’t be offended if we do not attend parties or gatherings or host any for the next few months, or leave early or quickly from any event. Her growth and well being are our priority for the next few months.

Grace truly is a sweet kid who has suffered great loss in her life and we want to give her the best chance at a solidly grounded emotional future. We want her to know the unconditional love of parents and God. We want to see her true self as it continues to unfold.

If you want to love on someone, love on our boys. They are going their own journeys as they figure out their new roles and as Mom and Dad’s attentions are split 4 ways now instead of 3, with a greater proportion going towards a very small new girl. And much outside attention will also be on that same small new girl. They could likely use a hug, a smile, an encouraging word.

Thank you for your help!! We love you! We can’t wait for you all to get to know Grace.

The long journey home

Tuesday morning started early at 5am for Chris and Me. Grace was up at 5:30. We were out the door by 5:45 on the way to the airport. After checking in another family and herself, our guide Shiyan took us to our counter for check in. Unfortunately my reservation, which I paid $25.00 to make on the phone with a United reservation specialist had not made it to their partner airline, All Nippon Air. After twenty plus minutes of searching and a managers help, they were able to find our reservation. Phew! I have heard of nightmares where reservations got canceled for some reason and new flights had to be paid for...was glad to finally be found and confirmed. Flight to Japan took off on time and Gracie did well on this three plus hour flight. We had a short bit of downtime in Japan before boarding our long flight to Los Angeles. Again, Gracie did really well. After they served us our dinner, I took her into my arms and sang some songs and she fell asleep. She slept for several hours, as long as maybe five? That was awesome.

We arrived at LAX at 9:30am. Our next flight was at 10:30. We had been in row seven, thankfully, so we hurried off the flight and down to immigration where we were about 15th in line. Got through the American side quickly but then were directed to sit down and wait for the processing of Gracie. And wait. And wait. We were the only ones waiting, but they had to process all the flight crew first...then all the people with rush passes because of close connecting flights. It didn't seem to matter that we had one as well. Grr. Finally we were called and a very nice man declared Gracie an American citizen, wishes us well and sent us on our way. We didn't have time to celebrate as we now had to run to catch our next flight. Down three hallways that stretched the length of 1.5 to 2 football fields to get to baggage and then the line for customs. But even with a our own rush pass now, when we got to customs we were stopped because we didn't have our customs form. The immigration guy had taken it and never gave it back. We now had ten minutes to boarding time. I ran (literally) the whole way back those three hallways to the first immigration guy who very loudly told me that he "never kept anyone's custom form and that it must be in my possession somewhere". I looked where we waited for Gracie's processing, where I got interrogated by another officer. Finally I asked the officer who processed Gracie, and he apologetically said he had my paper. After running the whole way back again, we got through customs and dropped our baggage to be reloaded onto our new plane and headed up the escalator with 1 minute to spare....and a security line! After begging our way into the short line, we begged our way past a few people and into line where we both had our bags pulled for review (and then sent through a second time) and Chris got frisked double time. When we finally finished this gauntlet, we were ten minutes past the first boarding time for our plane. Thank the good Lord above that there was a woman with one of those transport cars at the start of our gateway because our gate was at the end of a hallway that was another two football fields in length. We would have never made it without her. We loaded onto the plane with just a few minutes to spare. We were so exhausted after this craziness that Grace and I promptly passed out. She slept for most of the flight, at least three of the four  or so hours. A blessing.

Upon landing, I burst into tears, so grateful and thankful to be home safely and so excited to see the boys. I pulled it together so as not to freak everyone out and we had a nice greeting time. It was great to see our friends and family who came out to see us. If that was you, thank you! I know what an effort it is to get to the Pittsburgh airport!

Since the six of us pretty much fill our van, it was just us in the car on the way home with grandparents and friends in other cars. Gracie got in her car seat and sat next to Jude without any complaining. We got home and had a little time at home before we put kids to bed. Grace and I were up for several hours during the night, but last night was much better, for her anyway. I'm still struggling with being wide awake around midnight or so for some reason. Hoping my body adjusts soon. Chris is in our bed, while I am with Gracie, so his sleep has been better.

Grace is adjusting as are the boys. The boys are responding as we thought they would, with Jude seeming a little out of sorts as he figured out what his new place is in the family. Grace is so much smaller than him that it is mind boggling that they are only ten months apart. I really feel that once she is able to communicate well, that they will be fast friends. She has spent the the last two days playing with the Disney Princess kitchen and food that was given to us by Carrie Jack. She loves it. We are working on figuring out what to feed her that she will

Mixed feelings

Today was a good day. After a very rough evening where naughtiness and a lack of being able to communicate left us putting a sobbing girl to bed early. We woke in better moods, but I was unable to shake an anxious feeling. Everyone has said that leaving China is bittersweet and it really is. I am so ready to be back where people speak clear English on a regular basis. But that means for Grace, that all she knows will be different. In a way, this two weeks gives me a glimpse of what the rest of her life will be like, living in an area of the country where most folks will not look like her. Thankfully we have several Asian friends who are willing to connect with her, but it will never be the same for her.

We went shopping with Ann from Red Thread and were able to buy pearls for Grace's wedding as well as for each of the boys wives. They are beautiful. They were the best quality pearls bought wholesale because of Ann's connections. Shelley and Kevin and Hope Lilan were with us all day. It was awesome. The girls were so adorable together it was a fantasy. I am so sad we do not live closer. We had a disastrous taxi ride so we were very late arriving at Shelley's hotel. While waiting, Lilan told the guide (who speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin) that Grace was her Mei Mei (little sister) and she needed to take care of her. She became very concerned about why we were late ( as was everyone else!) The guides have told Shelley that Hope Lilan is extremely bright, with a very large vocabulary. She is doing much better for the Carson's. She is bossy and funny and quite the riot. We also got Grace an inexpensive pearl necklace and bracelet to wear now because she loves jewelry so much. Hope told the guide she was jealous of Grace's necklace and the dress that she was wearing and that her mother needed to buy her some dresses because the pants she was wearing were not cutting it! Too funny. Both girls left with one of the inexpensive necklaces as well as a bracelet. And then we went dress shopping!

