Josiah's first Christmas Cookie frosting...Funny

I know we haven't been doing a good job of keeping up the blog lately, but here is a little treat...make sure you watch all the way to the end. You will need to mute the songs at the bottom of the screen first.

Brian

More Pictures @ Home

Here are some more pictures of Josiah at home. Rememeber, he has 2 older sisters, I'm sure his face will be painted with more than this before it is all said and done. I have asked Paris to paint his face as she is a very good artist and the last time she painted her face as a cat, it was perfect.

Some Pictures of Josiah at Home

I am really sorry if you are looking for more posts from us, since getting home I have had zero time to update things. I hope to have some time this weekend to update things but I can't assure you of that. I do want to say again, thank you to everyone who prayed, donated, and gave us advice. I realized today that I actually miss being in China. Being at harmony house was amazing and I would love to go back to China on a vacation. I know, probably not the #1 hotspot, but I liked the culture and the people very much. I don't know if the pictures will show up at the top or bottom, but here, or there, they are.

We are home!

I realized a few days ago that I never updated the blog to inform everyone that we are home. We didn't have any issues, save 1, coming home from Hong Kong. Josiah's name was backwards on his ticket and the guy behind the ticket counter said "we have a problem". However, his supervisor looked at hime like he was crazy and printed our tickets. When we got home, Josiah went all over the house looking around and checking it out. We had people over Thurday, Friday, and Saturday, which in hindsight was probably too much considering that I also spoke at church on Saturday night and Sunday 2 services. However, everything seems to be going well. Josiah has been fitting right in with us. I have been sick pretty much since Friday morning and I am still sick. I will be going back to work tomorrow morning, which will be hard, but I don't have any time off. Josiah and I took about a 6 hour nap today 1-7:30, and he is still sleeping. Since I am sick...I am hoping to be able to get back to sleep. It is crazy how we are all tired at different times. We can just be sitting there and the next thing you know....out. Well I would love to write more, and I will, but I need to get some dinner and figure out how I am going to sleep again.

Brian

We are on our way to Hong Kong

In about 2 hours we leave to catch our train. This sounds like it is going to be another adventure. 4 escalators up and 4 back down with a wheel chair = no fun. Please be thinking about us as we make this last part of our journey. When I am on the plane from Hong Kong to Detroit....I will be a happy man. Even more so when we are on the plane to Detroit. Not so much that I want to leave China, I am just ready to be done with the nerve racking travel. If I could speak more languauges it would be easier, but I don't so I have to struggle through it. My next post should be from home...I leave you with a great picture...thanks everyone.

 

Brian

Consulate appointment done

We had our consulate appointment this morning...it went well. Although we were the last family called. This was our last appointment...thankfully. Tomorrow we pick up Josiah's Visa/Passport and head by train to Hong Kong. Thursday morning we fly out of Hong Kong around 9am...we should get to Detroit around noon time. This is where Josiah becomes a US citizen. Then we fly to Moline around 3PM and get to Moline around 3:45...thankfully....I have been looking forward to this for a few weeks now. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed and eat our food. I don't know how much more internet I will have so if nothing else I will see everyone soon.

 

Brian

TB test OK

Today we went back to the medical exam room and they checked Josiah's TB shot from Saturday. Everything was OK. We also went to the Jade and pearl market, however, Josiah was misbehaving a little so it wasn't very enjoyable. Plus it was hard to bargain and keep track of the family. However, at the pearl market we were able to get a picture of Josiah with Paige's hair...there were people all around laughing at us. Also pictured is our good friend Cormack. He really really helped us on Saturday night. He stayed very close to me and he and I talked almost the whole night. He speaks English (with a british accient), Cantonese, Mandarin, and he is studying German...he even goes to School on Sunday's for additional studying. Well we are getting close to the end of the road here in China, tomorrow we have our consulate appointment and wednesday we receive Josiah's visa packet and head out to Hong Kong via train. Please be thinking about us on Wednesday and Thursday as I really don't know what to expect in Hong Kong. My little bit of Mandarin will not do me much good in Hong Kong as they speak Cantonese. Josiah is taking a nap right now, actually he just fell out of bed and hit his head...that is like the 3rd time since we have got him that he has done that...thankfully his bed at home is low to the ground and has rails :)

 

Brian

Quick Post

Today we are going to the zoo, I hope Josiah does good...he has kind of been in a bad mood.

 

Brian

Some Pictures

I am not sure how many pics I can send at a time so I will send a few at a time...Enjoy!!

Pics

One of the things we really noticed in Changsha is that about 80% of the population was very very good looking. I think it must be some well kept secret :) Here are a few of the people I was able to take their pictures.

