Monday, June 25, 2012

{DTC}: Dossier to China!!!

Updates from our Previous Post from June 8 on where we are in the process!


Next Steps:: {UPDATED}::
1.Authentication (began June 4, 2-3 Weeks. Hopefully, by June 21st at latest) Completed
2. Dossier To China (DTC 2-3 Weeks)   Completed!
Sent on June 25, 2012 & Logan let our friend, Angie Rylands, who is the state director for Lifeline SC have the honor of  calling us to tell us after she helped us with what could have been a glitch and made sure our files were ready to go.

3. LID (Lock In Date- 2-3 Weeks) 
Dossier to China is DTC:: That means all of our files are officially being tracked on their way to China. Once China receives our paperwork, they "lock us into their system" and we have LID.The reason those precious letters: L-I-D mean so much to us is because we are not yet matched with a child. 
We are requesting that our daughter be under 2 years old with some of the mild correctable special needs. Most of the children under 2 years old are not going to be referred to a family who does not have their Dossier in China & Locked In (DTC & LID). They want these "babies" to be matched to families who can travel withing 5-6 months. So, we have lots of friends who already know who their child is because they are matched with an older child or a child whose file does not say "LID required", etc. So, if that didn't confuse you, just know that

LID = Referral Ready = Find out who our daughter is!
We are hoping to be LID by the end of July or we could get really crazy & pray for the middle of July! If we do, we'll be ready for the new "shared list" of babies that will become available around July 22-25.
{Prayer Requests}Keep praying with us!
* As always, please pray for our daughter, her health, those who are carrying for her, and her birth family 
* Please also pray for a special situation that we are praying through; but can't share about it yet. 
* Pray for us, please, as we live our lives as a family of 4 and that God will continue to draw us closer to Him and that we will reflect Him more and more in our family, our ministry and our for our future journey as an adoptive family
* Please pray for a quick Authenticiation, DTC & early LID date! {Um, praying for July 15th w/ me is very okay... ) 
* Please pray for our application that is with Show Hope. We will find out around the 1st week of July if we received any grants from them (We still need an estimated $14K :: about $7 6K for orphanage fee & $7K for flights, travel & final misc out of country fees, etc)
* Pray direction on our next fundraising after our fundraising rest month (which has been the end of May/June).
* Pray for wisdom on pursuing other grant applications (we have a few that we are considering after we have a referral)
* Please pray that the peace that we have had over the finances and the process of waiting will continue
* And as always, however, else you feel led... we always covet your prayers!
* Please also pray for our Journey Together leaders & team & next steps of the ministry, etc.

____________________________________

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

One Thing I Hope You Know

There is one thing that I hope you know...

As you listen to our stories. As you help us raise funds. As you pray for our daughter. As you walk your own journey of adoption. As you fill an empty nest and heart. Or as you stack bunk beds in overstuffed bedrooms.

Our adoption journey is either just a story that makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy and excited over one incredible child's life and one family's heart and call. Or it is more.

And we believe it is more. It's not just our story. Not because of a single thing that we have done. Please hear me. We, the Carpenters, Jessica and Travis, have not done a single thing.

This story is more only because of everything He has done.

This is the one thing I hope you know...
Deep into the chamber of your heart. Into the crevices of your soul. 

Into the really hard places. Into the swelling joyful moments. 

I hope you know that our story and your story are not as they seem. There is an underlying earth shaking core foundation to these stories. To the narrative of life. You see, our stories, are simply a part of  The Story, God's narrative, the ultimate story of Redemption and Glory through His adoption of us in a broken world. You and Me.

Yesterday Max Lucado said it this way on the radio. Get every single word of this.

Because I hope you'll know this, and hold onto this truth with either white knuckles or arms thrown high..

The one thing I hope you know is who you are...

"You’ve been claimed… adopted as God’s very own child!

Romans 8:29 says “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters.”

Abandon you to a fatherless world?  No way.  Before you knew you needed adopting, he’d already filed the papers and selected the wallpaper for your room. Those who have access to God’s family Bible can read your name.  He wrote it there.  He covered the adoption fees.  We don’t finance our adoption, but we do accept it.  And the moment we accept his offer, we go from orphans to heirs!

Romans 8:17 says “we’re heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”  No stepchildren or grandchildren.  

You and Christ share the same will.  What he inherits, you inherit.

You are headed home!"

http://maxlucado.com/audio/daily-audio/joint-heirs/

That is the one thing I hope you really know. 