We are now back at the hotel, packing all our belongings and preparing for the long day of travel ahead of us. We are so grateful to all our friends and family who are praying for us, following our journey and doing things to bless us back at home. I think the grandparents will be very excited to see the parents return. Maybe even more than our kids :) Seriously, though, it has been a blessing to know that the kids were well cared for while we were gone. And that we have been prayed for as well. We love you all and can't wait to see you all again soon!

In the eyes of China, Grace was our daughter the day after we received her and went back to sign the papers saying that we were satisfied with her and that we would never abandon or abuse her. Tomor row we finish the American side of the paperwork process at the US consulate here in Guangzhou. Then she will officially be our daughter in the eyes of both countries. Crazy awesome. She will be dressed in red, white and blue to celebrate this day. Can't wait to see her in the sweet outfit I first saw back in June.

Today we spent the day with Shelley, Hope Lilan and Kevin Carson at the Safari Park. It was fun but exhausting. Once Hope and Grace warmed up to each other they were so sweet together. I wish we lived closer for them to play with each other.  I put out some very sweet pics of both on Facebook.

Grace continues to have some trouble breathing at night, but only in spurts of time, other times she is fine. I am anxious to get her evaluated to see how we can help her. Poor thing gets so frustrated. She is becoming more comfortable with us, which is great, and sometimes not so great. Today she was comfortable enough to belch several times at us, that was nice :) She is also an avtive 5 year old who likes jumping on beds, etc, which causes some consternation from her parents. We are more than ready to get home and see what life is like on the other side of the world with this princess.

Shelley made the most adorable peg dolls representing each member of our immediate family, and Grace has been lining them up and asking me to point to them so she can say their names. She will definitely know the boys names by the time we get home. Whether or not she will know who is who is another story.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We are doing well here. We have heard of several other families dealing with tragedy and difficulties and know that we are blessed by her relatively easy transition. It has been amazing to see the many families here adopting children with a multitude of needs, from cerebral palsy to paralysis to missing limbs, cleft lip and palate, and large portwine stains. Grace is always concerned for the kiddos who cry or have obvious needs, like the unrepaired cleft lips and a boy with a huge facial portwine stain. She gets a sad little face and says something I don't understand. I try to reassure that it is ok. And it truly is. Because these are the lucky ones. They have found families who will love them and help them to heal physically and emotionally. But there are so many more, over 143 million more. Staggering. Thankful that we can help this one. If you're reading this and want to talk more about how you can do this too, we'd be more than willing to talk to you. But even though adoption isn't for everyone, everyone can pray for these kids and for changes in the way we care for the most vulnerable in our world.

Love to you all. Can't wait to see you again. Three more days in China, then one on an airplane, then home! Hallelujah.

Reality?

As I was typing my last post, a storm was brewing! A Gracie storm that is. We had our first melt down with her at that time. It is to be expected and in general she does so well, that it is easy to forget all that she has suffered and lost, and all that we do not know. I feel so many holes in her life. What was her living situation like? I don't know. What were her foster parents like? I don't know. Why did her mama abandon her? I don't know. How will I help her answer those questions for herself? I don't know.

Doing some research last night, the author again strongly recommended keeping stimuli to a minimum for a while after getting home, introducing things gradually. Even good, learning, and loving things. All are just too much. We have seen that here. She gets overstimulated and crazy after a day out and about. I love to tickle my boys and rough house a little with them. I cannot do that with her, not even a little bit. She gets immediately crazy. It's just too much.

So yesterday after our medical we just stayed at the hotel and went to the 4th floor outdoor playground and then the pool. It was a good relaxing day. I wish hotel food and room service weren't more like highway robbery in terms of price because we always need to venture out for meals. We bought some noodle bowls (think ramen) but she doesn't seem to like noodles, only rice. We have had McDonalds a couple of times because it is right next door and we hope chicken nuggets will give her some semblance of protein, but icky, already tired of that!

Today we went to the Guangzhou zoo. All of the animals were just a little scary to her, she told our guide. Afterwards we went to McD and they were handing out these tiny baby cones of ice cream. She had no idea what it was. She licked it so gingerly. When we got to the cone she was done. This was after ten minutes of licking the top off this tiny cone of ice cream. Sweet and a little sad.

I was talking to our guide about all the stares we get when we are out and about with Grace. People gawk so hard I'm sometimes afraid they are going to walk into poles or into traffic. She said that most people are confused. Media here is so tight that they are not aware that foreigners are adopting their children. I found this very surprising. So we must indeed look very strange to many people. She said she thinks most people are wondering how this caucasian couple ended up with a Chinese looking baby.

So continue to pray for us to be able to communicate with Grace. Our guide says that she thinks Grace always understands what is being said to her (in Cantonese) even though she sometimes chooses not to answer or only answers in one of two word answers. Like she got very sad when I tried to show her the Hello Kitty nailpolish I brought. I asked Wensi our guide to talk to her about it and she chose not to answer Wensi. We still do not know why. We are sad that this is our last day with this guide because she has really helped us communicate since she is a native Cantonese speaker. We think our guide for the rest of the trip is a Mandarin speaker.

We hope to catch up with Shelley tomorrow. Sounds like Huang Lilan (Hope) is quite the spitfire and quite attached to her Chinese name. It will be intersting to see the two girls together. I think Hope also speaks Cantonese and she seems very fluent and very easy to understand. It will be interesting to see if they can chat together. Also, another child from Grace's orphanage is getting adopted on Monday. They were friends. We hope to try and connect with them of possible.

Love to you all. Continue to pray for us for wisdom and for Grace to understand who we are and how much we love her.

Day three

Gracie is doing well. She has been enjoying all the toys we brought for her. She has moved her continual affection onto a TY panda that I got at the apple and arts festival. Last night on the way home from dinner she left holding my hand and asked Chris to pick her up. Big step. Today we walked through a park across the street from our hotel. Very big, leafy, hilly, expansive park. We played at a playground for awhile and she basically wanted to ride the rocking spring toys for the whole time. She wanted us on with her as well. She would have done that for hours I think. As it was, we were there for probably 45minutes.

She seems to be a bright kid, sometimes deliberately naughty. We are working on that, but trying to be as lenient as we can, without encouraging her bad behavior and all the while trying to teach her appropriate behavior. This seems to happen mostly when she is tired.

