Where there is a WILL, there is a way!

Hello friends!

Here I am, slacking again on keeping my blog up to date, but this time I have a good excuse... we have been so busy and having so much fun preparing for the arrival of our little guy that I just haven't felt like sitting down in front of the computer.

At least two or three times a week, a great idea for a blog post crosses my mind, but by the time I get home I just can't muster the energy to sit in one place for enough time to get my thoughts out in a post.

This post will be brief, as it's getting late and I'm still recovering from daylight savings time sleep deprivation, but so much great stuff has been happening I wanted to keep you all in the loop.
"hindsight" edit- who am I kidding?  I don't know how to do "brief"

The day after I wrote my last post, we got news that our letter of intent to adopt our son was accepted, and also that our Dossier (big packet of paperwork) was officially "logged in" to China's system... officially putting us in the LOA wait.  Many people say that the wait for LOA is the most agonizing part of the adoption process, but for us it has been the most fun... we finally know who our child is, and can start preparing for their arrival.  I feel like I'm in the third trimester of pregnancy without the swollen feet and ankles, aching back, sleepless nights, and constant runs to the bathroom.

I have been connecting with many other families who have adopted from our son's orphanage/foster home and have been able to find so many photos of him... such a blessing!

Now, for the moment you have all been waiting for... ready to meet our son? (many of you have already seen photos on Facebook, but in case you haven't, here he is!)

Meet William TianYi Hawkins!

Yep, that's right, we've also decided on a name!  His Chinese name is Tian Yi, which translates as Tian= Heaven, Yi=wish   this prounounced "Tee-En  Yee".  I can't think of a better fitting name... wish from heaven... yep, that's him!
We decided early in the process that we would give him a more traditional first name and keep his all or part of his Chinese name as his middle name.  Because we won't want to take away from the full meaning of his name we will push the two names together, but keep the Y capitalized... TianYi.

As I touched on in my last post, Will has malformations of all four of his limbs, namely his hands and feet.  He was born without any fingers, and only one or two toes on each foot.  But don't you worry, this little guy is going to be running laps around us and proving to us daily that you can do anything you set your mind to.  It is clear his nannies have done an excellent job teaching him the importance of having a positive outlook... he is ALWAYS smiling and laughing in all of the photos and videos we see of him.

I love the name "Will" because it means "determined (protector)".  When we got his file they sent us quite a few videos of him performing various tasks, such as stringing beads, turning the pages of a book, drawing with a pencil, sorting toys, etc... the very first thing that James and I noticed about him was how determined and focused he is.  He does not let his limb difference slow him down one bit, and everything I've read about him echos the sentiment that this little boy is determined to do everything for himself.

So there you have it, we have our Will. :)

We started working on his bedroom, and this past weekend my mom and I went to a couple of consignment sales and to Target to pick up some toys and bedroom decor for him.  I got a great deal on a train table, and wouldn't you know my parents, my husband and I spent quite a while working together to set up the track and "test out" the equipment... :)

We still have a long-ish road ahead of us, and we are still not fully funded for our journey, but I have decided to take a little break from grant applications and constant worry about the funding.  We fully trust that everything will fall into place as needed.

Of course we are still pinching pennies and saving whatever we can (and I've been able to get some overtime hours in at work due to the busy season for mortgages starting), but I was just becoming so consumed with financial worry that I was missing out on soaking up this special time for our family.

Our puzzle fundraiser will continue to run until we travel to pick him up, and as it stands our puzzle is still only 25% complete.  If you would like to sponsor any pieces, please refer to the instructions for doing so by clicking HERE.

 Unless we receive any of the grants we have applied for so far, we are currently about $5,000 short of being able to fully cover the costs of our remaining fees and agency costs.  Knowing that it is unlikely that we will face huge medical costs when we arrive home sets my mind at ease, and if we have to take out a small loan to cover the remaining expenses then we will certainly do that. 

I'm also considering a small yard sale in May during our neighborhood sales, but I'm not sure I can pull it off due to having a VERY busy couple of months ahead of us.  Between now and the time we travel we have 4 baby showers, a wedding (that we are both standing up in), and a few small projects on the house we'd like to get done.... but that's ok!  The busier we are, the faster time will pass, right? ;)

I just cannot explain to you the amount of love we have in our hearts for this little boy, and how quickly it grew.  We think about him all day, we dream about being with him and playing trains, and we talk about the things we will learn together and the experiences we can't wait to share with him.  Our first few months together will likely be very difficult months-  he has spent his entire life in a wonderful foster home with very dedicated nannies who love him dearly and care for him as their own.  He will be experiencing tremendous loss, fear, and confusion.  While we know this, we also know that God has a plan for this child and for our family, and that He will be with us as we walk through the dark days and will carry all of us through the struggles.

I will do my best to keep up as things progress, but there are the steps we are waiting on.