____________________________________________
If this sparked something in you, please let us know and please jump into the Together for Adoption community for a lot more wonderful explanation of the doctrine of Adoption. And don't get all weirded out that I said "doctrine". But, this September Travis and I will be joining the T4A team with our Journey Together team for the national conference: "I am living in the Story!" . The T4A team & message will ransack, then re-energize and refresh your soul as you walk through the narrative of life and into suffering, joy and adoption.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

There's No Place Like Home: A Shoe Sale!

UPDATE:: Shoes sold on June 19th for $420. No I don't know the buyer. From Florida! THANKFUL!

The little red sparkly shoes.

Waiting for our daughter on our mantel.

I whisper prayers to Jesus in the middle of the chaos every time I see those shoes.

Austin points them out to people every time they come into our home.

I actually had a similar pair of red sparkly shoes like this for my junior year {prom}. So, there is a theme to sparkly shoes already.

Ironically, those sparkly red shoes have already been turning hearts and have a story of their own. One of our family members told us that staring at that photo really had turned their hearts more and more toward this child and adoption in general.

Now, there are another pair of sparkly shoes that are coming down the yellow brick road.

A sweet sweet friend who I known have for over ten years, shared with me that she had something for me to try to sell for our fund. Thank goodness, I have one friend who rocks a pair of these faithfully or I might have been confused, when she said she had a very fancy expensive pair of shoes to sell. She left the hair salon, where we were and ran home and brought them back to me. When she pushed the box of the legendary red soled Parisian stilletos into my hands, my mouth dropped open in shock. These are truly legendary fashionista shoes. And now these incredible friend and these insanely gorgeous shoes would be part of our daughter's story.

When I left the salon, I text my friend to get pricing and options. But, we were also heading into the Mother's Day crazy and nesting and the end of the give-a-way, so I set them aside and knew I was supposed to wait a bit to sell them. I don't know. Maybe so they could sit in our home and be a part of us and our story for awhile. I don't know. But, as I am slowly coming off our resting month, I believe selling these bad boys is the first place to start back into our fundraising. We are working on our orphange fee of $7000. This goes to the orphanage that has been carrying for our daughter, or paying her foster family, etc. It also goes to care for the children who will not yet be adopted. Less than 1% of all the orphans in the world will be adopted. So, this is a fee that we are blessed to raise support for to not just help our daughter; but to also help care for other children who are our daughter's only family right now.

So, the shoes..I have them listed on Ebay. Bidding starts at $385. They are being sold "as is" and have been worn a handful of times. Retail is $895. And I've contacted Bob Ellis here in Charleston to ask their re-sole price. But, I know it's about $80 in NYC price range. They are a size 38/size 7; but you need to try on a pair like these to be sure they'd fit. They are super high!

Here is the ebay link, please spread the word to all fashionista friends::
http://www.ebay.com/itm/180908180716?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Local, friends, if there are no bids on ebay & you want the, let me know & I'll pull the sale down. Once there are bids, the sale will need to run it's course.

We know that our paperwork is now on it's way to the Consulate here in the US. It should be back and on it's way to China within the next week. So, that means we are getting close to being ready for a referral.

Friday, June 8, 2012

I-800A Approval & Next Steps

Re-edit, completely deleted a paragraph. So sorry!

{Update::}
Checking off Boxes! 

So, we might have had the longest homestudy finalization process in the history of anyone's adoption. I'm overstating. But, it felt that way. And I tried very hard not to say that before; but now I can say it. It felt just nuts. I had no idea what was going on. We had finished all of our meetings in January and had signed our final copy in the middle of February. We found out we had missed a few extra training requirements and needed another form or two submitted. All normal things. But, that was all taken care of by the end of February with our agency doing our homestudy.

Somehow, between March and May, we lost what felt like a lot of time. We are not sure what happened. We were verbally told we were approved from DSS after our file sat in the mail room for over 3 weeks. Then we still didn't receive the paper stating that we were approved. I still have only received the electronic copy of it. I know that adoption is about waiting. But, I had no idea that we would wait at the beginning. I thought one waited for referrals and travel approval and grants, etc.  I can not say that I was feeling super peaceful at that time.

But, as always, God was also working all things out and in His perfect timing.
Because , during that wait, we raised enough funds to pay our fees and pay the next fees that will be due in the next two months. We even have a few thousand dollars still in our account!
So, now we are able to rest. And we needed that, like my post stated a few weeks ago..

So, finally, we were able to submit our I-800A form in the mail on May 1. This process averages 60-90 days. 65 Had been the going average. The second part of this process involves getting a notice in the mail that tells us to go to our Immigration office and have fancy finger prints done. Our form came with a date for May 25th for our appointment. But, we went as walk-ins the next day, which was around the 15th of May. We hoped that would speed up the process. 