She likes to be held and is a fashion queen, loving her clothes and her purse. She does not like things in her hair, however. She is alternately a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a toddler in her behavior. We have her medical appointment at 3 today. Hoping that goes well and she is not too scared.

We can't wait to see what she is like when we get her home with the boys and on our regular schedule.

Love to all. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Gracie...first days

I know you all have been wanting an update, but it has been crazy keeping u with Grace and our appointments. Briefly, We had 45 minutes to get into our hotel room before we left to get Grace. She came first and we got down on the floor to play with her. She never got our package so she had never seen any of us before. I gave her the American doll we brought as well as a panda. She is completely attached to the doll, carries it everywhere. She was admiring my necklace so I gave her the matching one I brought for her. She loved that as well. She is either fingering the necklace or carrying the doll all the time. She has adjusted well. Got sad during her bath for some reason, but then had a great time. We definitely have a wild child sometimes. She is outgoing and talkative which is what we had been told. Her cleft is bad even with the repairs and she has trouble breathing while laying down. That is disappointing and little scary, but we will work it out when we get home. She talks nonstop. I just wish we could understand her! She sometimes repeats everything I say. And when I laugh at her, she laughs, which makes me laugh even more. She is a riot. She is eating a little better than we had expected, having been told that she only eats soft food and is hand fed. We had a rushed breakfast but then had McDonalds chicken nuggets for lunch. She ate almost all of a four piece meal (without the fries). For the most part she wants to feed herself. She is pretty independent. She likes both of us, but definitely prefers me to Chris for some things. We are about to go for a swim even though it is slightly raining outside. We went to check out the pool and she was having a blast when she was playing in the water. We had our meetings with the officials today and signed all the paperwork promising never to abandon or abuse her. We did promise, and now she is officially our child. We now have medical appointments and TB testing and waiting for her visa and passport to be prepared. Feeling very blessed. Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes. It is awesome to have you all behind us. Praying for you all as the hurricane approaches!

Last day as a family of 5

Today is the last day we will be the parents of three and a family of five. Tomorrow we meet Grace for the first time. It really is impossible to prepare for this moment accurately. So much is unknown. So, we wait and trust. Thank you for your prayers. We are doing so well. We have enjoyed our time here in Beijing and feel ready to meet Grace and start the adventure of being parents to a girl! We miss the boys. It feels like we have been here a lot longer than we have and we have many days to go. We will really be needing to see them by the time we are ready to travel home! They seem to have be having a good time with Grandma Jeannie. So thankful for that.

Today we went to the Forbidden City. If you saw "The Last Emperor", it was filmed here, about the last of the Mantua emperors, a boy king. It was an amazing palace that is so large and has so many corridors and courts that one cannot imagine. The rooves were painted gold and are so beautiful sparking in the sunshine. The smog has cleared the last two days and we had beautiful weather.

After the Forbidden Palace, we went to a Hutong village and got to ride on a rickshaw. It was very neat to see how the people of Beijing used to live. Hutongs are clusters of one story buildings surrounding a courtyard. There used to be thousands of these all over Beijing, but many were torn down to build the Olympic stadiums and parks, and many more to build the high rise buildings that are needed to house the 20 million residents of Beijing. Most people in Beijing live in these high rise buildings. Beijing has amazing architecture, some of the most unique I have seen in any city I have ever been.

When I say we meet Grace tomorrow, really for you, it will be the middle of the night Sunday into Monday. We leave the hotel here at 5am tomorrow! Not looking forward to that early morning wake up! We fly to Guangzhou and meet Grace in the afternoon, about 2:30 in the morning your time. So pray for us before you go to bed. And check Facebook sometime tomorrow. I will try to post pics if I am able.

Finally, I was given a verse a few weeks ago about this day. Exodus 3:5 says "Do not come any closer" says God, "Take off your shoes, for the place your are standing is holy ground". I did a little reading about this today and found a few ways in which this applies. First, you take off your shoes to leave behind the "schmutz" of the world, the dirt....to separate yourself from the dross. Also, shoes provide a protective layer so that you can walk without paying attention. Walking barefoot requires one to pay attention to each step. Truly, everywhere we walk is holy ground. Every action we take has a reaction, for good or for bad so you are not off the hook! But these first few moment and days with Grace really feel like holy ground. Moments that cannot be repeated or changed. Pray that we can leave the rest of the world at the door and focus intentionally and preciously.

The Great Wall

Today we went to the Great Wall of China. It was truly awesome. I have posted pics on Facebook as I have not really set up pics on this blog and it took a lot for Chris to post the one yesterday. Chris and I and one other Bethany parent, Paul Bloomquist hiked the whole way to the top watch tower. It was quite a feat. Then we had to go back down! My legs were shaking so bad as we got close to the bottom I was afraid I would fall. The views are amazing. Our guide Tom is very knowledgeable and told us about the building of the wall. Very interesting. We also visited a cloisonné factory and store on the way there. Amazing work these folks are doing. Very intricate. We also stopped at a Jade factory and learned a little bit about jade. Some beautiful creations there as well. Finally we went to the Olympic village and saw the birds nest and the water cube and the torch. It was an exhausting day. Chris and I  just split a bowl of seafood noodle soup for dinner and are showered and ready for bed at 8:29. We did room service because we are too exhausted to venture out to find food!

Getting so close to Grace day. Speaking with some of the other moms today they were talking about their anxieties and I was able to speak some words of peace to them. I hope it helped. Turns out we all three are reading the same devotional! Isn't that a cool thing God did? I am still relatively calm about the whole thing, enjoying the moments. Not sure how I will feel tomorrow evening! Hope I can keep this spirit of peace.

Please pray for Grace and her transition and for us. One more day here in Beijing, the Monday morning we head out on a early plane to Guangzhou and to our daughter. Wow! 

Love to all.

"stupid tax"

So today was our first full day in China. We woke early because we are still on east coast time, but we made use of the time, skyping the boys and getting breakfast early. Our breakfast buffet was so yummy and interesting I decided to take a picture. This is when I noticed that the battery was not in my camera. We soon discovered that not only was it not in my camera but it was actually still in Delmont plugged in on the kitchen island where I plugged it in Tuesday night. Oops. So, since we had no plans till 3 today, we decided to go find another battery. We walked around Beijing for nearly 2 hours looking for a market we never found and decided to get a taxi to take us to a tech market we had been told about. Well, we chose the wrong taxi driver, and he charged us ten times what he should have . Then we paid too much for a charger and battery. Approximately one hundred dollars later we are wiser in the ways of Beijing taxi hailing and fully equipped with our camera gear. We have paid our "stupid tax" for the day and hopefully for the trip. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, it just means that you were stupid and it ended up costing you money. That was us today!



