Happy Chinese New Year to Us!

On Wednesday, I checked a spreadsheet of adoptive families and their timelines. Three families got finger printed the same day and received their notice in the mail 1/23.

Okay, well it was 1/25, mine should be coming any day. On 1/26 I decided to call. Turns out, our "application just arrived on the officer's desk, and he had a stack of I800 priority cases on top".

So sad.

Not to mention, our adoption agency has trained 2 social workers during the time of our adoption whom have left. The one remaining faithful social worker is carrying all the weight and oh yeah.....so sick, she could go to work the end of last week. Pray for her! Endurance, health, and a careful eye.

Officer Lawrenz did say I could email him a FedEx label so that when he did get to it, it would arrive more quickly. So Friday, 1/27 I figure out how to make the label and low and behold the nice officer calls me from Kansas to ask a clarification question and then to tell us we were approved!!

He received the label I sent and should be overnighting it to Pennsylvania soon for the last piece of our dossier puzzle.

We started step 6. on 12/9, we are a couple days away from being on step 7!

Last night, we went to my friend, Judy's Chinese restaurant for our annual Chinese take out meal, our way of celebrating Chinese New Year, and a way to make sure Judy still remembers me.

And today, the most special thing happened. Through a Facebook connection, another mom realized that her son (adopted years ago) had the same foster parents as Jude! Although the boys were never in their care at the same time, this family went back in April on a heritage trip and got to meet them. They brought Jude with them to the orphanage to visit with their former foster son. See that precious boy in the background!?

My favorite quote from my FB conversation

" The foster mom specifically spoke out the wish for your son to be adopted. It was the first time adoptive parents came back to China to meet with them and so valuable to her. She saw first hand that 'her' sweet boy was loved on".

Did you read that?! Although the foster parents are very loving (mom stays home, dad owns his own printing business) the mom wants what is best for Jude.   Look at Jude's sweet foster parents! The boy was adopted 7 years ago. Man, that is going to be a tough goodbye! Seeing their sweet faces does give me a new appreciation for all they are doing to stand in the gap for these precious children. A dear former student of mine is helping create a special gift to give these 2 dear people. People whom I can never really repay for loving our son.

Oh, what a treasure to peek into his Chinese world, and what a blessing that the mother actually voiced twice that her hope for Jude was a forever family.  

Look at the timeline: April this family visits the foster family, meanwhile in America, we start thinking about hosting. We commit in May, he comes in August, we send him back with an album from our adventures, hopefully soon he will know we are coming for him and his foster mom's wish will be realized.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO US!