Updates!

We got a pleasant surprise from Ann of "Red Thread" yesterday! She sent us updates of Yang Yi, and 2 new pictures!



Yang Yi is so beatiful! Getting updates and pictures makes the wait seem shorter. I have also noticed that staying busy does as well. Of course, I don't have to try to do that- Junior year in High School is hectic enough! But if you find yourself restless- fill your time. Don't give yourself time to worry and fret. Fill your time with prayer, thoughts of God, reading scripture. Be in constant prayer. My favorite verse is Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Amen :) This verse either pops into my head, or is spoken to me by my mom or best friend when I begin to feel stressed- and God relieves my burden! :)

Anyways! The point of this post was to share Yang Yi's new pictures! Oh- and updates! Here are her new measurements:

Height :104cm (40.9")
weight :17kg (37.4 lbs)
head :50cm (19.7")
chest :52cm (20.5")
feet:16cm (6.3")

The referral measurements are often not very recent (or so I've heard), but it would seem that her last measurements were not too far off. She's grown .9 inches and gained 5 pounds since her last measurements. So she's still little! Which will be intersting because my whole family is tall (tallest- 6'4", shortest (13)- 5'5") ... haha oh well! She'll always be our "little" sister! I have a feeling that will be a joke in the years to come...

Please continue praying! Anything can happen and we still wish for things to move quickly! We have absolutely 0 control over the situation- this is ALL God! Thank you!

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Care Package #1

Today is day 31 from our LID. We ordered our carepackage from Red Thread China on Sunday (?) And recieved pictures yesterday of our carepackage from Ann. We had a good letter, but that seems to be it- haha. This is what the package she will recieve from her family looks like:

Ann said the orphanage should recieve the package Thursday or Friday. However, we realized after we sent it that 1) the photo album looks as though it may be appropriate for a younger age (pray she isn't offended) and 2) its kind of a wimpy care package. I saw pictures of some other families' care packages and they were huge! So we decided to do some shopping (!!!) for Yang Yi and send her an even better, more personal, care-package through Lily later. We got so excited, that as soon as I finished my homework, I created what I call a "virtual carepackage" where I searched things I considered appropriate (or just cute :) and copied and pasted them onto a Word document. Long story short I have a page full of Hello Kitty, Pleasant Goat (apparently a popular tv show over there-on Yang Yi's shirt :), stickers, candy, etc. It was very fun to be able to dream like that! We are just hoping that she likes Hello Kitty... most adopted chinese children do...

In Him,

Chelsey :)

PA!!

So it turns out we were going backwards for some reason, and we got our LID before our PA. However, my mom recieved an email this morning confirming that we have recieved Pre-Approval! So basically- we've got her!!! ;) Karla sent us the care-package information today. How exciting is that?!? I am so thrilled to see God work through this process. I dare say we wouldv'e gotten PA sooner if the agency had not been on vacation the past week. When we got the care-package information my mom couldn't help but choke up. We are so close!! This is day 14 from our LID (log-In Date). To set high hopes in the knowledge that God can work through all things, lets say our goal is 60-90 days... that would be by New Years!! Woah! :) As you can see, I and the rest of my family, are very excited! We have already considered names, and we know it must be a "C" name, because all of the kids in our family have "C" names. We have favorites, but I won't reveal them yet.:) Thanks for your support! Please pray for continual hope and trust in God's ultimate plan! This has been a crazy, challenging process, but it is so very worth it! Can't wait to meet Yang Yi!

Love In Him,
Chelsey :)

LID!

Yeah! Praise the Lord! Things seem to be moving along so quickly (lets hope I don't speak too soon!). Today, September 28, 2009, we recieved our log in date! Which means our docier has been logged into the system... in China. Any day now we should recieve our Pre Approval (PA) which means she's basically ours. As informed by my mother, apparently we're supposed to have a count down starting now and ending when we get our LOA (Letter of Acceptance), which means- Yang Yi IS ours! At that point we'd like to send her stuff and get all excited and pick out names, and everything! But until then, we're keeping calm. :) My mom has done tons of research (i.e. reading and averaging other adopting families' blogs) and has come to the conclusion that we are looking at about 3 months until the LOA, and Pre-Approval (PA) should be any day now.

Please continue to pray that things would move smoothly. This whole process has been a bumby road with finances, fingerprints, physicals, and simply the necessity of trusting in God's ultimate plan. Thanks for all your prayer and support! Hopefully I'll be back on here soon with some more good news!

