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 7th. 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 25th, 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 6th. 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?