We are in Guangzhou

We have arrived in Guanzhou. The hotel we are staying at seems like it should be for royalty. We walked in and we were like wow. We had Josiah's medical exam today...it went great and he was absolutely perfect. I did notice today at the doctors office that one of his legs is longer than the other by a few inches. I don't know how much of a problem this will be for his walking but we will see. Guangzhou is extremely beautiful. Palm trees, blue skys, and waterways. It is a lot more western as there are many different nationalities here in the hotel. The people have also been very nice here and a lot more people here speak english. Plus we are back together with our other Holt families.

 

Our plane ride from Changsha was a little rough...first it was late, then the plane was so small I could literally almost touch both sides. Tina got sick after the flight, and today Paris has some stomach problems. We are going to be eating some McD's for lunch and then we are going to go out to eat with the group tonight. Some good news, our documents said that we needed 600RMB per person, but today we found it was only 600RMB per adult. That saves us 1800RMB/$300.

 

Tomorrow we have a free day, and Monday we are back to the medical exam place to check Josiah's TB test. So far it looks good, nothing raised or discolored. It was a little scary in the Dr. Office because they were a little confused with Josiah's limitations. They were trying to get him to grab a ball with his hands, but he couldn't...obviously. 

 

Sorry McD's has arrived...gotta go...some american food yee-haw!

 

Brian

Last day in Changsha

Hello everybody. Today is our last day in Changsha and I must say I am going to miss it here. The hotel staff has been great, very helpful, and very polite. We even received a letter from the woman who cleans our room, it said, "Dear sir and madam: Welcome to Dolton Hotel Changsha. Your room we have cleaned for you. It's very kind of you. Your Chinese is very good. Wish your baby will become more and more lovely. Best wishes for your family. Lily" This note was written all in English.

 

Our plan for today is to pack up all our stuff. After being here for almost 6 days, we have gotten pretty spread out with our stuff. But Rachel is awesome, what would take me 4 hours she will do in an hour. At 5PM we will me our guide and driver in the lobby where she will give us a bunch of paperwork, and Josiah's passport. We will then drive to the airport and take an hour flight to Guanzhou. This is where we will finalize our adoption and apply for Josiah's Visa. We will be there until Wednesday night. Right now the Guangzhou trade fair is going on so it will be very busy. Please ask the Big Man to watch over us as I really don't like big crowds especially while trying to keep track of my family. We will be in Guangzhou for 5 days, then take a train to Hong Kong, then fly out Thursday morning. I know I may have written this more than once, but just in case you don't want to go back and look.

 

Josiah is still doing very well. He does have his moments, usually when we are eating. It will be nice to get him home and give him some structure, plus we don't want him freaking out in a restaurant. Every morning he wakes us telling me that he loves me and then yells for Paige. Last night about 3:30AM I woke up to find him not in the bed next to me. The other night he did fall out of bed, so I looked on the floor, he wasn't there. Then I looked up and he was in the cot next to my bed. He has made us laugh so much, Rachel especially has laughed a ton as he seems to like making his momma laugh. Well I need to shower again as I have not stopped sweating since I got here in China over a week ago. I don't know how much I weigh these days but I am sure I have lost weight. My next post should be from Guangzhou...see you then.

 

Oh I almost forgot. Josiah can move his fingers in both hands. It isn't very strong, but when I pull on his thumb he pulls back with his thumb. Also when I pull open his fingers, he will pull them back...all this is very light, but he can move them. Plus I asked our guide to ask him if he can feel when I touch his hands and he said yes.

 

Brian

More Pics

These pics are from today...this is how it has been most of the trip...just a lot of laughing. Just a few minutes ago I got on the cot in our room and it folded up on me and both me and Josiah couldn't stop laughing. In one of the pics, Josiah put a piece of bread on his head and just started laughing. We have been trying not to laugh at him when he does something he shouldn't, because he will do it over and over if you laugh....but this one we couldn't help.

Pictures

Some Pics

Another day in Changsha

It is 5:40AM on Wednesday morning here in Changsha. Yesterday was an up and down day. We officially became the parents of Josiah after our civil affairs office visit. They only asked a few easy questions, and I think it was obvious to everyone that we were all very happy together. We have still been struggling to find a good schedule that works for all 6 of us, but we are getting through it. Josiah is used to getting up at 6am, taking a nap from 11-2, then in bed by 8. We have been getting up around 5am, eatting breakfast @8am, napping at noon, lunch at 2 or 3, possibly another nap, then dinner between 7-8, and in bed between 9-11.