I had two friends message me through facebook and tell me that their I-800A had come back in a little over 30 days the month before. So, I was very hopeful. I also had gut feeling we were going to receive it around June 7th or around the 30 day mark and was praying every day for that. I'm so grateful that we were praying in line with God's timing!

(Added this paragraph back in!) So, on Monday, June 4, Austin came down from his rest time and said the mail lady had left something on our doorstep instead of the mailbox. Well, thanks to my newest Naptime Diaries print arriving in a large envelope, the mail was on the welcome mat. So, I shuffled through the stack and saw the corner of the government seal for the Immigration offices peeking at me. I started jumping up and down and doing a crazy dance. Austin was thrilled. He wanted to know all about it. What was happening. "Mom, can I sit by you and hear about it?" So, as I pulled open the form and saw the approval date of May 31st, I was elated as I shared with him that the government had approved our paper, etc.

He was so excited that he didn't even argue with me when I reminded him that it was rest time and he needed to return to his bedroom for awhile longer. So, I called Lifeline to find out what I was supposed to do next. I always forget in the moment. I was so glad that Logan was not in a meeting.

"Logan, it's Jessica Carpenter! So, is it a new record to get Immigration back in under 30 days!?" She paused, then said: "What? Did you get the notice? Do you have the actual paper?" And, yes, I did. And we talked about how crazy fast that was. She said she is telling people 60 days right now for that process. Ours was complete in 30! So, I scanned a copy of it and emailed it to her immediately. She was pulling other files to be mailed to the authentication offices that day. So, she pulled my files and got them ready to mail that day. Um, yes, I love her, by the way. I'm pretty sure she might think I'm a little crazy; but she was genuinely as excited as I was.

{Sidebar}:
While we are on a Lifeline topic, I would like to say that what Dave and Herbie, the Executive Dir & International Dir, say about the vision of their ministry and what trickles down to their employees, is completely legitimate. Never once has Logan been effected by too many questions, and has always encouraged me to share if I'm concerned, or frustrated or confused

So, now I finally feel like I could check off the boxes on the time line:: Homestudy- Check, Homestudy Approved- Check, etc...

Next Steps::
Authentication (began June 4, 2-3 Weeks. Hopefully, by June 21st at latest)
Dossier To China (DTC 2-3 Weeks) 
LID (Lock In Date- 2-3 Weeks)

So, now all of our paperwork is being "authenticated". That means a few fancy offices here have to sign everything now that we the approval from Immigration for our first step of the I-800 form. Then our entire big packet of information, our dossier, will be sent to China. This is called the DTC (dossier to China).

Once China receives our paperwork, they "lock us into their system" and we have LID. 

The reason those precious letters: L-I-D mean so much to us is because we are not yet matched with a child. 

We are requesting that our daughter be under 2 years old with some of the mild correctable special needs. Most of the children under 2 years old are not going to be referred to a family who does not have their Dossier in China & Locked In (DTC & LID). They want these "babies" to be matched to families who can travel withing 5-6 months. So, we have lots of friends who already know who their child is because they are matched with an older child or a child whose file does not say "LID required", etc. So, if that didn't confuse you, just know that

LID = Referral Ready = Find out who our daughter is!

We are hoping to be LID by the end of July or we could get really crazy & pray for the middle of July! {Um, so, yes of course, I'm praying for Mid-July; but I'm trying to put on a good front & expect end of July, early August.)

{Prayer Requests}
* As always, please pray for our daughter, her health, those who are carrying for her, and her birth family 
* Pray for us, please, as we live our lives as a family of 4 and that God will continue to draw us closer to Him and that we will reflect Him more and more in our family, our ministry and our for our future journey as an adoptive family
* Please pray for a quick Authenticiation, DTC & early LID date! {Um, praying for July 15th w/ me is very okay... ) 
* Please pray for our application that is with Show Hope. We will find out around the 1st week of July if we received any grants from them (We still need an estimated $14K :: about $7K for orphanage fee & $7K for flights, travel & final misc out of country fees, etc)
* Pray direction on our next fundraising after our fundraising rest month (which has been the end of May/June).
* Pray for wisdom on pursuing other grant applications (we have a few that we are considering after we have a referral)
* Please pray that the peace that we have had over the finances and the process of waiting will continue
* And as always, however, else you feel led... we always covet your prayers!
* Please also pray for our Journey Together leaders & team & next steps of the ministry, etc.

____________________________________

And I am sure this could use more good edit; but early nap-time for Justus & AJ adjusting to summer schedule mean that my blog/post times are very sporadic. I can hit "publish" or wait another few days and hope I get back to this. I'm choosing "publish".