We are currently in day 25 of our "LOA wait", and expect to be waiting at least 2 more weeks before we receive word that our dossier and intent to adopt Will has all been cleared.  At that point we go through a series of steps to get immigration approval coordinated between the US and Chinese governements... a process that usually takes around 9 or 12 weeks.  Then we will be issued travel approval, and about 2 weeks later will hop on a plane to China!

We are in the final months (we hope!) of our lives as a "party of 2".... crazy!  It seems like this journey has gone by so quickly, and at the same time the thought of waiting three more months to meet him seems SO LONG!  We are really crossing our fingers that we will be able to travel in June, but anything is still possible...  there are still a lot of steps to get through, so I'm trying not to get my heart set on anything.  At least we know he's in a wonderful place with people who love him dearly.

We were able to send him a small care package a few weeks ago and received word that he did receive the items we sent him.  I can't really say much, but we were told  that he knows he has a family and seems happy about that fact.
Here is a photo of the items we sent to him:

We put together a little photo album with labels in Mandarin introducing us, the pets,and Grandparents so that he will be familiar with our faces when we meet

If you would like to join us in praying for our son and his nannies, that would be much appreciated.  It's helpful to remember that China is 12 hours ahead of us, so when I am getting for work every morning, he is going to bed.  When I'm going to bed he is likely eating lunch, and when I am eating dinner he is probably waking up.  I try to remember this when I pray for him.  I pray that he finds comfort in knowing that he has a mom and a dad, and that he finds courage to face the huge changes that lay ahead of him.  I also pray for comfort and peace for his caretakers.  I worked four summers at a daycare, and I STILL think of those children I cared for all of the time. I cannot imagine working with a child (and possibly even living with?) for 3 1/2 years and then having to say goodbye, not knowing if I will ever see them again.  They have been there for every one of his milestones- his first words, first steps, first bumps and bruises and illness.  They have wiped his tears, watched him laugh and run and play and soon they will have to say goodbye.  My heart truly aches at the thought that our joy accompanies others pain.  

That's all for now, good night everyone!  Thanks for following our journey!

I apologize in advance for typos or grammar errors....I am too tired to edit the post tonight! Take that, grammer Nazis!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Hello friends!

How is it possible that more than a month has gone by since my last update?!  I guess it's a good thing that time is going by quickly, because when I think about how far we are from traveling to China I get really discouraged, but thinking about how quickly the past two months have gone gives me hope that these next ones will pass by quickly too.

I would love to tell you that I have a lot of new information to share regarding our adoption progress, but that sadly is not really the case.   We have made significant progress, just not as much as I would have liked. One of the main reasons you haven't heard from us is that there really just wasn't much information to share.  And I know that you had no interest in hearing me whine and complain about how slow everything seemed to be moving through these past couple of steps.

Another reason is that I really just needed some time to grieve through the experience of having had to say no to the first file match.  I was not expecting to be matched that early in the process, and was definitely not prepared to have to say no to a file.  I still pray for that little boy every single day.  His file is still on our agency's website which means he has not yet been matched with a family.  Please join me in saying a prayer that he will be matched soon.

Here is what has changed since my last post.

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas holiday spending time with my parents.  My mom is going through some medical issues right now and may be feeling a little under the weather these next few months, so it was really nice to spend some quality time together and getting out and having some fun while she was still feeling up to it.  We grilled steaks on Christmas day and took a drive out to a local lake (because when it's 45 and sunny on Christmas day in Michigan... you feel the need to be at the lake I guess), we visited our local public museum, saw a movie at the theater using a gift card I've been saving up, and just enjoyed our time together.

On Monday 12/28 I sent the first 11 documents in to our adoption agency, and also notified them that we would not be pursuing the file of the little boy I had told you about.

 Here is what a 95% completed Dossier looks like:

I had already scheduled the day off work, and was able to walk in early for my fingerprinting, and thankfully they allowed me to do so.  This all worked out wonderfully because I got the paper I needed in order to do my fingerprints that day the Saturday before, just in the nick of time.
James had a busy week at work that week, so he wasn't able to go in and get his fingerprints done until his scheduled appointment time, the following Monday (1/4).
The fingerprinting is required for our US Immigration, and once you get fingerprinted you are waiting one on little piece of paper to be mailed to you to tell you that you are approved to adopt by the Department of Homeland Security.  From everything I had been reading and seeing in the adoption groups on Facebook, people were getting their approval letters on average 4-10 days after their fingerprinting appointments.  Once this paper arrived, it needed to be notarized, certified, sent to the consulate for authentication and THEN sent to our agency to complete our Dossier.

Let me tell you how hard it was to come home every day from work to check the mailbox and get NOTHING for over 2 weeks.  It doesn't help that we can only get to the Secretary of State on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings, so each Friday and Tuesday the form didn't come it was extra disappointing.
The approval FINALLY came on Friday 1/22-  Happy Birthday to me (Yahoo for being 30 and officially old enough to adopt from China)!  So of course the next morning we raced to the bank to get it notarized and then to the Secretary of State to have it certified.  By Monday at lunchtime it was on it's way to Chicago to be authenticated.  I thought we would JUST squeak in under the deadline to get it to our agency so they could get it to China before the Chinese government closes for Chinese New Year (CNY).  Sadly,I have learned that is not the case... we missed it by about 2 days.  The form will arrive to our agency tomorrow, but since the shutdown begins next week, our agency won't mail it until after CNY to avoid it getting lost.  Totally understandable, but this is the step we've been so eagerly waiting for for so long and it was a bit of a bummer to hear that it will be delayed by at least another week.