We did finally make it to the Temple of Heaven, which is a very old temple compound here in Beijing. We took many pictures. Hope to be able to post some pictures here with the camera equipment that I remembered, the iPad/sd card converter. We also saw an awesome acrobatic show this evening. Those were some crazy flexible people.

I think all of us are getting antsy to meet our kids. It has been nice getting to know some of the other families , but I am ready to be done here and meet Grace. We bought a jet lag liquid formula and it must be working because even after our really busy day we feel pretty good. Tomorrow is the Great Wall of China. Should be awesome.

Love to all.

 2 more days till Grace.

We have arrived!

Well, after a late start in Pittsburgh due to a mechanical issue, and a run through Chicago O'Hare airport to make our connection, we were on our way! I was slightly overcome with emotion as the plane lifted from the ground, knowing we were leaving our safe comfortable life for something totally new. That nothing would ever be the same again.

The boys did very well this morning, with very few tears shed. Jude was tired and went back to bed.

The flight was long but relatively smooth. We were on the plane with 5other adoptive families, two that I have been connecting with online for sometime, Georgette Poppelmeier and Kelly Bloomquist.  We had lots of time to chat! There was also another Bethany family and another family from CCAI adoption agency. So exciting.

 We arrived in Beijing about 3am EST, 3pm Beijing time. We catnapped on the flight, but any substantial sleep is nearly impossible. It took over an hour to get to the hotel after meeting with our guide, Tom. Beijing is a big city covered in smog so thick you cannot see for more than a few miles ahead of you. It makes me a little sad for the people here and for our global environment. I pray that things will eventually change here the way they have changed in the States.

The people have been very friendly. We went to dinner with the Bloomquists at a local Chinese restaurant (Around the corner and down an alley). Food was good. We got 4 dishes to share and had 4 drinks, including 2 beers and the total was around $35.00. There is a Cuban cigar shop right next door to our hotel (you know who you are who was asking me about bringing Cuban cigars home).

We were in bed by 9, unable to stay awake any longer. I expected to sleep longer but we were up at 5, bodies still adjusting to this time zone. Not a lot planned today, which is good because rest will probably be on the schedule. We meet with our in-country coordinator at 3pm to talk about the details of our time here and see an acrobatic show at 4:30.

Thanks for all your prayers, facebook posts, and love. It is more appreciated than you can know.

Three more days to Grace!

Well, approximately 17 months of prayer, planning, paperwork, waiting, more prayer, more paperwork, more planning, and more waiting has culminated in this week: we leave tomorrow morning for Beijing! We spend a few days touring Beijing and allowing our bodies to adjust being on the opposite time schedule. We will be exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard time (2pm is 2am and vice versa).  We will see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and several other historical sights (see itinerary attached below).

On the 29^th, in the afternoon, we meet Grace.  It will be sometime in the middle of your sleep Sunday night. We covet your prayers. Our sweet girl will be leaving all that she has ever known, with people she has never met, seeing and doing things she never imagined. It will be a time of major transition and most likely grief. Please pray for us and for our little girl. Pray that we can meet her needs with love and patience and Grace! Pray that she can come to trust us quickly and we can somehow communicate with her well enough to comprehend her needs.

God is so good. He has led us here and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for us and Grace.

Keep watch on Facebook or the blog. We will try to post updates if at all possible. We’ll be back on November 8. We plan to cocoon ourselves for at least a few weeks to give her a chance to process her new life, her brothers, and what it means to have them and this Mama and Daddy as her family.

Much love.

Christine

CHINA ITINERARY

Christopher & Christine Klemstine

Thursday  October 25, 2012             Arrive in Beijing via UA851@2:40 p.m.  Airport pickup.  Stay at Jianguo Hotel.

Friday        October 26, 2012             Orientation meeting at 3:00 p.m.  Acrobatic show at 4:30 p.m.

Saturday    October 27, 2012            Visit the Great Wall, Cloisonne Factory, Bird’s Nest.  Lunch included.

Sunday      October 28, 2012             Visit Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Hutong Tour. Lunch included. 

Monday     October 29, 2012            Flight CA1351 (8:00-11:15) to Guangzhou.  Airport pickup.  Stay at the China              Hotel (Marriott). Receive your child in the afternoon.

Tuesday     October 30, 2012            Adoption registration and notarization.

Wednesday October 31, 2012          Apply for passport in the afternoon and medical exam.

Thursday     November 1, 2012        Visit White Cloud Hill Park.

Friday         November 2, 2012          Visit Guangzhou Zoo. 

Saturday     November 3, 2012         Afternoon meeting to prepare consulate documents.
             

Sunday       November 4, 2012         Visit Guangzhou Folk Art Museum or Safari Park with Shelley
            

Monday      November 5, 2012         Visa appointment. 8:30am

                

Tuesday      November 6, 2012         Pick up child’s visa in the afternoon.
              

Wednesday November 7, 2012        Free day. Shopping with Ann 10:30 starting at the Holiday Inn Shifu.
               

Thursday     November 8, 2012        Depart Guangzhou via NH934 @ 9:15 a.m. Arrive PIT 6:41pm.

Anxiety??...and travel itinerary!

Anxiety is the result of envisioning the future without Me. So the best defense against worry is staying in communication with Me. When you turn your thoughts toward Me, you can think much more positively. Remember to listen as well as to speak, making your thoughts a dialogue with Me.

If your must consider upcoming events, follow these rules: 1.) Do not linger in the future, because anxieties spring up like mushrooms when you wander there. 2.) Remember the promise of My continued Presence; include me in any imagery that comes to mind. This mental discipline does not come easily because you are accustomed to being God of your fantasies. However, the reality of My Presence with you, now and forevermore, outshines any fantasy you could ever imagine.

