China connections

Guess what? I called Bethel, where Hope is, and got to speak with
the founder of the home! Her name is Delphine, and she is so
awesome! They are amazing people! She was really touched by
the story of how we found Hope! She said for us to call back on
Thursday at 8pm, and she will have Hope, right there in the office,
to talk to us on the phone! Can you believe it?? She feels it would
be good for Hope to hear our voices, and said they will do their best
to prepare her heart for her new home. I have never heard of this
kind of stuff happening in the adoption world! Usually, it’s just a
little picture, and maybe an update or two, and that’s it! Praise God!
We are sooo blown away and excited!

This whole week has been crazy. We received our I-17 on Saturday,
only 20 days from when we sent our application in! They told us it
would be at least 4-6 weeks to get it! That was the last doc we
needed in order to have our whole dossier. So yesterday I took it
to Norwalk, got it notarized, then authenticated, then took it to LA
to the sec. of state and got the seal. Then I dropped  off all our
papers at the Chinese consulate, and did a rush order. I picked them
all up today, and on the way home realized that  I was still waiting
for Todd’s birth certificate to come back from the Chinese consulate
in Illinois. I was bummed because I paid extra for the rush service,
and was thinking it was all for nothing. But when I got home and 
checked the mail, there was the birth certificate!!! So then I rushed
to the post office, made copies, and got it mailed at 4:11. The cut
off to get it in was 4:15, and I would have missed it, but when I
went to ask the clerk if there was time, she let me slip ahead! Praise
God! Our agency will check it all over, and if all looks good they will
send our dossier to China on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From there the time frames vary greatly. Some people we have heard
of have received their approval 10 days after that, then their final
approval 10 days after that. It could go as fast as that, but then
others have to wait for months. There is no way to predict it,
because at least in part it has to do with the various provinces
involved, and each one has to fill out their paperwork and turn
it in. So we know that we are on heavenly time, and  are believing
for things to go quickly!! We are still raising money, and want to
be able to take our kids with us to China. We really feel like it
would be a good thing to have our whole family together. The
transition is huge, and I don’t think Hannie would last for 2 weeks
without her Mommy! So in order to bring the kids, we still need to
about 15K! Yikes!  If we don’t bring the kids, then we need about
10k more. But nothing is too hard for God, and we just get excited
thinking about how exciting it will be when He brings it all in!

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