 

Yesterday, we experienced Josiah's first temper tantrum. He has had quite a few little instances where he will whine for something and even get very angry, but yesterday was a total melt down for him. We took him to the play area here on our floor for about 30-45 minutes. Rachel was very tired and brought him back to the room, but he wanted to go back and play. When we did not go back he started screaming and kicking. I had to hold him for about 5 minutes while he continued to fight me and want to go. I must say, learning to speak Chinese has been very very helpful and I highly recommend to any one adopting from China to learn as much as you can. After he settled down I was able to tell him that if he could behave, I would let him watch some tv, he was happy with that. He was still pretty mad at me and wouldn't even look at me. But I got down along side him and told him that I loved him and without looking at me he told me that he loved me. I asked him if I could kiss him, which he doesn't really like because it tickles his face, and he said yes. I then gave him some oreos...yes oreos, and he was very happy again...even laughing. I am actually very happy that this happened as he will need to learn his limits. I think it is becoming obvious that at the orphanage he was allowed to pretty much do what he wanted, and he was the oldest child so he probably ruled the roost. Now with me as the new sheriff in town, it is going to take some getting used to, plus he will not be able to do what ever he wants. One of the things I have to remind myself is that he is only 5 years old, and he just turned 5 in June. He is going to do things that 5 year olds do, but we can't just allow it. It was very hard to discipline him in this way because of the life he has had and with his special need, but I know it is the correct thing to do, and it will only get better from here.

 

Today is a free day, and we are planning on going swimming again today. Still trying to get on a good schedule. This hotel even has a bowling alley on the 6th floor which we will visit tomorrow. I am looking forward to today as we have more freedom as to what we are doing. We have another free day on Thursday, and then on Friday we head to Guangzhou around 5, fly out at 8pm. I hear that most people are relieved to get to Guangzhou because of how nice it is and the more prominent western style. I did, however, look at the weather and it looks like it is going to be in the upper 80's and raining the whole time we are there. Plus the trade fair is going on and I heard that that the hotel we are staying at is right next to the trade fair headquarters. I am hopeful that things will continue to get better, even with the hot weather and the crowds of people. One thing I have found is that the Chinese believe that AC is good if it can cool down to 75; the restaurant that we ate at yesterday didn't have the AC on at all and it was about 80 degrees in there...it was like eating at my mom's house :)

 

I will try to update again tomorrow.

 

Brian

Good morning from Changsha

Hello everybody, it is 5:12AM here in Changsha, China. I will try to update you as to what we have been doing and what we will be doing. Yesterday, Rachel and I went to the Civil Affairs office and officially started all the paperwork. We also went and had Josiah's passport photo's taken. It was pretty uneventful at the civil affairs office, and we were able to finish up a lot of paperwork that was intended to be done today. We will need to go back to the civil affairs office again today for some interview type questions. They will ask us things like, "do you still want this child" "did you know about his special needs before you came here" "Do you promise to love him and take care of him the rest of his life"

 

Yesterday we also got to have, what I consider, some of our first fun time together. We all went swimming. Josiah loved it. Last night we also went out to eat at a really nice western/chinese restaurant right next door to the hotel. One of the things that has been really hard to judge is how much food to order, as you might expect, the chinese do not stuff themselves like we do :)

 

Josiah has been doing great and he is really bonding with his new family. We have had some times where he is testing us and trying to push his limits, but we have worked through those things and have been getting better. One thing that he is having a problem with is that he thinks it is funny when he does something wrong and we laugh...he will then continue to do this for as long as he thinks its funny. For example, dropping his fork on the floor, over and over again. Considering some of the issues some children have, I will take these little power struggles any day.

 

Paige and Paris continue to do well, although, they have been a little bored. I have not felt very adventurous since we got here, I am more about getting my family through this adoption safely and return home soon. As we spend some more days in Changsha, I am sure I will feel more like getting out and exploring. The scary part is trying to get through traffic. If you end up in front of a car, they will run you over. As you might expect, with 6 people in our group and 1 of them being in a wheelchair, I am not looking to press my luck playing human frogger.

 

Well I am sure there are a million things I could be writing about, but I am running out of time and want to make sure we are not late to our meeting this morning. I am not sure if I have written this in the past but I wanted to make sure everyone knew. Josiah is very small. Most of the clothes we bought him were size 5 or extra small and they are falling off him. I would suggest if you are buying him clothes...buy size 4T. Also, he loves coloring books and I think he will love doing things like puzzles, bigger puzzle pieces. Yesterday, he really amazed us by writing numbers 1-30, with his feet no less :)

 

Andrea has told me that the picture came through so I will try to post some more. Although, with all the hustle and bustle of this trip, I have been forgetting to take pictures...sorry...try to do better.