From ‘Jesus Calling’ by Sarah Young

This is a great devotion for me and my cohorts in the adoption community. It is a crazy, anxiety producing time. But we are oh so excited. We got our travel itinerary yesterday (see below)! We now know that we will be Grace on Monday November 29^th in the afternoon after our flight down from Beijing. I am imagining quite a crazy after noon. Arriving with all our luggage from Beijing, checking into our hotel, getting transported somewhere (or will she be brought to us??) and then the signing of all the paperwork, and then meeting Grace and bringing her into our family. This will happen in the middle of the night for you, as you are sleeping Sunday Night. So, if you think of us, please say a prayer before you sleep on Sunday. We will try to update when we can. God is so good.

October 25, 2012                 Arrive in Beijing via UA851@2:40 p.m.  Airport pickup.  Stay at Jianguo Hotel.

October 26, 2012                 Orientation meeting at 3:00 p.m.  Acrobatic show at 4:30 p.m.

October 27, 2012                 Visit the Great Wall, Cloisonne Factory, Bird’s Nest.  Lunch included.

October 28, 2012                 Visit Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Hutong Tour. Lunch included. 

October 29, 2012                 Flight CA1351 (8:00-11:15) to Guangzhou.  Airport pickup.  Stay at the China Hotel (Marriott). Receive your child in the afternoon.

October 30, 2012                 Adoption registration and notarization.

October 31, 2012                 Apply for passport in the afternoon and medical exam.

November 1, 2012              Visit White Cloud Hill Park.

November 2, 2012              Visit Guangzhou Zoo.  The rest of your group arrives in Guangzhou this evening.

November 3, 2012              Afternoon meeting to prepare consulate documents.

November 4, 2012              Visit Guangzhou Folk Art Museum .

November 5, 2012              Visa appointment.

November 6, 2012              Pick up child’s visa in the afternoon.  

November 7, 2012              Free day.

November 8, 2012              Depart Guangzhou via NH934 @ 9:15 a.m.

Travel Approval!

We are so excited to tell you that we have been granted our travel invitation from China! It came today to our great surprise. The officials in China must have cleared their desks last week before they started their big mid Autumn festival week, thank you Jesus! Because even the US Embassy is on holiday this week, we will be unable to get a confirmed consulate date until after the US holiday of Columbus Day, so that will be October 9th. We plan to take a leap of faith and book our flights anyway trusting God that our consulate appointment will be scheduled either the 5th or 6th of November!

Thanks for your continued  prayers. We cannot believe that we will be leaving for China in 23 days!

Grace and Hope...and travel dates?

People have been asking if we know our travel dates, and the answer is “maybe!” But first a story (it's kind of long)

;

Way back in August I was looking at children on waiting child sites. These are mainly children that have been overlooked because their special need is too great or too unknown. There was a beautiful girl listed as “Kimmie” with another agency. I was smitten. She has the best smile! Chris and I talked and prayed about her. We knew she had a heart defect and had done lots of research and thought we could handle it. We asked a cardiologist and my cousin Steven (a neonatal surgeon) to review her file. The cardiologist never responded and before Steven could, we told them we wanted to know more about how to submit a “letter of intent” for her, basically saying we wanted to move forward for her. The very next morning Steven called with a devastating review of her condition. We decided it was too much for our family to handle. Sobbing, I called back the agency and told them we could not move forward.

I grieved the loss of her, sad that it would not be us to be her family. My close girlfriends grieved with me, including my best friend of the last 20+ years, Shelley Carson. The adoption worker from "Kimmie's" agency thanked me for the information on her condition and said that perhaps God would use our fact finding to locate the family that was ready for “Kimmie”. I prayed it would be so. Chris and I continued on in process with the agency we had started with (not “Kimmie’s” agency) and waited for our homestudy to be finished so that they could “match” us with a waiting child with a less serious need. Meanwhile, I prayed for “Kimmie”.

Several months later I got a call from Shelley. Her voice was wavering, heavy. When I asked her what was going on, she confessed that she and her husband Kevin had submitted a letter of intent to adopt a little girl they would call Hope, that same little girl that was advocated for by the name of “Kimmie”. They felt God clearly calling them to her, feeling as though God had allowed them to spend 21 years of parenting in preparation for her and her special needs. I was shocked. Happy for them. Thrilled for Hope.  Quite honestly, I felt a little bad that I didn’t have a constitution strong enough to say yes to her 3 months before. But ultimately I knew that God really had used the information we had obtained for “Kimmie” to lead her to her forever family. And it was Shelly and Kevin Carson (and their 7 biological kids)!

Fast forward a year!! The Carson’s paperwork took longer than expected because of social worker screw ups. Their dossier didn’t make it to China till May 2012. Chris and I had our dossier in China in February, but due to website foul-ups and other constraints, we were not matched with our Grace until June 7^th. At that point, the Klemstines and the Carsons were both waiting on our “Letter of Approval” from China, which can take anywhere from 30-130 days, with the timing sometimes being quite random. Surprisingly, our LOA (letter of acceptance) came first on July 23. Hope’s came exactly one week later on July 30.

At this point we began to dream that we could be in China at the same time, picking up our girls. Then the Klemstines got a letter from US immigration stating that we needed to file a supplement to our application because Grace was older than we had asked for (by 23 days!!!) on our original application. This added 3 weeks to our timeline and we were now hopelessly behind the Carson family’s paperwork. Still we prayed God would work it out.

Wednesday, September 25, Shelley called to say that they had booked tickets for October 12 returning October 25. They had decided they could not wait for us since Hope is so fragile (she needs surgery pretty immediately) and they already have their travel approval from China. I called my agency and found out that if our travel approval comes as it should in about 9 days, we could be leaving for China on the 25^th,  with a US consulate date(the last step before you can leave China with your child) on November 6. We would miss them by days. They wanted to change their dates by a week to catch us but feared they could not because they had already sent off for their Chinese visas and since Shelley is a church employee, China will only let her enter the country for a very brief time (30 days from the time the visa is issued!). Confused yet?

Thursday, September 26, I called Shelley and found out that due to a “Sugar Trade Fair” in the town of Fuzhou where she will pick up Hope, there are no hotel rooms to be had for 2 weeks from her original travel plan. She thankfully was able to stop the visa process and her agency set out to find her a new consulate date.  The new date….is November 6^th. And the morning after this new date was confirmed, Shelley got the update on Hope that she has been waiting on for ten months! It says that Hope has been healthy since her last surgery!! Comforting news to a worried mama and papa.

