In December, Sarah saw a post on the facebook page of our adoption agency (AWAA), showing an almost-2-year-old girl in China who has similar medical issues as our Rachel. She started praying for a family (not us) to adopt this sweet little girl.
In early January, Sarah checked with AWAA to see if any families were considering adopting her -- and no one was.
On Monday, January 5, Sarah brought this little girl to my attention, wondering if we should review her file. My reaction was "Yes, we can review her file, but God will have to make it undeniably clear that He has destined her to join our family before we could move forward with adopting her." There were just so many circumstances that would make adopting this girl "out of sync" -- she would be a "virtual twin" with Caleb (only 4 months difference in age), we would have three babies at home between the ages of 2 and 4, we had not budgeted for the expense of another international adoption, we were planning to wait at least until after our oldest son (David) leaves for college before adopting again, ... .
So, on that Monday we requested her file. I told Sarah that we need to start with prayer and fasting as we review her file (as a side note, God has been teaching me for quite some time now about how fasting was a normative practice in the early church rather than exceptional), and so we did.
On Tuesday morning, I met with our pastor for a time of prayer and counsel. Pastor John's counsel was, "If you decide to move forward with adopting this girl, God will bless you in that decision even if it's not in His perfect will. But let's pray that you are able to know and follow His perfect will regarding this decision." As we prayed together, Pastor John prayed specifically that God would provide a specific Scripture to confirm His perfect will for us in this matter.
We sent this little girl's medical file to Rachel's neurosurgeon to get his perspective. His response was that, based on the Chinese surgeon's postoperative diagnosis, this girl's risk of hydrocephalus and tethered spinal cord are higher than Rachel's. Although this was a bit scary for us, Sarah and I were both confident that we could deal with her complications, even if more severe than Rachel's, if this is truly the direction God has chosen for our family.
We spent some more time fasting and praying.
On Thursday evening, we spoke with Amber, our social worker, who is also an adoptive parent, to get her perspective and preliminary approval. She was in agreement that adopting this girl will be a challenge (given the ages of Rachel and Caleb and the girl's medical issues), but that we could certainly handle those challenges with God as our Source of strength and wisdom.
Thursday night, after reflecting on the week's events, talking through things together, Sarah and I were like, "Crazy as this all sounds, we are both sensing that this is what we are being called to do." We decided to sleep on it and to try to make a definitive decision the next day (Friday).
While lying in bed late Thursday night (with Sarah sleeping), I decided to start drafting an email to our agency representative telling her "Yes" we have decided to accept the referral for this sweet girl. I was not going to send the email until conferring with Sarah Friday morning, but I was confident enough that this was God's direction for us that I decided to be proactive and start drafting it.
After I finished drafting the email (at around 2 a.m.), I decided to catch up on my daily Bible readings (I had missed a couple days that week). In particular, with my daily reading on Tuesday I had started numerous times but kept getting interrupted or distracted. The passage for that day was from Isaiah. As I began reading Isaiah, I got to Isaiah 1:17 and I began to weep. The verse says, "learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow" (emphasis added). I received that verse as an answer to Pastor John's prayer. It's interesting that he prayed that prayer on Tuesday, that God's answer was provided that very same day, but that various distractions and interruptions delayed my receipt of that answer for two-and-a-half days.
On Friday, we contacted AWAA to tell them "Yes!" we are accepting the referral to adopt this precious girl. And, as providence would have it, that day (Friday, January 9) happened to be this little girl's 2nd birthday.
One other note about God's timing in all this, the following Monday (January 12) was the one-year anniversary of our "Gotcha Day!" for Rachel, and January 13 was the one-year anniversary of our appointment with Civil Affairs (the day our adoption of Rachel became official). The fact that we accepted the referral for this girl prior to the one-year anniversary of our Civil Affairs appointment meant that the vast majority of the documents in our dossier could be "copied" for the new adoption, reducing a lot of time-consuming paperwork on our part.
Here is the timeline thus far (I will update this as the timeline progresses):
- 1/5/15: Received Referral File from AWAA
- 1/7/15: Received Medical Feedback from Neurosurgeon
- 1/8/15: Initial Consult with Social Worker
- 1/9/15: Sent Electronic Acceptance (EA) / Letter of Intent to AWAA (via email)
- 1/24/15: Received Medical-Expedite Recommendation Letter from Neurosurgeon
- 2/2/15: Homestudy Update Completed
- 2/2/15: I-800A Sent to Lockbox in Texas (via FedEx)
- 2/17/15: Received Fingerprint Appointment (scheduled for 8:00 am on 3/2/15)
- 2/20/15 (8:15 am): Walked-In for Fingerprints (completed by 9:45 am)
- 2/20/15 (11:45 am): Formally Requested Medical Expedite from USCIS (via email)
- 2/20/15 (2:30 pm): I-800A Approval (received telephone call, then I-797 as PDF via email, from USCIS)
- 2/20/15 (4:30 pm): Arrived at Oklahoma Secretary of State to get Certification of I-797, Letter of Application, and Homestudy
- 2/21/15: Sent I-797, Letter of Application, and Homestudy to Courier (for hand-delivery to PRC Consulate in Houston for Authentication) (via FedEx)
- 2/26/15: AWAA Received Authenticated I-797, Letter of Application, and Homestudy (from PRC Consulate)
- 2/27/15: Dossier to China (DTC)
- 3/2/15: I-800 Sent to Lockbox in Texas (everything except Letter of Acceptance, LOA) (via FedEx)
- 3/11/15: Log-In-Date (LID) at CCCWA
- 3/25/15: Received Request for Evidence (RFE) from USCIS (regarding our I-800 application), instructing us to send (via email) a copy of our LOA/RA to USCIS.
