All in a day

Amanda (showing Ben the picture of the little boy our social worker sent us) "Do you want him to be your new brother?"
Ben (wearing his Indiana Jones hat) " Yes, let's go get him!"
Kim- thinking to herself-"if only it were that easy!"

Amanda "whose idea was adoption anyway?"
Kim- I was then given once again the awesome privilege of sharing how adoption was and is God's idea.

Amanda- "Can we adopt more kids after we get Jonathan?"
Kim- "Let's talk about that after we get Jonathan home and let's not ask daddy that question just yet."

Go, God!

God is good! Checked our mail today and received our confirmation letter in the mail from US immigration that we are officially in their system as of February 20, 2009. We should receive our fingerprinting appointment within the next few days. So now we can start counting our 90 days from Feb. 20, 2009 which is when immigration says we should receive our approval by.

BUT please pray that we receive our approval much quicker then the 90 days. From other web sites I have visited where they list stats about approval times, it appears that approvals are coming much quicker now (immigration hired new people in Dec to speed up the process). We are praying for an approval in less then 40 days (or quicker :)

With God ALL things are possible!

God is filled with surprises!

I really thought our next post would be about receiving our USA immigration approval, but God likes to keep us on our toes. We received a call today from our social worker saying she had a referral for us to consider. My first response was "we're not allowed". We had been told many, many times that we would not be able to receive a referral until we had US immigration approval. Our social worker said "I know, but the head China person at Bethany said we could accept this one if we wanted too."

So, today we were given information about a little boy who is currently 33 months old. He is adorable to say the least. He is missing his right leg. We have 2 weeks to decide if we would like to pursue adopting this little boy. This has really caught us off guard (in a good way) we weren't expecting this call for at least a month or two. So now we are faced with a decision that will forever change our family.

Please pray for us over the next 2 weeks that we would be in agreement, that we would have peace, and that God will continue to unfold his plan for our family and this little boy.

Will we be part Chinese?

This evening Amanda (our 10 year old) asked an interesting question: "When Jonathan comes to live with us, will we be part Chinese?" We laughed at first, and explained that Jonathan would have needed a mom or dad who was not Chinese in order to be considered "part" anything.

But then we stopped. We will be Jonathan's mom and dad. In fact, in some ways we already are. We care about this boy we have never met. We are praying for him. We are preparing a place for him in our home. Aren't we his mom and dad? And won't he be a part of out family? Amanda's question was a lot deeper than we first gave it credit for!

So, Amanda asked a question that manifests the difference between biology and psychology; nature and nurture; the physical self and the spiritual self. Jonathan will be, biologically speaking, all Chinese, just as we are all Caucasian.

But at the end of the day, his gene pool is the least important thing to us. In the ways that really matter (psychologically, spiritually) he will be our son and we will be his parents and Amanda, Tyler, Jordan, and Ben will be his siblings.

We will all be joined together as one family. And since one of us will, in fact, be ethnically Chinese, we will all share that affiliation in some way.

Jonathan is a part of us. We will be a part of him. I guess you really could say, because of Jonathan, we will be part Chinese!

So we continue to wait for any movement from US immigration. I am accepting the fact that we will have to wait. Both Jeremy and I were reminded separately this morning of the verse in Isaiah 40:31 that says "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
Sometimes I can find myself thinking- it is taking too long, is it worth all the time, emotion and money. But then I am reminded that once we have our little boy in our arms- the memory of this time now will just fade away. This little boy in China is in so many ways already a part of our family. I couldn't imagine abandoning this journey now. Our family will not be complete until he is home with us. So it is up to me with how I choose to spend this "waiting" time. Am I using this time to grow closer to God, to strengthen my relationship with my husband and children? am I using this time to grow stronger for the journey that is still before us/me? or am I using this time to complain about having to wait. The choice is mine. And so today I claim Isaiah 40:31 and trust that God will renew my strength and give me a heart that seeks after Him.

Disney photos

A few weeks ago we went to Disney and Kennedy space center. We had a great time as a family. Here are just a few pictures from that trip.

amanda got to be part of a show in Kennedy Space Center

Tyler also had a part in the show see above

Through this process we have been very open with our children which has led to many discussions. Our prayer has been that this journey that we are on as a family would draw them closer to God and into a deeper relationship with Him. Last night during our family Bible time was a prime example of some conversations we have been able to have with them. Totally off topic to what our Bible time was about, Tyler asked about how Jonathan was going to become a citizen of the United States. This opened the door wide to talk with them about the similarities of Jonathan's adoption to our adoption as Children of God. For those of you who may not know how it works, Jonathan's adoption will be final in China. Once he steps foot on American soil he will become a citizen of the United States. (Amanda informed us we need to make note of the exact time that this occurs so we can write it down.) Jonathan doesn't need to do anything to become a citizen. He is given his citizenship by virtue of becoming our son. Wow, that is so like our relationship with God. We can't earn our salvation, it is a gift from Him. And just like there is nothing Jonathan will be able to do to lose his place in our family, there is nothing we can do to lose our place in God's family. Adoption was God's idea. Jonathan will not be singled out because he is adopted, but it is our prayer that someday we will have the opportunity to see Him adopted again ~ adopted into the family of God.

Well, this is our first attempt at blogging. We are hoping that this blog with become a keepsake for Jonathan. That he will someday be able to look at this blog and see the journey we took to bring him home. This is still under construction as I, Kim, am learning the finer points of blogging and adding to our site.

We invite you to check back often and to join us in our journey to bring home our son. You can join us by praying. We would ask that you join us in prayer for a quick approval from immigration, for needed finances, and also that God will give us a face to go with the little boy we are calling Jonathan. (once we receive our I800 approval we can be matched with our little boy)

So, we sign off for now, but will do our best to keep on blogging!