My initial goal was to be DTC (Dossier to China) by December 31, but the delays with our home study made it clear that wouldn't happen.  Then I set the goal of having that step reached for my birthday, but of course the delay with our fingerprinting approval held that up.  And now another delay that is out of our control-the biggest holiday of the year in China.  But honestly, that is just the name of the game in international adoption- you can do everything in your power to get things done quickly, but so much of the process is really just waiting on things are are totally beyond your control.  Facebook is such a blessing to be able to be in touch with so many other adoptive families-  to share advice, ask questions, and learn so much about this crazy journey we are on- but it can also be dangerous, because there is a huge temptation to constantly measure your progress against everyone else.  I was in touch with a number of people who were fingerprinted weeks after we were and got their approval sooner.  Why? We will never know, and really it doesn't matter.  This adoption will happen according to God's plan and not ours.  Everything will come to be in his perfect timing.

Our next steps are getting that DTC email from our agency (this step is a huge deal in the adoption journey because it means that all of our paperwork is done, it's in order, and it's shipped to China!)
A few days to a few weeks later (or in our case, maybe a few months, lol)... we'll receive notification that we are LID (Logged In Dossier).  This means that China has acknowledged receipt of our paperwork and we are logged into their computer system.  At this stage we are eligible to receive matches of children with more mild special needs.   It is said that you can usually expect to travel approximately 4 months after you are LID.

Between LID and travel is another slew of paperwork, and of course more waiting.

At this point, we are assuming the earliest we might travel is June.  We were really hoping to travel sooner, as airfare costs double during June/July/August, but as long as we have kiddo home before Christmas next year we won't complain!  There are of course certain benefits to getting to travel in June... that means that our time off from work will also coincide with my favorite months of the year, and  will allow us to have more than a week of  "summer vacation" just one time in our adult lives.  This is not necessarily good news for my coworkers, as these are the busiest months of the year in our industry, but of course I have no control whatsoever over when we get to go to China. I will feel bad leaving during such a busy time, but after waiting this long to finally meet our child, there will be nothing holding me back from traveling at the first available opportunity.

It seems like we have been on this journey for so long already, but in reality it hasn't even been a year yet!  I saw on my personal Facebook the other day in my "on this day" app that it was just about one year ago exactly that we really started exploring the idea of adopting.  So in one year, we went from thinking about adopting to having all the initial paperwork done and turned in to do so!

Because we know that aboslutely no progress in our case will occur during the next couple of weeks, we are using this time to get as many applications in for grants as possible.  We have been working so hard to save every penny possible these past 6 months, and have also been so incredibly blessed by your generous contributions to our fundraisers, but we are still figuring we have between $7,000-$9,000 to come up with,  so we are going to submit as many applications for adoption grants as we can.

Our kitchen table has looked like this for months, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

It's hard not to stress about the finances in this process, but just as God promised on that night back in March, He has been faithful at each step along this journey.  Last week we submitted our second round of big fees, and between what we had saved up from the puzzle fundraiser and our personal savings we had exactly enough to cover the costs. 

And while my head spins at the thought that we still have 2/3 or more of the adoption costs ahead of us (a large portion being the travel costs), I know that God will provide.  Worry Less, Love More, right?

Puzzle Update

Today marks exactly 3 months since we began our Puzzle Fundraiser, and our puzzle is a little over 25% complete!  So far, we have received sponsorship for 257 of the 1,000 pieces, and have 743 still available.    If we were to sponsor each one of the remaining pieces at an average of $10 each, our adoption would be fully funded!  (Pieces can be sponsored for as little as $1.00 each- see complete instructions here:

Here is how the puzzle looks today:

The pieces right side up are the ones that are still available.  While I realize we may never complete the entire puzzle, I really hope to at least finish the border and the big dragon before our trip to China.

Thank you so much to all of you who pray for us, who follow along in our journey, and who let us know that you're thinking of us.  It really means the world to us to know that we aren't alone in this journey, and we hope that in another month or two we'll have a picture of a precious child to share with you all!

I wish you all a happy, health, 2016!

If you have any interest in Chinese culture, do a little research on the Chinese New Year celebrations.  2016 is the year of the Monkey, and the Chinese New Year beings February 7th.  We might head to a local celebration this weekend that is being sponsored by our home study agency to learn more about the holiday for ourselves.

The Call

Wow, a lot can happen in 15 days.  A lot can happen in ONE day.

Let me bring you up to speed.