- 4/14/15 (9:40 am) Received electronic Letter of Acceptance (hard LOA) aka Referral Acceptance (RA) aka Letter of Seeking Confirmation (LSC) (from CCCWA, via email from AWAA)
- 3/25/15: Received notification that our dossier translation was expedited and is now complete and that our dossier has been forwarded to the "Review Room".
- 4/3/15: Received notification that our dossier is out of "Review" and has been forwarded to the "Matching Room".
- 4/9/15: Received notification that "matching" has been completed (i.e. our application has been approved by CCCWA) and we should receive hard LOA within one week.
- 4/14/15 (10:10 am) Sent signed copy of hard LOA to USCIS (printed from email from AWAA then signed and scanned and sent to USCIS via email).
- 4/14/15 (11:40 am) Received notification of I-800 Approval (from USCIS via email).
- 4/14/15 I-800 approval documents sent from USCIS to National Visa Center (NVC) (to begin the process for Lydia's U.S. visa).
- 4/14/15 Sent pre-Article-5 documents (Lydia's passport photos, etc.) to AWAA (via FedEx) for them to forward to their representative in Guangzhou (via FedEx). (NOTE: This could have been done weeks ago, without FedEx charges, had we known that the signed LOA does not need to be included in this package.)
- 4/16/15 Received original of hard LOA from AWAA (via FedEx 2-day).
- 4/16/15 and 4/17/15 Called NVC to inquire about Lydia's visa petition (to get GUZ #). The petition has not yet been entered into their system.
- 4/17/15 (10:00 am) Lydia's visa petition received at NVC in New Hampshire (according to UPS tracking info from USCIS).
- 4/17/15 Emailed NVC to inquire about child's visa petition. The petition has not yet been entered into their system.
- 4/18/15 Sent signed original LOA to AWAA (via FedEx 3-day) (according to AWAA, this is merely to complete the documentation trail and nothing is actually "waiting" for this document).
- 4/18/15 Sent passports and visa applications to courier for hand-delivery to PRC Consulate in Houston (via FedEx).
- 4/19/15 Pre-Article-5 documents (Lydia's passport photos, etc.) arrived in Guangzhou (via FedEx from AWAA). Need PDF from NVC (then DS260) before Article 5 processing can begin.
- 4/20/15 (11:20 am) Received GUZ # (from National Visa Center, NVC) (via email from NVCAdoptions@state.gov).
- 4/20/15 (1:00 pm) Submitted DS260 (via online application)
- 4/21/15 (1:30 am) Received PDF (RTF actually) of letter from NVC (via email from NVCInquiry@state.gov) stating that Lydia's U.S. visa application has been forwarded to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou.
- 4/21/15 (5:30 am) Forwarded NVC letter to AWAA (via email) so they can arrange drop-off of Article 5 request.
- 4/23/15 Article 5 request dropped off at U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou (by AWAA courier).
- 4/23/15 (9:40 pm) Received notification (via email from GuangzhouA@state.gov) that Article 5 has been processed and is ready for pickup.
- 4/27/15 Article 5 picked up (from U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou).
- 4/27/15 Article 5 sent to CCCWA (via overnight mail).
- 4/27/15 Received Chinese Visas (from PRC Consulate in Houston) (via FedEx).
- 4/28/15 Travel Approval (TA) approved by "matching room". Awaiting approval by office administrator and CCCWA director. Wednesday (4/29) is a holiday. Thursday (4/30) is a half-day holiday. Friday (5/1) is a holiday.
- 5/4/15 (8:30 am) Received soft Travel Approval (TA) (from CCCWA in Beijing). Will meet the hard copy in Xi'an on 5/11. Will be flying to Beijing on Thursday 5/7. We have requested 5/18 (a Monday) as our preferred date for our U.S. Consulate Appointment (CA). (A Monday CA will require Steve to stay behind in Xi'an for a day or two to wait for Lydia's Chinese passport, while Sarah and Lydia fly to Guangzhou for an early medical appointment. Splitting up like this will allow us to head home on Wednesday 5/20, a day earlier than normal).
- 5/4/15 (8:00 pm) Purchased Airline Tickets.
- 5/4/15 (9:00 pm) Received U.S. Consulate Appointment Confirmation. We got our first choice (5/18)! That means no one has to miss David's high school graduation (big sigh!).
- 5/7/15 Travel to Beijing.
- 5/10/15 Travel to Xi'an.
- 5/10/15 Gotcha Day! (Happy Mother's Day!).
- 5/11/15 Civil Affairs Appointment in Xi'an.
- 5/13/15 Travel to Guangzhou (first wave, Sarah and Lydia).
- 5/14/15 Lydia's medical appointment in Guangzhou.
- 5/15/15 Receive Lydia's Chinese Passport in Xi'an.
- 5/15/15 Travel to Guangzhou (second wave, Steve, Jonathan, Rachel, and Caleb).
- 5/18/15 U.S. Consulate Appointment.
- 5/19/15 Receive Lydia's U.S. Visa (from U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou).
- 5/19/15 Travel to Hong Kong.
- 5/20/15 Travel to U.S.