 

Reporting from China,

 

Brian

We are in Changsha

I am falling asleep on my feet so this is going to be a short message...and I don't know if they are making it to the blog or not. We are in Changsha, we have had Josiah for a little over 24 hours and I don't know if he could love us, or us love him, any more than we do. He has not left my side since I got him, and as you might expect, that makes me very happy. It has been an eventful 24 hours; I have been pee'd on, thrown up on, and he spilled his water on me on the plane...but I love him so much I don't mind. We are in Changsha and we officially start the process tomorrow so please have us in your thoughts as this is a critical step in bringing him home.

 

Brian

We have Josiah

I don't know how long the internet will be working, but I wanted to let you all know that we have Josiah, and I think he loves his new family very much. At first he wasn't real sure, but by the end of the night he didn't want to leave my arms. He kept me up until midnight wanting to play instead of sleep, but Im sure he is going through a lot right now. Some things I already know about him: He loves watching TV, he loves making people laugh, and he doesn't like it when you touch him if he doesn't want you touching him. I will try to post a picture but I am not sure it will work. As for the rest of us, we are all doing well-ish. Paris is having a hard time with the Jet lag and has been wanting to go home aleady. Hopefully over the next few days things slow down a little and she can catch up on some sleep. She does not like the smells here. Hopefully Changsha is better for her. I will try to post when I can but we are moving at 100 mph and I don't know when I will have time. For the next 2 days we need everything to work out well with Josiah because we were not supposed have him and I am not sure what impact that will have on all of our travel. We met the man from his original orphanage last night who will be taking him on the plane and we need to give josiah back to him tomorrow morning. A lot of things need to work out in order for that to happen. Please be sure to think of us often...love you all.

 

  Brian

We are in Beijing

Hello everybody. We are in Beijing. The flight was long, but very uneventful. The kids did great, even after a few pre-flight jitters. I hope to write more tomorrow, but for now we need to get to bed...we are going on about 3-4 hours of crappy sleep in the plane. It is hard to believe that we will be meeting Josaih in about 12 hours. Awesome!!!

At the airport

Made it through security no problems...waiting to board...flight leaves at 5:45 central time. 2 more hours....detroit here we come :)...then on to beijing

Running a test

This is just a test to see if I can email posts to the blog.

China Bound

Da Jia Hao-Hello everybody. It has been a while since I have posted any information, but I wanted to make everyone aware that we are leaving for China tomorrow to bring Josiah home. It has been quite the adventure and we are all looking forward to going. We should be meeting Josiah for the first time on Saturday around 2PM China time. I will post more as we start the trip tomorrow and as we meet Josiah.

All travel costs paid in full!

I am so sorry for not posting more about what is going on with our adoption, but I have been so busy lately. Last Friday I paid for all of our in-country travel, and we are all officially going to China. We will be leaving on October 6 and returning home on October 20th. It has been crazy how this whole thing has transpired, the blessings, the testings of faith, but we are almost at the finish line. Although, I don't know if you can really call it a finish line as this only ends one journey and begins another. We are looking so forward to bringing our little baby boy home, and I am praying for all of you who are waiting to get your child. I have read some blogs as of late and I can remember waiting for that last document or the TA. All I can say is that eventually it will come, and stay faithful. I wondered why our LOA and many other things were taking so long, but looking back it was all part of God's plan. Since I was told I was going to loose my job, the Lord has provided all the money we need to take the whole family. If we would have gone when I wanted to go, July/August, only I would have been able to go. But we know that we serve a God who know's so much more than we do, and I have realized that faith seems to always be backwards looking. We always seem to look back at the things that God has done, only wishing we would have had the faith we knew we should have. I love the Lord with all my heart, and I have given Him my life, and in so doing, I have had the greatest experiences of I could ever imagine. I am going to China in less than 2 weeks, to make a special boy a part of my family. I have been helping numerous Chinese families here at home, as the Lord continues to use me. Who would have thought that after 10 months of studying Chinese, I would be speaking hours and hours of Chinese a week with people who don't speak English. It is just like the Lord to use something that I thought I was doing to help talk to Josiah, to further glorify Him. I know it may sound like I am rambling here, and you are probably right, but I just can't say enough about this journey. I will have to start writing my book soon :)

I love you all,

Brian, or as my Chinese friends call me 大海 (da hai...big sea...thanks Josiah)

Travel Approval!!!

