Introducing Ethan William!

What an amazing day! It all started off by an email from David in China. He emailed us to let us know that Billy is now with a Christian Foster Family! He is with about 19 other kids, many who are around his age. At first I was sad. But then I thought about this. He's with a CHRISTIAN foster family! This is what we've been praying for. That he be with a CHRISTIAN family. God heard our prayers.

Then today at 2:15 I come home from getting the girls from school. I check my email and see one from Fed Ex. It says that our agency has a package on it's way for us. Well I got so excited. There is only 1 reason why they are sending a package to us via Fed Ex. I asked Bill if they called. He said "No".

About 3 PM the phone rings. It's our agency. I screamed. Here is how the phone conversation went:

Me: Hello?
Leah: Hi Debra, this is Leah from America World.
Me: Hi Leah
Leah: I just wanted to let you know that we have your RA!
Me: I have been waiting for your call. I received an email from Fed Ex
Leah: Oh my! Ha Ha! You were not supposed to get that email yet. We were not done making calls yet.

It's official. China said YES! He's our son. We are so excited and thrilled! Leah said that she thinks we will be traveling around mid-late December.

I love how God confirmed to us that He's here. He's protecting Billy. Billy is why we started the adoption process again. When we had to give up Billy it was very hard. We prayed he would find a good, Christian family. The day before his birthday, we get a call about a little boy with a cleft lip & palate. Today, the day of the call saying Ethan is definitely our son, we find out that Billy is being taken care of by a CHRISTIAN family. I just can't stop saying this. God has heard. He's here.

Here is some info about Ethan. I hope to get updated info and photos in a few weeks.
All of this info is 6 months old now.

Name: Dang Jun Hua
DOB 10/18/2008
Currently living at the Zhangzhou SWI, Fujian Province

Praising God tonight & always! We have a son! Something I did not think I would ever be able to say. We are thrilled beyond words. Thank you for praying with us.
Until next time....

Waiting....

So, the rumor sites are saying a package (or 2) are on their way from China. Some people have been told by their agencies that their RA's are in this package. The good news is, their dates are AFTER ours. So there is hope that our RA is in the package too. The bad news, is that there could be a chance that it won't be in there. There is no rhyme or reason with how things are handed out. I mean, there is some, but just because someone with dates after us is getting their RA, does not guarantee that we are getting ours. I can only pray that if the package arrives tomorrow that we do in fact get the phone call.

Once we get the call, we can plaster Ethan's photos everywhere! I can not wait.

So tonight we're anxious. Bill is cleaning! Moving the kids rooms around. Organizing. This is what he does when he's anxious. I call it "nesting". :-)

Keep checking for Ethan's photos! I hope it will be soon.

Until next time.....

More Fabric

Thank you Clark Family for the cute fabric for Ethan's quilt. How funny that it goes perfectly with his puppy dog themed room. :-)

Homestudy is GOOD!

I heard from our agency today and our homestudy is good to go. No issues at all. No updates needed, for now. Praising God tonight!

Now pray that our RA/LOA arrives soon and that our TA will get here soon after that. We have a deadline of Jan 25th to be back or else we'll have to update local clearances for the homestudy (homestudy is not valid after Jan 25th).

Waiting for RA/LOA
Wait for TA (travel approval) after RA is approximately 7-10 weeks
Wait for travel after TA is approximately 2 weeks (if there is a group traveling).

All things are possible with God!

Thanks!

No word from agency-but some Hope

So today I was trying to find our referral email for Ethan. I want to print out his Chinese name so I can label things we hope to send to him soon. Well as I was looking through my emails I came across one from our Family Coordinator in July. It was long, but I read it all. At the bottom was this sentence.

For families adopting a known Special needs child, the approval must state that the family is approved for “special needs” as “medical needs” is not sufficient.

So to me, this is saying that our Homestudy should be fine. I have peace and hope that it will be fine.

No word about RA's. Hoping it comes very soon. I'm ready to meet my son.

Until next time.....

Bring Me Hope Ranch Video

I'm so happy to see this video! Please pray for them during the next few months. What they are doing is amazing! Bill is ready to get on a plane to help out. I wish it were that easy. If we get to travel for Ethan before they leave, we hope to see everyone and meet the kids.
Enjoy the video...

Pray please

I need prayer. I'm stressing out. Bill told me to calm down. That I do not need to be worrying about anything. Here is my concern:

I'm hearing that now the homestudy has to state the specific Special Need of the child that we are approved for. Our homestudy does not state the specific need. I have emailed our agency and have emailed the FL office. I have been talking with the FL office and she has not heard of the HS needing to state the specific need. She has had FL families go and come back with the "general wording" and everything has been okay.

Other friends who are using our agency have had to have their homestudy state the specific need. So I'm confused to why FL does not. Then I'm hearing that it could be a state requirement.

I'm trying not to worry about this. Worst case is we have to pay more money ( a lot of money) to change the HS to say his specific special need. Best case is we do not have to do anything and our HS is fine.

