Thursday, March 15, 2012
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....;)
Monday, March 12, 2012
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
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
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