What this means is that not only may the Carsons and Klemstines be in China together, but we may also be able to be at the US consulate together, watching our girls become US citizens. I say “may” because the Klemstines still do not have our “travel approval” from China, which is needed in order to set up our flights, hotel reservations and consulate appointment. In addition, we will be in a town called Guangzhou during the last week of a major trade fair, which will jack up the prices of everything significantly (up to double!). It will also make reservations hard to find, especially since we probably won’t have our travel approval till October 12 ,because all governmental offices will be closed from 9/30-10/7 for a weeklong national holiday!!!

So, do we have travel dates? We hope so. We are praying that God will continue to bless our process in order to allow us to get our travel approval in time to travel with our agency’s October travel group and that the costs won’t be so skyrocketing high that we won’t be able to justify the cost. God has already shown Himself able and we trust Him to continue. In just the last week, our church allowed parishioners to contribute through them for our adoption and over $1300.00 was donated to date, good friends have offered us an Ipad in order for us to be able to communicate with Grace through some translation apps, and other sweet friends have offered us airline miles, which we hope to be able to use to reduce or eliminate our international flight costs. God is good. All the time.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Your prayers for the last few weeks and remaining details of our process are greatly appreciated!! For over a year God has been working on my heart and my strong will to allow Him to be in control and to trust Him with the details of everything. And so it continues. I choose to continue to trust that He has the best plan for me. I am so glad He is so faithful to continue to grow and mold me into the person he wants me to be! Pray for Grace. Pray for Hope. Pray for the Carsons and the Klemstines as we get ready to bring two scared little girls into our lives and homes.

By the way, did I mention their similarities?

Grace’s birthdate :5/15/2007                                      Hope’s birthdate 8/15/2007

Grace’s weight: 28 pounds                                          Hope’s weight: 30 pounds

Grace’s height: 35 inches                                              Hope’s height: 38 inches.

I can’t wait to see them together!! How about you?

The cost of obedience?

What is the cost of obedience? For me it was $65.00. Let me explain:

I think I’ve mentioned before, and many of you who know me , know this; I am not a very patient person. It is something with which I struggle. I also don’t generally sit still and quietly for very long (without falling asleep!). Surprise you? So for me to sit and try to listen for God’s voice in my life, it is something at which I need to work.

On July 23^rd, I woke up early. We were planning a trip to the amusement park Idlewild, thanks to the generous offer of friends Lisa Warner and Richelle Gourley to take us as their guests. I didn’t want to go out on my morning run and get all exhausted before my day started, so I decided to spend time in prayer and waiting on God’s answer.

I prayed for friends and family dealing with serious issues, our church and pastors, and also for our adoption and my best friend’s adoption and my new internet friends’ adoptions. Finally I sat in silence listening for God. He brought to my mind money that I owed to 2 people. One dated back 10 years ago and one 2 years ago. The amounts were not large, $50.00 and $15.00, but for some reason I had not written the checks to these folks.

I was going to tell you the reasons I owed these folks money, but there is nothing spectacular in the stories. One woman lost a check I had sent and in the other case I was overpaid $50.00 that should have belonged to someone else. Each time, I had the money in my bank account and I didn’t want to give it up. I felt at the time that either I didn’t want to part with the money, that it would be easier after the next paycheck, that I deserved the money, that they shouldn’t have lost the original check…and then it just got longer and longer away from the time I should have passed on the money and I felt stupid for not sending it. So I never sent it.

This was all that was coming to my mind. The need to admit that all I have comes from God above. That He is in control of my finances. That He planned for this adoption for us and will be with us till long after it’s completion. That even though we are going to be needing a large sum of money here very soon in order to finalize our adoption, that I should go downstairs and write checks and letters of apology to these persons and mail them.

So I did. $65.00. Really a very small sum of money. Some of you probably don’t even understand why I would write a blog post about it. But, this task  wasn’t about the money, really, as it was about the obedience. And the trust. Why couldn’t I give it up years ago? Do I not trust that there will always be enough? That God will always provide for my every need?

After writing out the checks and letters and placing them in the mailbox, we got ready and went to Idlewild. We were standing in line for our first ride when I checked my email. I had two emails from my agency, telling me that we had just gotten our official approval from China, our LOA! I know many of the doubters out there would say “Oh that was in process already so it couldn’t have been God at work”. But I know that God provided that letter of approval on that day for me as a blessing for my obedience and as a confirmation of His love for me.

He loves you too. Are you listening for His voice?

So what happened on Friday, June 1?

Please forgive me for being so long in bringing this update to you, but…We’ve Been Matched!! Friday June 1, Chris and I were relaxing on the couch, basically getting ready for bed when we received a phone call at 10:23. It was my mother saying she was not coming to the house like we had expected, but spending the night at my grandmother’s instead. So when the phone rang 4 minutes later at 10:27, I almost answered “Yes, Mother” but I noticed that the caller was an Illinois cell phone. The voice said “Hello Christine, this is Elizabeth from Bethany”. I was suddenly awake! She had seen two little girls pop up on the Shared list that evening that were close to the age range we had specified, but just outside it. One had a birthdate of 5/2007 and one 10/2006 and both had cleft lip and palate. Were we interested in either girl, she wanted to know? Jude’s birthdate is 8/3/2006 and we had wanted at least about a year between them, so the May 2007 seemed like a pretty good fit, but since it wasn’t a perfect fit, she wanted to call and confirm. We said yes, and she said she would get off the phone and try to see if she was still on the list (she could have been gone that fast!) and then lock her for us.

So we waited. 10:45, 11:00, 11:30. At 11:45 Chris said “I’m going to bed”. At midnight I couldn’t keep my eyes open and went upstairs to brush my teeth. I took my phone with me and as I was brushing my teeth, my email notifier went “pop!” It was the referral from Elizabeth. I ran downstairs and got the computer and Chris and I sat in the bed reviewing her file. We decided to look at her file before her pics so that we wouldn’t be swayed by her face. Her file does not say where she was found, but states that when she was admitted to the orphanage on May 28, 2008, she had 2 sutures in her upper lip. She was guesstimated to be about a year old and given the birthdate of May 15, 2007, my mother’s birthday.