We received notification that we have received our travel approval today. We are shooting for a consulate date of October 18th, which would mean we would be leaving for China about October 6th. Please pray that we can lock in this date, as this will allow us to bring Josiah home soon. With the Guangzhou trade fair going from the middle to the end of October, we don't want to be pushed back to November. But, none the less, the Lords Will be done. He has been planning this adoption since before we were even born, I'm sure He knows what's best. I just want to say thank you to you all for your thoughts, encouragements, and prayers as this has been a long journey, but it has also been the greatest faith building experience of my entire life. I will be sure to update with more details as they become available.

In His service,

Brian

Article 5 Issued

We received a notification yesterday that our article 5 has been issued. This means that the US Consulate has notified China to issue our travel approval. We should have our travel approval in about 3 weeks, then hopefully traveling about 3 weeks after that. We are still planning on taking the girls with us, but we will see how it all turns out. Just an FYI to everybody, we have been extremely busy lately, I am sorry for not posting or responding to emails as often as I should, but my last day at my 2nd job was Monday, so hopefully some more normalcy will return to our lives....just in time to turn it upside down...but I am looking forward to that :) We appreciate your prayers, and we will keep you updated as to our progress.

In His service,

Brian

Travel Plans a changin'

Well...as you all know God always seems to have different plans than the one's we think up in our minds. A few weeks ago, we received a notice that someone has made a donation to pay for Rachel's travel to China. Praise God, this is awesome. However, not to be outdone, with me working two jobs we have a good chance of being able to take both Paige and Paris with us, which is great (especially since we really don't have someone who can watch them for 2 weeks). We are not sure how much more we will need as it depends on how I get my severance paid out. A good friend at church has come forward and offered his services and supplies to make survival bracelets for us to sell to help with our expenses. Not only are you getting a really cool bracelet, you are helping with our travel expenses as well!!! Each bracelet has approximately 9 feet of parachute chord which can hold up to 550 lbs. I can't make any guarantee on the colors, but I will do my best to be accommodating.

Josiah Video

I-800 Provisional Approval

Just wanted to give a quick update on our status as we have received our I-800 Provisional Approval. We have requested a copy of our NVC Confirmation letter to be emailed to us which should speed the process up by a few days. Based on what the adoption agency is telling us, we will be traveling in about 9 weeks give or take. Please pray that God keeps us on track, and if not, that we can be patient to wait on Him. Here are some pictures of Josiah with his photo album...for your viewing pleasure.

LOA!!!

I have been waiting for 90 days to post this....Our LOA is being overnighted tonight and we should have it tomorrow or Tuesday. Praise God!! I didn't think it would ever come...I thought they forgot about us :)

Thanks everyone for your prayers!!!

Where do I even begin?

Well it has been a while since we have posted anything on here about our adoption. Currently, we are currently still waiting for our LOA, which we hope to have soon.

First I will start with the tremendous blessing the Lord has given us. Some time back in May I was emailing back and forth with John Bentley, the Executive Director of Harmony Outreach (the orphanage where Josiah is currently located). John and I were discussing solo spouse travel, since we weren't receiving the donations or provisions we felt we needed, we prayed and began to at least start the process of solo spouse travel. We decided that it would be best for myself, Brian, to go as I am a male, as is Josiah, and I speak Mandarin. We sat down on a Monday night and calculated how much money we would need for at least myself to go to bring Josiah home, which is the most important part of this journey. We came up with an additional $5,500 is what we needed to cover Josiah's and my travel costs. The next day I cam home from work and checked the mail, there was a grant award letter in the amount of $5,000. Praise the Lord, He is awesome.

Everything was going great, the adoption was pretty much paid for, we were waiting on our LOA, we had received some new videos of Josiah, ...etc. However, on June 1, 2011 we were notified that the plant that I work at would be closing as of July 31, 2011, which meant that I wouldn't have a job after that date. The most awesome thing for Rachel and I as Christians is that when these types of situations present themselves, we don't freak out. We look at these times as a time to strengthen our faith and learn to trust fully on the Lord. We knew that the Lord called us to this adoption and that He would see it through to the end.

On Friday June 3rd, I called my previous boss and confirmed with her that it was OK to list her as a reference on my resume. She agreed and asked that I send her a copy of my resume. I sent her my resume on Sunday, was emailed and asked to apply for a position on Monday, called on Tuesday to schedule an interview, interviewed on Friday, and was offered the job on the following Thursday. I have known from the beginning of my walk with Christ that He is always with me, leading and guiding, even when I am trying to drive the bus. So many times as Christians, we loose an opportunity to witness to the world our faith and trust in the invisible God. I must admit, I thought it was strange that I wasn't freaking out or scared after the news of loosing my job, but I trust in the Lord that His will will be done, and it is not up to me to like it, I just need to trust that the Lord always has my best interest in mind when He is ordering my life. If there is anything you can learn from this experience, or if I may encourage you, no matter what your circumstance, trust and have faith that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you and that He will deliver you from your troubles. Now I can't say when or how, but I know that He has a purpose and a plan for all of us.