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Adoption Timeline

The timeline (up to date). Interesting that we were DTC exactly one year from the day we started our process... So neat to see God's work :)

June 15, 2008- Home from China missions trip

July 27, 2008- Initial paper work finished

August 2, 2008- First official home-study meeting

December 3, 2008- Fingerprints complete

April 6, 2009- Complete Home-study sent to Immigration

June 15, 2009- Immigration Approval

July 27, 2009- DTC/Docier to China

September 16, 2009- Official Referral for Yang Yi

September 17, 2009- LOI/Letter of Intent sent

September 28, 2009- LID/Log In Date

October 12, 2009- PA/Pre-Approval

November 16, 2009- LOA/Letter of Acceptance

now- waiting...

Yang Yi!

Here she is! She's just precious! We're so excited! Just sent the LOI yesterday! Can't wait to bring her home...

In Him,
Chelsey :)

REFERRAL! (for real!)

For the past month my mom has been highly anticipating a call from Karla, hopefully saying that we recieved a referral. At 8:15 this morning, she got it! Karla told my mom about a 6-year old girl that she thought would suit us. My mom was overwhelemed, and she called my dad, who was equally enthused. They spent the morning getting informaton about Yang Yi, a non-special needs (we believe) healthy little girl. My mom said, "It was perfect because Tim had to do all of the calling, which meant he was committed." At about 1:15 in the afternoon, I was in my independent language class, learning Chinese (Rosetta Stone), when my teacher said, "Chelsey, you're wanted down in the office." I shut down the computer, packed up my stuff and headed down casually to the Upper School office. Until- I realized why I was probably being called down: a referral??. At that point I nearly dropped my bag and started running down the hall, and down the stairs. I tried to tell myself not to get my hopes up, but I had a feeling. When I got to the door of the modular (yes, my school has trailers) I saw my sister beckoning me in, with a grin on her face that answered every question in my head. Yes, a referral. I was so excited. Together we darted to end of the hall to the officeto see my mom opening up a file on the computer showing a picture of the most precious little girl. We spent the next few minutes staring in awe, hugged as we hurried back to class, and smiled the rest of the day.

I can't explain how exciting this is for us. I know we still have a ways to, and it could take a while, but it's an answer to prayers to have something like this happen. We needed the push. Now we have rejuvenated hope. Please pray for us, and that the rest of the process would go smoothy! I'll try to put a picture on here as soon as we get a confirmation.

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Words of Wisdom

Just wanted to share with you a tiny piece of the wisdom Jenniffer Chambers has shared with my family with during this process. She and her husband adopted twin girls from China in 2006. In an encouraging e-mail to my mom she said:

"Once you find your child, the weirdness turns to AWE. ....that God could
have, in His omnipotence, have lead you through the wilderness to this
perfect place of family."

In Him,
Chelsey :)

There's Always an Exception

How ironic that I wrote about the referral because we got two today?! However, they are unofficial referrals, meaning the children have not been pulled- ie there is no pressure to accept. This is good. My parents did not have a strong response to the two girls that were sent to us, so at this point I see no need in publicly releasing their information. After talking with my mom, I've realized how difficult it is for her and my dad. My dad struggles to pinpoint what physical abnormalities he is willing to accept, and my mom loves them all. This in mind, my mom is now hesitant to commit to a child because she waits for my dad, and vice versa. In a typical family, these qualifications would not be an issue. You simply love the child you have, no matter what their needs may be. Its just so strange, so weird, when you have a choice. To what extent of special needs are you comfortable? My parents have never had to deal with this decision until now. I know its hard on them. Please keep them in your prayers.

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Waiting for Referral

The title basically explains our adoption situation as of now. All we're doing at this point is waiting for our Chinese conact, Lily, to send us a referral when she notices a child who would fit with our family. We spent the first couple of weeks looking through lists of special needs children, but at this point we've backed off and given it to God. We filled out the awareness form, and the special needs qualifications form- now we wait. and wait. and wait.

At this point I feel so much for Lily. I have recently discovered that once a child has been referred to a family, the child is put on hold for 48 hours. When those 48 hours are up, the family must make the decision whether to move forward with adopting this child or not. If the family says no, the child is permenantly off the list for that adoption agency. There is so much pressure on this woman. Sure, there are more people with whom she shares the burden, but that is a huge responsibility! And obviously God is in control of every situation, nonetheless, please keep her and the other social workers in her position in your prayers.
WAIT. Thats the gist of it all. WAIT.

In Him,
Chelsey :)