On Tuesday, December 8th our home study report was finally ready!  James went to the home study agency's office on his lunch hour and picked up the report, and then stopped at the post office on his way home to mail out our I-800A application. (this is the document that goes to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to give us permission to bring an adopted child into the country).

On Wednesday December 9th we made another trip to the Secretary of State in order to have the home study report certified.  (remember, each document that gets sent to China has to be notarized, then state certified to attest to the validity of the  notary, and then authenticated by the Chinese consulate to attest to the validity of the state seal... yes, a lot of hoops!).  We will have 13 notarized, certified, authenticated documents which will make up our Dossier, which is the big packet of paperwork and photographs that gets sent to China for them to determine whether or not we are a suitable family to adopt a child.  The last document in this packet will be our I-800A, which will come after they process the I-800A application and we go in for fingerprinting. While we wait for that last document, we went ahead and sent the first 12 documents to be authenticated, so that we can get them back, send them to our agency to review, and when that last document comes in they will have (hopefully) already reviewed the others.  This also gives us time to correct any mistakes that could be on the first 12 documents (which we are hoping are not there).
When we got to the secretary of state's office that night the line was the longest we had seen it yet.  (I think this was our fourth trip for adoption paperwork so far). We only had an hour before the post office was closing, so I quickly gave up hope of getting everything mailed out that night.  Low and behold, we finished at the secretary of state with 10 minutes to spare!  The mail truck was already waiting outside at the post office, but we made it in the nick of time and got our documents sent out that night.

From there, we just wait for paperwork to flow through the right channels.  It's hard to explain, but once we got to this stage, all of my anxiety was gone.  I was suddenly fine with the wait that I knew was coming, and felt a big burden lifted off my shoulders.

Our documents get sent to a courier, who will review them for accuracy, and then walk them into the consulate and then go pick them up when they are ready.  There are a few different consulate offices around the country, but because the one closest to us (Chicago) had recently changed their rules about notarization just days after we had our documents done the way they no longer allow, we have chosen to use the one in Washington D.C.  Of course this consulate allows our notarization, but does require an extra step that the documents get certified by the U.S. Government office before the Chinese consulate.  If you try and make sense of this stuff it just makes your head hurt-  you just have to follow the rules and not ask questions. For example, your documents cannot be mailed to these agencies- they must be walked in in person.  That is where the courier comes in.  Since we cannot spend multiple days walking documents from one office to the next in Washington D.C.,  our courier will take our documents to the first stop, go pick them up, and then take them into the second. When they are ready they will mail them back to us. Bureaucracy at it's finest! I don't really care one way or the other how complicated it is... so long as it gets done!
(I did check in with our courier on Friday, and our documents should be in the mail to us by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.)

As far as we were concerned, the remaining steps would be:

-Receive appointment for our fingerprinting
-Get first 12 documents back from embassy and forward them to adoption agency
-Get last document (I-800) in the mail, have it notarized, certified, and then sent for authentification and then sent on to our agency
-Once the agency has your complete dossier, they review it, translate, and then send it to China (adoptive families call this step DTC-"Dossier to China" and it marks a huge milestone because at this point, it's all just a waiting game... no more running around getting papers stamped, sealed, approved, etc).
-Once the packet arrives in China and they log you into their database, you are consider LID- "Logged In Dossier"
-On the traditional adoption path, it is at this point that you can be matched with a child.  We were planning/anticipating this step to happen sometime in late January or early February provided no major hiccups with our paperwork. A few months back I would have assumed this to take even longer, but certain steps are taking much less time than they have historically and other families have been seeing much faster processing of their paperwork. (I'm connected to many different groups on Facebook where other adoptive families are able to share advice, ask questions, and encourage one another on our journeys).

Fast forward to Monday, December 14th.  One of our family members had had a medical procedure done the week prior, and would be going in the next day to find out her results.  I was talking to her on Facebook just before bed giving her my well wishes and I said  "Just think, in another month or two you'll get to see the face of your new relative for the first time."  She was shocked it could happen that soon, and we talked about how exciting that day would be.

The next day, I waited anxiously at work for the phone call from to fill me in on what kind of news they got from the doctor.  I finally got in touch with them around 1:00, and unfortunately it was not the news we were hoping for.  We remain fully confident that we will overcome this next hurdle, but we were really hoping to hear that they would be putting this issue behind them so they could get the medical attention they needed for another issue.

I spent the next couple of hours trying my best to focus on my work, and wrap my mind around what all of this meant for our family, and for our adoption journey also. I had considered putting everything on hold so that I could be there for my family in whatever way was needed, but I was really feeling as though that wasn't the answer, either.