In His service,

Brian

Does this kid ever not smile?!?!?

We have received some new pictures of Josiah that I would like to share. As I looked through the 100's of pictures we have, I think you will find less than 5 with him not smiling. To think of his situation and how he can be happy through anything is truly a testament of who he is and how God is working in his life.

LID

We were officially logged in on 4/21/11. I wonder what the hold up was??? At any rate...we're in now. Please pray the LOA comes quick.

Josiah and friends

We Are DTC!!!!

As of April 1st our dossier was on its way to China! It feels like we are entering the home stretch of this journey. We are waiting for our dossier to be logged in to China, which generally happens within a week or two after the dossier is sent off. Then we wait for China to review our dossier and send us the LOA (Letter of Acceptance). The LOA is China asking us if Josiah is still the child we want to adopt and once we say yes travel is not too far down the road. We will need to apply for citizenship for him and once that is approved we are issued an article 5 from the US consulate in Guangzhou, China and then we are issued TA, travel approval!!!

Pray for everything to go smoothly and quickly during the rest of this process and pray for the rest of our financial needs to be met. We are only saving for travel now so we can bring this joyful little guy home!!

I-797

I have been reluctant to post about our current status because I want to tell you that we are DTC or LID, but we're close. Our I-797 should be at the Chinese Consulate today for authentication. Please pray that it comes back soon. We are hoping to have it back early next week as our agency sends off Dossiers to China on Fridays. I know that the last time we sent 12 documents we had them back in a week, and this is only 1 document, so we are hopeful. If not, we know that everything will happen in God's timing. I am really starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. We started this journey back in August of 2010, and to have all the initial paperwork complete will be a welcome feeling. Please continue to pray for God's provision as we are now saving for travel, which some of you know can be the most expensive part.

In His service,

Brian

Praise God! He Knows the End from the Beginning

...I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.' Isaiah 46:9-10

I am so thankful that I have a God who knows everything because He brought our attention to something that could caused a major set back in all our paperwork. Thursday, February 17th we sent our dossier to our Secretary of State to be certified. On Monday, February 2oth, Brian called the Secretary of State office to make sure they received our paperwork. The woman he spoke with said that she had received and certified the paperwork on friday and forwarded it to another office that was responsible for mailing it back to us. We were thrilled, except then she said that unfortunately one of the dossier papers was notarized by a Wisconsin notary and we would have to send this one single piece of paper to Wisconsin to be certified.

I couldn't believe it. I kept going over and over in my mind that I was sure all the notaries had been from Iowa... but I thought, "it is what it is" and depending on the the document we would have to send it on to Wisconsin or re-do the document and re-notarize it with an Iowa notary. Since this is our first adoption we weren't exactly sure how that would work so I contacted our adoption agency on Tuesday, February 21st, just to make sure that sending a document to Wisconsin for certification would be ok. She wrote me back that it was perfectly fine. Whew! Glad to hear that and then at the end of the email she wrote that we need to make sure our documents are less than six months old and if they are too old we would have to send them to the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. instead of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. She said to contact her if we needed help sending the documents to D.C.

Why in the world would she mention anything about our documents being too old when I had only asked about the Wisconsin certification? Then I started thinking about the fact that we started gathering these documents in August and there may be some that are too old. So I called her to find out how to send the documents to the Chinese Embassy. In order to authenticate documents with the Chinese Consulate you first have to send them to the U.S. State Department to be certified and if you don't get a courier they could sit there for up to six weeks before you get them certified!! And I thought the Wisconsin certification was going to slow down the process! We decided that I could just send the documents that were older than six months. I took a look at the documents and realized that the six month expiration for our two oldest documents was Friday, February 25th!! We had 4 days to get our paperwork back from the Secretary of State and onto the Chinese Consulate in Chicago before the six month expiration.

We were told that the Chinese Consulate in Chicago is very particular about the expiration of the documents and they have been known to send back the whole dossier without authenticating a single thing if you are even close to the expiration date. We decided to go ahead and try to overnight the package to Chicago if we got it back in time from the Secretary of State. We believe we serve a mighty God and He wouldn't have drawn our attention to it if He didn't plan on getting all the documents authenticated. Brian checked the UPS tracking number for our dossier and we were supposed to receive that same day, Tuesday the 21st. Now we just had to hope that the document notarized from Wisconsin was not one of the documents that was too old since we still needed to send that one off to Wisconsin to be certified.

