A lot has happened in the past few days!
First of all, we got our I-17 form from the CIS office! For those of you who have no idea what that means, believe me, it’s a good thing! It was supposed to take 4-6 weeks, but we got ours in 20 days! It is a pivotal form for adoption, and it means that now we can send our dossier to China, which brings us one step closer to getting Hope!
Another major discovery for us this week was when we found out that Hope is no longer in the orphanage! We met a friend online who traveled to the Qianjiang orphanage last weekend with her two sons to pick up her adopted daughter. (Click here to read about their adoption journey.) We sent a care package with them to deliver to Hope, and they were all set to take pictures of her opening it, but then to their and our surprise, Hope wasn’t there! The orphanage director told her through the translator that Hope had recently been taken to Beijing for eye surgery! For a few days we were really worried because we had no information about it. But then the word came in from our agency that in December of 2006 she was transferred to a foster home called Bethel Foster Home! We learned that they did take her to get evaluated, but did not do any surgery.
The foster home is ran by a wonderful Christian couple from France. God called them to China to work with visually impaired orphans, and so they sold everything they owned and moved there! They are amazing people, and Bethel is an amazing place. It was a huge relief for us to learn that Hope is in very good hands, and has been for almost a year! You can visit Bethel on the web at www.bethelchina.org, but let me just say to make sure you have a box of tissues with you when you do! The slogan on their website is “From Darkness to Hope”. 😉
Through a series of correspondences with online connections, we were fortunate to meet someone who is actually there at Bethel right now, volunteering until the end of the year! She is awesome and has been emailing us pictures and updates of Hope! Could it get any sweeter than this?! She has told us neat things about Hope, how she is gentle and quiet and likes to cuddle, etc. We are getting another care package ready to send to Hope, now that we know where she is.
Our new contact at Bethel actually took the time today to take some pictures of Hope and send them to us! Click here to view them.
Another amazing thing happened this week. We got a call from Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman’s office asking if we would be interested in going to his concert in Orange County on Oct. 28th, and actually going on stage and sharing a little bit about our adoption! We applied for a grant with his foundation, Shaohannah’s Hope. They do a presentation at all his concerts about adoption, and he also interviews adopting families during these presentations. We accepted the invitation, and are very excited. We will certainly update you on the event next week! Another neat fact we found out is that he (Steven Curtis Chapman) actually went to the Bethel foster home and played for the kids there! What a small world!
Well, that’s it for now! It seems that God has been doing miracles every day lately! We are in awe, and so thankful to Him for all that He has done for us and especially for Hope!
Much love,
Kim