 Around 3:00 PM, my cell phone started buzzing on my desk.  I looked at the screen, saw "Denver, CO" on the caller ID, and dismissed the call.  I remember looking at my co-worker and saying "oh, probably just another extended warranty call for my car..... oh wait, my adoption agency is near Denver!"  As soon as the words rolled off my tongue my office phone started ringing, and it was the same number calling- I knew I had to pick up the phone this time.  When I answered, sure enough, it was CCAI.  The woman on the phone greeted me in a friendly, chipper voice and explained that she had great news- they had a match for us!  It was an adorable toddler-aged  boy with a fairly minor medical need (I cannot share any details at this point...adoption legalities... stay tuned for a later blog post with more information).  I let her get through her piece, and then politely responded with "I'm so glad you called, and I appreciate it, but I actually think you have the wrong family.  James and I are not LID yet, so I do not believe we can receive referrals yet."

She explained that this little boy is on a different list of available children, and can be matched with a  family before their paperwork is in China.  I didn't even know that was possible! I thought the only way to be matched before LID was if you went out onto the lists and identified a child for yourself.  Now my head was really spinning....  She asked if I'd like to see the file, and of course I said yes.  She informed me that I had 24 hours to let her know if we would like to possibly proceed with the file, and if we did, we would need to have a concrete answer to her by the following Monday (aka tomorrow).

I immediately went in and talked to my boss, and asked if I could leave a little early that day (it was now probably around 3:30 already, and she said yes.  I was totally emotionally numb-  I had experienced both the lowest of lows and the highest of highs all within a few hours, and I really didn't even have any feelings left at that moment.  I called James at work and told him he needed to come home early to review this file with me-  we might have a son! He was just as shocked as I was, but also just as excited!  Unfortunately, he was under a deadline and couldn't just stop what he was doing but promised he would be home as soon as he could.  I did not want to look at the file without him being there with me.  In the event this really was our child, I wanted to be together the first time we saw his face.

I finished up what I was working on and headed home around 4:15.  I knew that I couldn't trust myself not to look at the file, so I kept myself busy with phone calls until he got home.  I called my family members first to tell them the news- this was hard, as we were all still trying to process the other news we had gotten earlier that day, but I did not want to tell anyone before I had told my family. The next call I had to make was to a good friend who is a pediatric Nurse Practitioner.  I had talked to her early on in the adoption process about helping us review the medical file of the child(ren) we were matched with, and to help interpret some of the medical language for us.  She answered right away, and already started giving me what information she know about the condition he was diagnosed with and which local doctors might be best to have review his file.  By the time James made it home, I was already sitting at the table with laptop open and the email ready, but I did manage to keep myself from "peeking."  Once we had looked everything over I forwarded it all on to my nurse friend to look over.

I also got on some of the Facebook groups for adoption, and asked about the condition on his file and which doctors to send his file to for review, what this condition usually involves in terms of treatment, prognosis, etc.  Within hours, I had gotten over 50 comments, and over and over again the names of the same 3 or 4 doctors kept coming up as the absolute experts in this condition. Over the course of the next couple of days, I sent the file off to these doctors, as well as a couple of local doctors.

By Friday, we were pretty convinced that the condition he has may actually be something other than what is listed on his file.  Again, I have to be vague and I'm sorry for that, but we are not allowed to share any information about him publicly until we are officially approved to adopt him. 

The thing with international adoption is that the files are often very inconclusive and do not contain enough information for a U.S. doctor to really make any sort of firm determination about the child's medical situation or future needs. In our case, we had four photographs- two full body shots of him sitting in a chair (with baggy, puffy clothing on), and two of the area of his body related to his diagnosis.  The photos are grainy and of low quality.  There is also a few pages of medical reports, which aren't filled out completely and most of which are a little old.  An update from just last week outlines some of his basic abilities and daily routine, and there is a 19 second video of him sitting on the floor catching and throwing a ball.  Not really enough for a doctor to look at and make a firm assessment of his health. Adoptive parents just have to be willing to take a leap of faith in some ways.

We have requested additional information from the orphanage he's in, but honestly do not expect to hear back before tomorrow, when we have to make a final decision one way or the other with his file.
In the event that we do hear back, and the information we get paints a picture much more difficult than what we are already imagining, we may have to pass.  Otherwise, our intent is to proceed with adopting this child.

The condition we believe he may have is one that we had never even heard of before this week, and the lifestyle outcome that could result is one we had never imagine for our family.  Most likely, it will be a very correctable issue with possibly a few surgeries and some extensive therapy, but we also have to be okay with the worst case scenario of this condition, which would mean some pretty substantial changes to the way we go about our daily lives.
Over the past few days, I have spent hours and hours online researching the condition, finding out about insurance coverage, consulting other families who have adopted children with this condition, and most importantly, praying for wisdom and guidance.  My husband has been doing the same, and both of us have come to the same realization-  that God has brought us this file for a reason, and He has a plan and purpose for this child's life.  If we step outside of our comfort zone a little and put our trust in Him, He will provide, just as He always has.  To some, it might look like we are taking on too much, or getting in over our heads.  And you know what, I'm sure we are.  We very well may be getting in over our heads..... BUT  we have an incredible lifeguard who I know will not let us drown.

