Nearing The End of This Long Wait

It has been a long *almost* ten months of paperchasing and waiting for government approvals. We are nearing the end of this long waiting process. Our little boy has grown from a young toddler into a 2 and 1/2 year old during this time of waiting to bring him home.

We know a couple of things that I would like to share in this update.

About three weeks ago, I mailed a small photo album with pictures of our family in it to Nathan Oliver. I added a note written in English to the package in hopes that someone at the orphanage would be able to translate it. I included my e-mail address in the note and asked for them to let me know when they received the photo album. And, I prayed for it to make it to its destination and that someone would be able to let me know that they are sharing it with our little guy. I received an e-mail last week (in Chinese). Talk about fun?? or funny??....getting an e-mail in Chinese characters that I could not read. HA!!! We quickly came up with the idea to have it translated by a family who attends our church and is part of our community small group. They have recently returned to the states after living and working in China for 16 years. The e-mail was from one of the caregivers at the orphanage. It as informing me that they had received our photo album and were waiting for us to come to China. Praises!!!

We have made it through all the governmental approvals (both American and Chinese). Our agency has a contact in Guangzhou, named Rebecca. She walked our adoption file into the US Consulate last Sunday night (Monday morning, China time). So, we are currently awaiting what is referred to as an Article 5 from the US Consulate. This means the paperwork to approve Nathan Oliver's American visa has begun. Rebecca is scheduled to pick up the Article 5 on Dec. 6th and overnight it to the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). At that point we will wait for the CCAA to issue an invitation to travel...or what is known as the TA (Travel Approval). Once we receive the TA, we will then have to wait for the US Consulate in Guangzhou to approve a CA (Consulate Appointment). We will THEN base our travel around the CA date. So very confusing, huh? Basically, it should only take about two weeks to get the travel approval and the consulate appointment once our file is overnighted to the CCAA in Beijing. Then we will be off to China. You will probably hear the screams of delighted females in our home once we get the news that our TA is here! It is a time for merriment and celebration when the LONG AWAITED TA arrives!

We are so close!!!

Please continue to pray for God's favor for us once we are able to make travel arrangements. Airline ticket prices are becoming outrageously expensive as we move into the holiday season. The downside to waiting for January travel is that we will really NEED to be able to take the adoption tax credit for this calendar year, and to do so, the adoption has to be finalized in Nathan Oliver's province before Dec. 31, 2010. The girls are getting very excited thinking that they will get to travel with us over the Christmas holiday. We don't want to leave Nathan Oliver in the orphanage for one day longer than we have to. We know that God has a plan....and we know that he will provide all that we need and give us the wisdom to make the necessary decisions about traveling.

We are so thankful for our family members, our church family and for our many friends that lift us up and hold our situation in their prayers.

On a special note. Our church held an Orphan's Sunday on November 7th. What a precious time of remembering that we are all called to care for orphans. My heart aches for all of them! Our hope is to get an orphan's ministry started out of our home church...to continue to bring awareness of all the children, both here and all over the world, that need families to call their own. Several friends put together a successful bake sale last Sunday and raised money for the orphan's ministry at Grace Church...what a wonderful blessing to know that people in our church really are interested in caring for orphans. We don't know exactly what the ministry will look like at this point, but to know that people are interested enough to purchase baked items so that a fund can be started, that is cause for celebration too! Praises, praises!!!!

Wishing you all a blessed holiday season.
Deb