She just turned 5 years old and is very tiny. In February 2012 she was reported as being 24 pounds and 34 inches tall, the size of a typical 2 year old. Many kids in orphanages are small, so we are not too concerned about her size but can’t wait to get her here to give her a healthy diet and help her do some catching up! She is also probably anemic, due to lack of a great diet. I’m sure having that open palate for so long made eating difficult. She may always be a little peanut, but we will do what we can to help her reach her fullest potential.

We read further and find that not only has her lip been fixed, but her palate as well, in July of 2011, at the age of 4. This is great news! Usually a palate repair is delayed until they are home with their adoptive family. She will most likely require further surgeries, but it is good to have the first stage out of the way. We also find that when she was brought in at 1 year of age, she was sitting and crawling. This would be very unusual for a baby who had been in the orphanage for her first year of life, so her family blessed her by giving her 1 year of love and developmental opportunities. Most likely they could not afford the surgeries to repair her lip and palate and sadly, had to give her up, in order that she might get the surgeries she needed. We’ll never know for sure, since it is illegal to abandon children in China. It is highly unlikely that her mother will ever seek her out for fear of significant retribution.

I read recently that cleft lip and palate happens in 1 out of every 500 births in Asian countries, so very common. And sadly, many cannot afford the surgeries to make their children well. In China you must pay up front for any surgeries, and if you don’t have it, you don’t get treated. How lucky we are in this country to have most if not all of our basic healthcare needs met.

After reading her file we looked at the pictures provided. She is precious. I can’t wait to be able to show you all. Our agency asks that we wait until we have our “Letter of Approval” (LOA) to show pictures of her. This can take anywhere between 36 and 136 days! After we get the LOA, it will be approximately 2 months to travel, leaving time for all the other official documents and processes that have to take place.

We can’t wait to bring her home. 5 years is long enough to be without your forever parent. Pray for us that it will be sooner rather than later. Pray for favor with the Chinese government, that they would find us completely acceptable to be her parents (quickly). Pray for her protection there in that orphanage, and pray for the preparation of her heart and ours, all 6 of us! This is exciting and scary stuff. We are grateful God is using us in this way and praying for his provision throughout.

Much love for all our supportive friends and family,

Christine

Thursday, May 30th, 2012

Peace. Patience. Things I pray for, things I am not very good at allowing in my life. It is almost comical how many times God has put the word “Peace” in my heart throughout this process. Today was no different. Chris and I did not get an official match this month again. We have been “unofficially” looking at a few files of girls waiting to be adopted. One is 2 years 3 months and one is 5 and a half. Both were on the very opposite end of the age range that we were considering (2-5). So the last few days have been stressful, trying to accomplish all the things I need to get done in my day with the end of school year stuff, baseball, soccer, going away for the weekend to Annapolis with Chris’ dad, staring work on my latest play at Apple Hill Playhouse, being one of three is the team that is planning and leading Field Day for this Friday, and then all the mundane stuff, like cooking, cleaning, laundry, playing with Jude…. My mind has been spinning. Several people have tried to talk to me about other things, sent me emails and texts, and quite honestly, I cannot process it all. My mind and body have been spinning in near constant motion.

Today Chris woke up with the alarm and crawled out of bed to wake Cole and get him started on his day. I lay there for a few minutes, trying to spend a few quiet moments listening and talking to God. I’m not very good at laying quietly listening. My mind wanders to all the things that need to be accomplished and on things I did yesterday that I now have to rehash in my brain. But I pressed through, listening for what God would have to say. And what He put in my brain was the story of Hagar and Sarai.

God had promised Sarai and Abram that they would have a son. But they were very old and many years had passed even since the promise, So Sarai decided to take things into her own hands and give her servant Hagar to Abram in order that he might continue his promised line through her (and that somehow Sarai thought she would be blessed as well). Well as you may or may not know or have guessed, this did not turn out well. Hagar did get pregnant and began to despise Sarai. Sarai eventually threw Hagar and her son out into the wilderness. God met Hagar there and told her that she should go back and submit to her mistress, that he would increase her descendants until they were too numerous to count. He told her that she would give birth to a son, he should be called “Ishmael” and that he would be a “wild ass of a man”. Hagar praised God and gave him his first name “The God who sees Me”.

The plans of Sarai were not the plans of God. She did not wait on God long enough and caused much grief to herself and others. God convicted me to not be a Sarai. To be patient. To wait on His perfect plans for me. Here was my devotional for the day:

“The peace that I give you transcends your intellect, When most of your mental energy goes into efforts to figure things out, you are unable receive this glorious gift. I look into your mind and see thoughts spinning round and round: going nowhere, accomplishing nothing. All the while, my Peace hovers over you, waiting for someplace to land. Be still in my presence, inviting Me to control your thoughts. Let my light soak into your mind and heart, until you are aglow with my very being. This is the most effective way to receive my Peace.”

 What do you think God is telling me?? I wrote this post on June 1st. I cannot wait to tell you what happened June 2nd....details to come :)

Many have been asking how things are going, so I am attempting an update.

First off, a little history. 2 interesting moments from the past year: '

1. We are part of our church's leadership team and we had a leadership retreat last Fall. At one point, our pastor, Kris and his wife Robyn pulled us aside (as they did with each couple in leadership) to give them some words or scripture that they had specifically for each couple, man to man, woman to woman. So Robyn had a word for me and her word was "Believe". She also included a scripture to go along with this word. This word and scripture had implications for me with some things I had been going through at the time, and it has continued to follow me through this process.

2. I went to Haiti on a missions trip in October. We were rebuilding a school. There were two other teams there, both from Califormia, one that we worked with directly every day and one that were  carpenters making blackboards and cupboards for the new school, back at the mission house. We only saw this team in the evenings for meal and socialization and devotional time. One night the subject of our adoption came up, and one of the men from this team said "God wants you to know you are supposed to have peace in the process". I said "Thank you.", and he said, don't thank me, it is not me that is telling you this, this is from God, a word for you. Then, the day before we left, I met a woman from our agency, by sheer chance, there to work with the restavec children in Haiti. It was a confirmation to me of some sorts that we were on the right path.

