China Adoption Update...

Well, we are sailing right through the system. I hesitate to even type that... but I am not superstitious so no worries... :-) We are so used to Haiti's system, so I feel like we are moving lightning speed. Our dossier got to China in March and we got our letter of Seeking (LOA) last week. This letter proposes the child to you (even though we knew about her last year) and you have to check a box that you and your husband either accept or reject the proposal. Obviously we checked yes! :-)

At this point, we signed a bunch of papers for WACAP and got them notarized and then we filled out our final immigration papers. Can you believe it??? We filled out our I-800, a DS 230 (immigration form for Chun Yan), and a W864. We sent everything back to WACAP Friday and it got there Monday. Our I-800 and other immigration papers were submitted on Tuesday. Our Letter of Seeking was sent back to China and now we just wait for our I-800 approval. This could take anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Once that is approved, we copy and send our approval letter back to WACAP right away and they send it on to China for our Visa appointment. Can you believe it??? We are probably looking at 4 months from time of dossier submitted to gotcha day... This is how it should be...

Now, this is for special needs cases, but still. So was Jonas and we are still not even into legalization and it is over 2 years since submission... That's crazy!!!

If you want to pray for us, here are some requests:

We are still 18k short... (no biggy for God, right??? ;-)
We have applied for a bunch of grants and we have a feeling that if we are awarded them, it will come in right before we leave. I am not worried about it, but this will give Ryan a heart attack... :-) Here are the ones we applied for...

James 1:27--The review board met last month and we should be hearing something soon...

Shaohannah's Hope--We got an e-mail yesterday that everything we submitted was what they needed and we needed to do an update form and then it would go on to the selection board. If awarded a grant, we would hear the second week in July... right in the nick of time... :-)

A Gift of Adoption Fund--Waiting on one more letter of reference and then it will be in the mail on Friday.

Our Creator's Hope--Submitted this via e-mail and got a response that they are not accepting new apps right now... Wish I would have seen that before filling that out...

National Adoption Foundation--Submitted an online application and will wait to hear...

Caroline's Promise--Sending this one out tomorrow...

Sea of Faces--I have to wait until June 1st to fill this one out...

So, all of that above was about 10-15 hours of work, if not more... but soooo worth it if we can make up for our lack of funds...

God is faithful, and He will provide somehow...

IF you know of any other grants that I did not list, let me know. We have all of the work done and can just plug in our info...
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Lots to do in a short amount of time... I am so excited for Emily Vanderwell to come down in June. She is going to be staying with us for about 3 weeks or so to help out in any way while we finish everything in June and get ready for China in July. She will be a Godsend and I cannot say enough amazing things about this family!!!!!!!! We have met so many amazing people through our adoptions. God's blessings are astonishing! They blow me out of the water when I stop and reflect on how much He has blessed our family.

I am telling you; if you are afraid to follow God's will for your life, think twice... It might seem scary at first, but the blessings for your obedience far outweighs the uncomfortable feeling of stepping out in faith. Once you get accustomed to that 'feeling', you know when you get 'it', this is exactly where you are supposed to be...

Have a great Thursday...

Rebekah