The funny thing is, when I imagine my life being at a fork in the road... Option A is to continue as we are... comfortable jobs, comfortable finances, comfortable life.  Option B is to take a chance on this child, risk taking on the worst case scenario involving his health.  Possibly take on multiple surgeries, years of therapy, and a dramatically different lifestyle than what we have ever known or imagined... for some reason there is more Hope, Peace, and Joy when I imagine Option B.  I cannot explain it, other than to say that it's a calling that's coming from above, and peace that comes when we answer a call.

So where do we go from here?  Well, I'm not 100% certain on the details, but I know we have to submit what's called a LOI, or "letter of intent" to China to adopt this particular child, and once they have reviewed that, if they approve us we will be issued a LOA or "letter of acceptance."  This process can take a few months.  From there we have to apply U.S. government for permission to bring this specific child into the country and to get permission to travel, get our Visas, etc.
Absolute best case scenario- we could be looking at travel as early as April, but I'm still planning on May or June as the earliest scenario.
Anything could cause delays at any step of the way, so it's important that we do not get our hearts set on any particular timeline.  I do know that now that we've seen our child's face the waiting will get harder and harder as we go.  I know that this child needs medical attention, and while none of their suspected conditions are life threatening or even progressive (that we know of), the sooner we could get him started on treatment the better.  The one good thing about having a file assigned earlier though, is now we can actually plan- we can prepare the child's bedroom, start buying some of the things we will need, and so forth.  And of course, we've already decided on a name.  It is likely we won't be sharing his name with anyone other than immediate family and friends for quite a while, but I guess you'll just have to wait and see ;).

I'm sure you're all dying to see a photo, and I'm sorry that  I cannot share at this time.  Once we have been given permission from our agency to do so, I will post a photo on here, but I'm not sure when that might happen.  So please just imagine the cutest little face you've ever seen on a toddler-aged boy from China, with bright eyes and pinch-able little cheeks, and you won't be too far off :)

That's all for now.  Please pray for continued peace for our families, and for the little boy that we hope will someday soon be ours.  He is already our son in our hearts... we just have to wait for the paperwork to line up accordingly!

PUZZLE UPDATE:

Our puzzle fundraiser is still going strong, and we are so thankful for the amount of help we've received from this fundraiser so far.  We will have another $4,000 in fees coming due within the next few weeks, so if you have not yet sponsored any pieces but would like to do so, now would be an excellent time for that! I assure you, the funds will go to use right away! :)  If you need to wait until after the Holidays and/or income taxes, that's ok too.  We'll have another $3500-$4,000 due when we get LOA, which I'm assuming will be sometime in January or February.  We will be saving every penny we can in the meantime, and I have already began working on some applications for grants as well.

Here is how the puzzle looks today.  We are almost 20% of the way completed!  (the brown/upside down pieces on the left are the ones that have been sponsored, the ones that are right-side-up are still available) Details on how to sponsor pieces can be found in this post:

Here is the one gift we bought for ourselves this Christmas.  A special ornament for our tree, from a fundraiser to help support another adoptive family.  Mine hasn't come in the mail yet, so I borrowed this photo from someone else.

If I have any substantial news to share this week I will share it, but if not, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  God bless your families and give you all comfort and peace.  Safe travels to those who travel, and happy resting to those who do not!

Puzzle Fundraiser Update

Tomorrow will mark one month since we began our puzzle piece fundraiser, and I want to say THANK YOU so much to everyone who has made this such a success!
To date, we have received sponsorships for 98 pieces, so we're almost 10% of the way to having the puzzle completed!

This puzzle has also raised $1,169 so far for our adoption costs!  I cannot tell you guys what a huge help this is, as we have over $2,000 in fees coming due within the next week or two, and then another $4,000-$5,000 before the end of the year.  Every single donation adds up quickly and each $5 puzzle piece is getting us one step closer to bringing our child home!

Here is what the front of the puzzle looks like currently:

My goal right now is to at least complete the big dragon.  I understand that we might not be able to complete the entire puzzle, so I figured it would be nicer to have the names spread out across the back rather than in just one corner, so every piece that gets sponsored for now is going to the dragon (unless it's a border piece sponsorship).

I'm not going to lie, I get a little teary-eyed every time I look at the back of the puzzle...  it is such a special thing to see the names of everyone who has played a part in helping us get our child home all together.  I look forward to the day when I can sit down with our child and explain who each person is and how we know each other.  I hope our child feels so loved and wanted seeing how many people cared about them before seeing their face or knowing their name.

Here is how the back of the puzzle looks today:

So once again, thank you to everyone who has contributed, and please know that your donations, big or small, have all made a BIG combined impact!

If you haven't yet sponsored any pieces but would like to, please see instructions on how to do so HERE.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!  I had no trouble coming up with plenty of things that we were thankful for this year!