Also please pray that we do travel and come home before Jan 25. This is when some of our local clearances expire. We do not want to have to re-do this.

Thanks for your prayers. Day 72! OH, I did hear that RA emails will be sent out in the next 1-3 business days. Praying we are in this batch.

Until next time......

Day 70

We are officially at day 70 from our Log In Date. 10 weeks since our paperwork was logged into China. Wow! I can't believe it's been 10 weeks. It has gone by fast.

So, on the rumor sites, the average wait for the referral acceptance is 70-90 days. So, if the rumors stand, we could be getting a call within the next 3 weeks. This call is to tell us that China is agreeing that Ethan can be our son. As soon as we get this call, I can put his photos everywhere! I can't wait. I'm sitting here staring at his precious passport photo and I want to share it with everyone. He's got the biggest smile. It's so precious.

Once we get the RA call, then it's more paperwork to send off and then more waiting. The average wait from the RA call to our TA (travel approval) is 7-10 weeks! Eek! I hope and pray it's not 10 weeks. I hope and pray it's less than 7. After TA, we are on a plane hopefully within a week or two.

So, with all the estimates, I'm starting to feel that January might be a more realistic month to hope for travel. Of course Dec is not completely out. You never know.

So that is our update. Ethan turns 11 months old tomorrow. I do have an email in to our agency about our homestudy. I'm hearing that USCIS wants it to state the specific special need of the child in our homestudy. Ours does not. So we're waiting to see if the rumors I've heard are true or not. If they are, then we have to correct the homestudy. No biggie, just more money unfortunately.

Keep checking the blog. I hope to have a big RA announcement soon.

Until next time......

Camp Video from this year

This is a video from the 1st week of camp this summer in Xi'an. Billy is in this video. I love seeing his smile.
As you watch this video, please remember to pray for all of the orphans in the world.
Thanks!
Debbie

*Please give it a minute to download.*

An Unexpected Call from China

Right now I'm on a high. I just wanted to share with you. I was helping the girls with their homework and Bill came out to me and said "I guess I missed a call from David. Listen carefully". Well we know 3 Davids. I had no idea which one he was talking about. Then I hear "Hello. It's Billy. I love You!".

The call came from David Bolt with Bring Me Hope. They are still in China, but now they are running a "ranch" for older orphans. And Billy is there! This completely shocked us. (For those you don't know or remember, Billy was the boy we were trying to adopt. He is 13 years old).

One of the purposes of the Ranch is to love on the older kids and to teach them English. I had just assumed they would have kids from around the area where they are at. It never occurred to me that Billy could even go.

Of course we have emailed David & Nicole who are there. We have a lot of questions: How long is Billy there, can we send him anything, does he know that we were trying to adopt him and now we can't etc. I hope we do not miss the next call. I do not know how good the internet is there where they are. Maybe we can even Skype with them.

God is Good! He is looking after Billy! He went to camp when we did not know if he would be able to go, and now he is at the Ranch. He is not in the orphanage. He is with David, who he bonded with last summer. God is so Good!

Please continue to pray for Billy! I truly believe he has been protected because of us asking for prayer over him.

We heard this summer that SIAS University (where the Bring Me Hope camp has been held the last 2 years) has offered to pay the tuition for any orphan who wishes to go to school there. This again was an answer to prayer. Billy "ages out" in July. When a child turns 14 in China, they have to leave the orphanage. Now, if Billy does not find a forever family, he could possibly have the opportunity to go to the university for FREE! Again, God Is Good!

Thank you for letting me share with you. Bill & I are just very excited right now. This was something very unexpected.

Thank you for your prayers!

Quilt

Thank you to my Mother-in-Law for the very cute puppy fabric for Ethan's quilt. It is perfect and goes very well with is bedroom. We are excited to add this to his quilt.

We would still like more fabric & good wishes. His book does not have many wishes at all. If you do not want to send fabric, we would still love a good wish for Ethan. It will be great for him to see how much people are thinking about him before he is even home.

Thanks in advance. Until next time....

Can't help myself....

I so badly want to post Ethan's photos on this blog. I've been sitting here playing around with the background and I just want to add his photos! I can't do it until we get RA (Referral Acceptance). We're so far in the wait, but yet it feels like we have so much longer to wait. UGH! :-)

I did print out his passport photo (that we received with his referral). It's the only photo where he is smiling. VERY precious! I can't wait to put it on here!

Trying to be patient! But it's hard!

More Fabric

I received another piece of fabric this week from my BFF from my childhood years. Thanks Mindy for sending Ethan fabric and for his good wish! :-)

We still need a lot more fabric. We want his quilt to be very colorful and his good wish book to be filled with prayers & good wishes. Please send us some fabric & a good wish. We would like to start working on his quilt soon. If you need our address, please email me. tiffsmom95@me.com

Today, 2 friends boarded the flights to China to meet their little ones. I'm praying for safe travels, protection while in China, A wonderful bonding experience for the babies & families. One day soon it will be us on the plane. I can't wait!

Until next time.....