So, throughout this process my faith has been stretched and encouraged. I do believe that God has all things worked out for our good, His glory, and in His time, which is always best. But as you may well know, God's timing doesn't always coincide with what I think it SHOULD  be. We are not yet matched with our child. We are still waiting. Waiting is hard! In my original estimation, based on some of my friends adoptions, I thought we would have her home now, or at least know her face and name by now. We don't. We wait. I thought that she would be here by now and this would be a special time for her and Jude to get to know each other before he starts full time Kindergarten next year. That won't happen. At this point, if we don't get a match soon, we will be lucky to get her (and qualify for the adoption tax credit) by the end of 2012. We have looked at a few files, and although it is heart wrenching to say "No", we have had to do so. These were not our child.

Through it all, I have been trying to have "peace in the process". It is not always easy. I do know that God knows best, in timing and in everything else. I have been savoring my time with Jude, knowing how much I will miss him next year when he is in school fulltime, and enjoying our family dynamic as it is now. And I am always grateful at how wonderful our boys are and love watching them grow and change.

Some days are easier than others to "believe", to "have peace in the process". Today was one of those days. Another agency announced that they were partnering with 8 orphanages and would soon have thousands of kids on their invidividual list to choose from. Not us. Not our agency. So I began to doubt myself. Why did I choose our agency? Did I rush it? Did I make a mistake? Will we ever get matched? Was God calling us to comething completely different??

I decided to take Jude to the park with a freind. I couldn't find my shoes. I finally found them upstairs in my bathroom. As I sat on the toilet lid to put on my shoes, I saw my devotional book, "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young.. I thought I'd take a few minutes to read before I went out, maybe it would help my mood. Here is what I read:

"You are on the path of my choosing. There is no randomness about your life. Here and Now compromise the coordinates of your daily life. Most people let their moments slip through their fingers, half lived. They avoid the present by worrying about the future or longing for a better time and place. They forget that they are creatures who are subject to the limitations of time and space. They forget their Creator, who walks with them only in the present.

Every moment is alive with My glorious Presence, to those whose hearts are intimately connected with Mine. As you give yourself more and more to a life of constant communion with Me, you will find that you simply have no time for worry. Thus, you are freed to let My Spirit direct your steps, enabling you to walk along the path of peace."

And, the last line was italicized in the original text, not just here. Do you think God is speaking to me? After I cried a few big tears and asked God to help me make the mst of my time, Jude and I walked down to the park and had a lovely time with friends.

Believe. Have Peace in the Process.

Yours peacefully,

Christine

Praising God!

So, if you read my first post, you may remember that one of the things we were counting on to fund our adoption when we started was an adoption benefit from Chris' company. After we started he switched jobs and we lost that benefit, but decided to trust that God would help us fund this adoption. The benefit from his work was $7500.00 so it wasn't a small amount! Well, today, we got a notice that a grant for which we had applied had been approved!! Can you guess the amount? $7500.00. Isn't God funny?? And awesome! Now, God, keep working on those legislators for that adoption tax refund....;)

Blog Post 1

Many friends are following our journey, and several of you have specifically asked to be kept informed of updates in our process. I have been meaning to enter this world of blogging for awhile now, and this is my first attempt. I will begin to tell you the reason why we began this journey of ad0ption and where our hearts are, from my perspective.

First, a little history. Chris and I met in 1991 at Seton Hill College. We dated for almost 5 years and married in late 1995. We lived a fun life in Chicago as a newly married young couple. We started our family in 1999, with the birth of our first son, Cole. We moved back to PA to be nearer to family the next year and Graham came the year after that. Jude was born 5 years after Graham. We were blessed and beyond happy with our 3 boys. We were busy with the fun, active, noisy world of boys. Occasionally we'd wonder what it would be like to have a little girl, but knew that since there hadn't been a girl in Chris' family for 5 generations, our chances were slim to none to have one "natually".

Ad0ption had been something I had thought about since some time during highschool when I saw an expose on 60 Minutes or 20/20 about the horrors of life inside an orphanage. The images haunted me for years to come. The cost of an adoption was something, however, that I had always seen as insurmountable. Both private domestic infant adoption and international adoption costs range from $22,000-$40,000+.

Several years ago, I became friends with a beautiful mother of 5 biological children and 1 (now 2) children adopted from China. It was amazing to watch as her little one assimilated into life here in the US with her loving family. Her adoption inspired another friend to adopt a little boy with a cleft palate and at the same time a family we knew from another circle adopted a boy with a cleft palate as well. All of these children were bringing such joy to their families. It was inspiring to watch.

And yet, how could we possibly afford it? God has always provided for our every need. But we did not have $30,000.00 laying around. In Spring 2011, we became aware of an "adoption tax refund" of around $13,000.00 that was being given to adoptive families. That sounded good. At the same time, Chris' company that he worked for had an adoption gift of $7500.00. Wow! That would cover a LARGE amount of the cost! So we began seriously to think about the possibility of adopting. Since then, the adoption tax refund has changed and Chris has changed jobs, so we are back to relying on God to provide our funds. Funny, huh?

Although we were drawn to Ch-na for several reasons, Ch-na is starting to change some of it's policies and there are fewer and fewer healthy infants available for adoption. In many ways this is a good thing because there are more in-country adoptions happening. But what it meant for us was that if Chris and I wanted to adopt from Ch-na, we would be entering the world of Special Needs Adoption. We talked long and hard about this and prayed annd sought God for several weeks. After much time around our backyard for pit after the boys went to bed, we felt called to move forward and set up an appointment with an ad0ption agency. We started the process of paperwork and homestudy in June 2011 and had a completed homestudy sometime in late October. The paperwork went to US immigration for approval on November 30th and we got our pre-approval from US Immigration around the 13th of January. After getting many documents notarized and authenticated our "dossier" was sent to the Chinese Consulate for their authentication and then finally on to Ch-na on February 20th, 2012.

So, now we wait. We are waiting for our log-in date from Ch-na. We are waiting for our agency to match us to a waiting child. A new list of kids with minor, correctable needs comes out once a month. Our agency prays and fasts during the day of matching and that gives us confidence that they will be led to the right child for our family by the God of the Universe. We hope it will be at the end of March but we patiently (or sometimes not so!) wait for God's timing and the child He knows is ours.

So, that brings you up to date. Prayers are appreciated for our family, our agency, our finances, and most especially, for our daughter. For her physical and emotional protection, for her health, and for her sweet spirit.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for praying. May you be blessed!

Christine