One other thing that struck me this past weekend is how normally I would be so focused on finding deals online and out scrambling to get items checked off our Christmas lists, fighting the temptation not to buy things for ourselves just because they are on sale.  While it is a little bit of a bummer not to be buying gifts for friends and family, I am not missing the holiday shopping at all.  And I certainly don't feel like James or I are missing out one single bit.  We are so spoiled with having more possessions than we need, and the only thing our lives are missing is our child!  It's so easy to not go out and spend, spend, spend knowing that every dollar saved is one step closer to getting us to China!  Instead, it was so nice to have the weekend 100% focused on spending time with family, appreciating all of the blessings that are already in our lives.

Hopefully next year we'll be doing a combination of shopping for Christmas gifts for our child, while also teaching our child the true meaning of Holidays- spending time with family, appreciating all that we have, and finding ways to bless others out of the abundance in our lives.

Paperwork Progress (or lack thereof), Thirty-One Fundraiser, and Thoughts on Spending

I've been waiting to publish a new blog post until we had some good news regarding the progress of our "paper chase,"  but things are moving a little slowly in that department.
We turned in our homestudy paperwork to our social worker 2 1/2 weeks ago, hoping that we would have a draft of the report within a couple of days.  We are still yet to see that draft, but I've been told it would be here this weekend, so I'm doing my best to remain patient.
I know in my heart that things will all happen according to God's perfect plan for this adoption, and that I shouldn't get myself so worked up about timelines, but its hard not to when you know that with each day that passes, your child is without a family and a home.  I need to trust that God will care for our child until we are able to, and let go of my anxiety.
Today we will take the last few documents we have to be notarized and certified, and will likely try to get some photos printed as well, as we have to send in sets of photos with out dossier, some of just the two of us, and some with us along with other people.

So that's where we stand.  Once our Home Study draft comes back to us, we'll begin a mad dash towards working on our goal of getting all of our dossier paperwork to China (DTC) by the end of the year.  At this point it's looking like we have a 50/50 shot of making that goal, but that doesn't mean that I'll give up on it.  

That means we still have to:
-get our 11 docs we have certified authenticated, which means sending them all to D.C. to pass through the US Embassy and the Chinese Consulate 
-once those docs are authenticated they  can be sent to our agency to go in our Dossier
-review our Home Study draft for accuracy when we get it back
-let our Home Study (HS) agency know it's good to go
- HS agency will print documents, have them notarized
-we will have home study certified and authenticated
-they will send to our placing agency (CCAI) 
-we will also send a copy in with our I-800A application to immigration
-we will receive our fingerprinting appointment and go to be fingerprinted
-receive our I-800A approval notice, get that notarized/certified/authenticated
-overnight that to CCAI as it will be the final piece in our dossier
-Once they have all of the 13 documents and supporting docs that make up our dossier, CCAI will review them, translate them, and ship them to China

Pretty hefty goal to have all of that happen in just 5-6 weeks, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to give up just yet....  we will do our best, and if it doesn't all come together by 12/31, then we'll know it just wasn't meant to be.


Puzzle Update:
Our puzzle piece fundraiser is off to a great start!  It's hard to know how much to advertise the event vs. just letting things happen as they will.  I have noticed that with each post I do on Facebook it seems to spur one or two additional sponsorship each time, so I'm trying to just limit myself to one post every 2-3 days.  I hope people are enjoying seeing the puzzle progress along. Here's an image of where the puzzle stood as of a couple of days ago.  We still have over 900 pieces to go, but we've made some great progress so far!

Thirty-One Fundraiser

One huge blessing that has come our way recently is that a friend of ours who is a sales consultant for Thirty-One reached out to us and offered to do a party for us, in which she would donate all of her earnings to our adoption fund.  I was nervous to do this at the same time as our puzzle piece fundraiser for fear that people would think we asking too much.  In the end, I decided I should never turn down an offer of support, and that if we were going to do a sale, the best time to do it would be now so that people could get some of their Holiday Shopping taken care of, all while supporting a great cause.  I am so glad we said yes!  This event is turning out to be a great help to us, and will also allow us to get quite a few travel bags that we can use for our trip to China for FREE! :)  It was also nice to have a little get together in our home, and spend some time with some friends I just don't see nearly enough of.
Our sale is winding down, and orders need to be placed by midnight tomorrow night (11/22), but if you'd like to take a peak, here is the link:  https://www.mythirtyone.com/1730186/shop/Party/EventDetail/8781339

Here is the customer special for this month, along with some great bundling ideas making use of the special:

Thoughts On Spending:
In the meantime, while we wait for the Home Study draft,I'm keeping myself busy with Christmas cards (almost all of them have been mailed out... woo hoo!), thank you cards, and will begin working on grant applications this weekend so that once our home study application is done we can pop those in the mail!  
We will have about $7,500 in fees to pay before our Dossier can be sent to China, and then another big chunk (around $4,000) before we can receive our referral for a child, so we're doing everything we can to save whatever money we can, and I will be applying for a lot of grants.
The good news is, we now have enough points saved up on one of our credit cards to pay for at least half of our hotel stays in China, and James found a great deal online where if we put our next two big fees on this other new card, we should be able to get at least one of our plane tickets paid for in points.  Every little bit is going to help in the end!
One thing I thought about last night is that even though I'm able to save hundreds of dollars each month, I don't really feel like we're missing out on anything.  Sure, it would be nice to be able to eat out more often, but I keep asking myself what else I would be spending that money on if I wasn't saving for this adoption.  I realized how many things I can convince myself that I "need" just because I have the ability to purchase them (new clothes, items for the home, special treats, electronics, etc).  Right now I'm not feeling for need of anything (ok, the dream of a hot tub is still here, but that's just never going to go away)-  I'm aware that we have WAY more than we will ever need, and it's actually quite freeing to just commit to not buying anything other than food and essentials.  Once I stopped looking at the sale ads every week, and told myself NO, I realized that it's really not that hard to just start appreciating the things we do have instead of constantly searching for more, more, more.
One sort of funny thing that happened recently is that while we were in Costco I noticed they had some REALLY nice winter boots for around $40.  Now the boots that I have are working fine, but they soles are getting a little worn, so I have to wear these special gripper things on them so that I don't slip and fall on the ice.  They are still super warm, and are in good shape, but I've been wearing them for about 5 or 6 winters now so I know I've gotten my money's worth.  The first time I saw the Costco boots I stood firm and just said "no, Kristen, you don't need those, you can wear yours another year or two and just be thankful you have warm boots at all".  The second time I saw them, it was more like "weeeell, it's only $40, and it could save you a $100 co-pay if you slip and fall on the ice again and need to go to the ER, and what if your boots give out on you (not likely) and then you have to buy some last minute and spend more than $40... NO YOU DON'T NEED THEM... KEEP WALKING".  Then the third time I saw them, there was only one pair left in my size and of course I just lost all self-control.  I figured I would buy them, set them aside for emergencies only, and if I could make it through the winter without wearing them, I'd just return them and get my money back. (you see how my mind works?  tricky, huh?).  Well, low and behold... the boots didn't fit right, they weren't comfortable, and they just weren't going to work for me!  I was so RELIEVED!   No more temptation!  James and I laughed so hard on the way home about how much time I had spend deliberating over one stupid purchase, and it would have been solved the very first day if I would have just tried them on.
Lesson learned?  Yes, my boots are totally fine (better than whatever my child has, I'm sure) and I will wear them this winter and be GLAD for them.  And I will no longer allow myself to go through the middle aisles at Costco...  It's necessity aisles only from here on out!

It is going to be hard for me to skip out on all of the Christmas shopping this year, just because I truly enjoy giving gifts, and I do enjoy searching for bargains and joining in on the Holiday Shopping. I also know that giving our family the gift of a grandson, nephew/niece, cousin, etc means more to anyone than whatever electric blanket, pot or pan, or sheet set could ever mean though, so that will get me through.  We are excited to do some small homemade gifts for our closest relatives and will enjoy the extra time together we will get to spend preparing those items.

Puzzle Piece Fundraiser

Would You Like to be a “Piece” of our Adoption Story?

To help cover the costs of our Adoption Journey, we are doing a Puzzle Fundraiser

Here’s how it works:

1.      We have purchased a 1,000 piece brightly colored jigsaw puzzle with a colorful Chinese New Year’s theme picture (see picture below)

2.     We are offering friends and family the chance to “sponsor” puzzle pieces by providing a donation in the amount of your choosing         ($1.00 minimum)

Suggested Donations:

      -Border Piece: $25

-Inner Piece $5

*Pieces can also be sponsored in groups, with one piece for each family member*

3.     To purchase one or more puzzle pieces, you can:

a.     Mail a check or money order- (please contact me directly for mailing address)

b.     Use the “Send Money to Friends and Family” option in PayPal

                       www.paypal.com/myaccount/transfer/send

·  Our account is linked to: KristenGere@Gmail.com

·  Please choose the “add a note” option at payout to indicate which names should be written on the puzzle piece(s).

c.       Pay by debit/credit card online at:     https://squareup.com/market/HawkinsFamilyPuzzle 

d.  EXCITING NEW OPTION!  Tax-Deductible donations can be made to our LifeSong for Orphans page at :  https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/dashboard/my-story/  (please note, a small processing fee is charged so if you are not interested in the tax deduction options A-C are better choices)

*** Please note that options A. and B. are preferred, as they do not incur processing fees***

4.     Once we have received funds for your sponsorship we will write your name(s) on the back of the puzzle piece(s).

5.     Follow along on the progress of our Puzzle Completion on Facebook or on our blog

6.     When the fundraiser is finished, we will put the puzzle together and hang it in a double-sided glass frame in our child’s bedroom so that he or she can always look and be reminded of who had a “piece” of bringing them home!

Here is the puzzle we will be completing

All funds raised will go towards the cost of our Home Study fee, our second Agency fee, and if possible, 3rd agency fee as well as travel costs.

THANK YOU for your consideration to give.  Even if you are unable to donate monetarily at this time, your prayers mean just as much to us!