Brian left work at lunch to get a cashier's check from the bank for the Chinese Consulate so that we would have everything ready by the time the documents got here. As he was walking out of work he prayed to God that if He wanted to do a miracle that he would receive a text from me saying that UPS had already delivered the package so he could come home on his lunch break and take it to UPS to over night it. By the time he got to the car he received a text from me "UPS is here."

I opened the package to look over the documents to make sure they were all certified and to get them ready to send them on to the Chinese Consulate. I looked for the document with the Wisconsin notary. There was only one problem...there wasn't one. Every single document we had sent in had been certified!!

Brian got home, grabbed the paperwork, made copies for the consulate, and overnighted it to Chicago. They received it at 9:30 in the morning Wednesday, February 23rd, giving them at least two whole days to review, if not three counting Friday, before it expired. We had no doubt that all of our documents would be authenticated since the Lord went to such great lengths to make us aware of this problem. On Wednesday, March 2nd, we received our package from the consulate with all documents fully authenticated. We sent it on to our adoption agency and they are currently reviewing it before we are DTC (dossier to China).

Somehow the dossier expiration information had slipped through the cracks and we were not aware of it. Yet the Lord brought it to our attention by having the woman at the Secretary of State misinform us about one of our papers having a Wisconsin notarization, thereby causing me to email our adoption agency to check into that situation and the woman at our adoption agency was led by God to tell us to check our dossier documents expiration dates. If all of that hadn't happened, once receiving our dossier back from the Secretary of State, instead of sending it overnight on Tuesday we would have sent our paperwork ground to Chicago on Wednesday and it more than likely would have gotten to the consulate after the expiration date on Friday. I am so thankful that I serve a God who sees the end from the beginning and loves me enough not to keep it to Himself.

Dossier in Des Moines

Yesterday I sent the bulk of our dossier out to be state certified. It arrived in Des Moines this morning around 10:30am. Hopefully they can get through it and get it back to us soon so we can send it on to the Chinese Consulate. We still haven't received our I-797 but figured it was a good idea to get this part done in case we have any problems. That way we don't loose 3 weeks while we are waiting for our I-797.

Please pray for me as I am sharing our story at church tomorrow morning.

Brian

Still Waiting

Quick update: We are still waiting on our I-797, the last piece of our dossier. We have our dossier all ready to go, in an envelope except this document. When I called the USCIS, they stated that they were working on a big backlog and it could be 60 days from the time our I-800a was received in TX, 12/29/2010. I know that this will all happen in God's timing, but I am really wanting to bring Josiah home. I had a dream last night that I was carrying him around the yard showing him some of the things around the house, and this made me want him home even more. It is hard to think that it may still be 6 months before we go, estimating 4-5 months from our log-in date, which will hopefully be sometime in March. Please pray that either the time goes by fast, or that some of those dates are moved up. There is a little boy on the other side of the world who wants a family, and the only thing that stands between him and us is time. Here is what one of our new friends Tina, who met Josiah in August, sent me a few weeks ago. This is what Josiah said to her:

"He pointed to a picture on the wall of a ship on some stormy seas in Harmony House. Other kids were crawling all over us, and for the most part, he never retaliated until provoked beyond what he could stand. He pointed to that picture and said, 'See that boat? My mommy and daddy are on that boat. The are taking a long time to come, but they are coming to pick me up."

Now if that doesn't make you want to fly halfway around the world just to hug him, I don't know what does. Josiah, we are coming and can't wait to get off that boat and hold you in our arms.

Brian

Fingerprinting complete!!

We had our USCIS fingerprinting appointment this morning at 9am and everything went great. We drove a total of 5 hours and it only took 10 minutes for our fingerprinting. Too bad there wasn't something closer. But to bring Josiah home, I would have flown to China and back to give my fingerprints if that was what was required. I just realized that I haven't put any new pictures of Josiah up recently, and believe me we have well over 100 pictures. So here you go:

You Shall Not Pervert Justice Due the Stranger

You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing. (Deuteronomy 24:17-18)

Several weeks ago we began learning Chinese because we want to be able to communicate with Josiah once he becomes our son. We are learning as a family and collectively we are ready to begin lesson five, however Brian has been practicing on his own and he is somewhere around lesson 15. In order to practice the Chinese we have learned we decided to go to a Chinese restaurant and while we were there we met some very nice Chinese waitresses. For some reason after that first visit my dad kept wanting to take us there for dinner. We understand now that it was all a part of God's plan for us and for one of the waitresses that works there.

