1 - “Here’s the news you’ve long been waiting for – your dossier was sent to China late Friday afternoon (4/8/2011)!”
2 - “Congratulations! Your dossier has been delivered to the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA, formerly CCAA).”
These two pieces of information, both arriving in my Inbox within a couple hours of each other, serve as both closure to the dossier preparation portion of a Chinese adoption as well as the welcome to the China side of the equation. But let me back up just a bit.
For those of you following this blog from the beginning, you know that we began the first steps of this adoption way back in September. Since then, for seven long months, we have been working to secure all of the necessary paperwork to formally submit our adoption dossier to the CCAA (now the CCCWA). The hurdles of this road – applications, homestudy, notaries, USCIS approval, etc. – were all laid out clearly before us from the start, but we seem to have hit every possible detour and slowdown we could along the way. In hindsight, many of these obstacles are now simply laughable (I said in hindsight!) and others are still more frustrating than ironic, but slowdowns they still were. That family that began their adoption process just two weeks before us back in September is now approximately three months ahead of us and waiting for their travel dates. That, in my opinion, is a considerable slower timeline on our end. BUT rather than being frustrated by this situation, we praise God for the hand He has laid upon their journey and for His steadfastness in our own. We know that God is ultimately in control and that He has been at work in this process all along the way so even though we do not understand why things have taken such a turn for the slow we “know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” (Romans 8:28a)
And love Him we do. We love Him for creating such a beautiful child for our family to love and for Dan and I to call our son. We love Him for providing for each financial need we’ve had along the way. We love Him for providing us with friends and family to support us throughout this journey. And we love Him for being in control so that we do not have to. There have been many times throughout this journey that I have felt simply beat down and completely flabbergasted by the newest ridiculous obstacle that popped up in our way. But I have never felt alone and I have always trusted that God knows what He is doing. Sometimes I’ve wished He would share just a bit more of His insight with me, but as the song says “God is God and I am not”. And to be perfectly honest, I’m okay with that – most days I have a hard enough time just being me. =)
So, here we are. Seven months later and starting in on the second half of this journey called international adoption. From here we get to, believe or not, do a lot more waiting. But this time we are waiting on the finality of the thing. Sometime in the next few weeks – hopefully the next few days! – we will hear that our dossier has been logged-in with CCCWA. The day that happens will officially be designated our LID, or Log-In Date. Pretty fancy acronym, huh? Our LID will then dictate the estimated travel window for us to finally bring Jack home. Right now that estimated wait time is 4-6 months from LID. Of course we will be praying for the shorter side of that window, but who doesn’t?
In the meantime we can expect to receive paperwork from China officially matching us with Jack – more officially than the paperwork we received back in October that is. We will also have a bit more US immigration paperwork to arrange once the China makes things more official. Then we will wait for China to give us official travel dates so that we can arrange flights and our agency can coordinate in-country travel and lodging. So, we really are still a long way from the final chapter, but we are markedly closer than we were just one week ago.
At this point I would just like to say thank you again to all who have supported us as we have made this journey. Crazy as it has gotten at some times, we have never been walking alone and each one of you is truly special to us. I know this sounds a bit like I am wrapping things up even though there is still so much to do, but as I said at the beginning of this entry the events of today do truly serve as the conclusion of one part of this journey. This afternoon we are in a very different place than we were just a few short days ago and it definitely feels like we are moving forward. Slow and steady, with lots of prayers for quick! ;-)
In honor of Jack's birth-country, I figured I'd end this post with a bit of Chinese celebration. Fireworks! (All the way from Maria's Big House of Hope!)
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3
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