We began to form a friendship with this waitress who unfortunately speaks very little English, but somehow with our limited Chinese and her limited English we have been able to communicate fairly effectively. She told us her sons are going to be coming in February and she is hoping that we will be able to help them learn English. We told her that not only would we try to help them but that we would help her too if she wanted.

Her and her husband, who is a cook at the restaurant, have been living in America for 13 years and unfortunately have never met anyone or had enough time to learn very much English. They both work six days a week and have been trying to learn English out of a book. Not real helpful since you really have to be able to hear it. They said they have had some nice customers over the years who have helped them with a few words here and there, but they have had many more customers who have become angry with their limited English and have asked to speak to the manager to complain. What makes me even more angry is that over the years, while they have set up many different restaurants, they have been cheated out of their money and repeatedly exposed because of their lack of English. People saw their weakness and pounced. It saddens me to think that in the 13 years that they have been here they have not made any friends who were able to really take the time to help them with their English so that they would not be cheated.

We recently invited them over for dinner, although only Maggie was able to make it and she reciprocated the offer and invited us the next week to her house for dinner. They made us the most beautiful authentic Chinese Food for dinner. They had so very little in their apartment, which also happened to be in a very dangerous neighborhood, and yet they treated us like kings. Their home in China was by the sea, so our whole dinner was all seafood; crab, shrimp, two or three kinds of squid or maybe one was octopus, and it was all cooked in a soup at our table over a gas burner they set in the middle of the table. The soup had in it all kinds of vegetable I had never seen or heard of and these things called fish balls, where were about the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. They also made us chinese dumplings with pork and veggies in them which were also very delicious. They had so much food for us you would think they were feeding 12 people.

While we were there God showed us our purpose for being there. Maggie's husband asked Brian if he would be his translator as they were planning on opening a restaurant and they were afraid of being cheated. "Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight." (Proverbs 11:1) God had sent us to tip the scales in their favor and bring justice to the stranger in the land. I have to say the most amazing thing about this though is that God does not do things by halves. God could have sent anyone who knew Chinese and English to help translate, but he sent the best possible help for them. Brian has a bachelor's degree in accounting, and a master's in business. Could anyone doubt God's love for those who are oppressed; the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow?

I read an article by Kerry Hasenbalg and in it she said, "God 'does not dwell in houses made with hands;' He dwells in those who believe." God's dwells in us so His love also dwells in us and we are to be His ambassadors, His hands and feet, to love those who are oppressed on His behalf. Jesus will one day say, "'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" (Matthew 25:34-40)

I think there are a couple of things that are significant about the verses from Matthew that I hadn't noticed before. The first thing is that the people that Jesus identifies with, calling them His brethren, are those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and in prison. The second thing is that "the righteous" are serving those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and in prison without even realizing that they are serving God. Now that they have the love of God poured out in their hearts, they are reaching out to others based on a real love that they have for them, and not based on an obligation to do what God says or to somehow impress God with what they have done. I say this because we didn't realize that we were serving God in this situation until the very next day after our dinner with Maggie and her husband. We formed a friendship with them, found out about their story, they asked us to help and we said yes. The next morning the Lord opened my eyes and told me, "these are strangers in your land," and "I hate unjust scales," and "you have seen Jesus in them, you are serving Him." I melted into tears thanking God and praising Him for giving us this opportunity to serve Him.

Quick Update

Just wanted to provide a quick update as to where we are at in the process. We sent off our I-800a which was received by the USCIS on 12/29/10. When I sent them an email inquiring about our fingerprint appointment, they stated that it went out in the mail yesterday 1/18/11. I can't believe how long this process is taking, and believe me I know there are people out there that have taken years longer. It is hard knowing Josiah is over there in need of a family and we are dealing with paperwork here and it is looking like it wont be until August before we are able to even have a chance to go get him. I know that all things are going to happen in God's timing and I am ready for anything, but we love Josiah very much and can't hardly wait to hold him in our arms and bring him home to his new family. We also applied for the girls passports last week, which we should receive in about 4 weeks. Please keep praying that the Lord will provide the finances necessary to complete this adoption and that the time will go by quickly for all parties involved :) On a side note, we did apply to Show Hope for adoption assistance, so please be praying about that as well.

In His Service,

Brian

For your viewing pleasure

Here is a video of Josiah going up the stairs, notice his look of accomplishment at the end.