The Lord is so great!!! Karen and I had a wonderful weekend in Raleigh, NC. We went to spend time with two great couples, both from our travel group. One couple, Stu and Ellyn, drove up from Sanford. And the other Dave and Aimee, live there in Raleigh and we spent the night at their place. We went up there to enjoy the fellowship that they all provide, and get a little closer since we hope all our daughters from China will be playing together. Karen and I feel so blessed to have become such good friends with both couples. Aimee and Dave really made us feel like a king and queen by the genuine hospitality they showed us. We really felt like we were in a Bed and Breadfast with how much they did for us. We look forward to spending more time with them between now and the time we travel to China. It makes me appreciate the friendship even more knowing that the Lord brought us all together in this adoption journey.
The weekend started with Karen and I making the 3-1/2 hour drive to Raleigh to meet them at Dave and Aimee's house. We all went to the North Carolina State Fair and ended the day Saturday with dinner at Dave and Aimee's. Aimee cooked an awesome chili. After Stu and Ellyn left for home we just enjoyed the company of our hosts. We slept (very comfortably I might add), got up Sunday morning and went to Dave and Aimee's church. Talked some more after church and made the 3-1/2 hour drive home. We stopped at Karen's favorite place to shop and eat (Cracker Barrel) whenever we are on the road and got home around 6:30 pm.
Overall, an excellent weekend.
If you were expecting something more on today's blog, sorry to disappoint you. If you happen to be Dave, Aimee, Stu, and/or Ellyn, thank you so much for your time with you. You all are great people and Karen and I are blessed to have you all as friends.
God Bless Us All,
Bob :-)
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Not so good news, but still thankful to God for all that we have...
As the title of today's post says it all...we were not meant to be parents...yet. :-)
Seriously, I did find out that there were actually three children in that sibling group with "M". One was in the process of being adopted already by a family friend, and the older two..."M" and her brother had a family member come forward that wanted to adopt them. So, all is well in the world for them. I am happy that they have family and will more than likely be able to see their birth mom more this way. Karen and I are a little disappointed, but realize that all in all it wasn't God's plan for us.
Saturday (yesterday) we had a home visit with our social worker for a homestudy update for us to renew our I-171H. The I-171H is a document that allows us to bring a child into the U.S. from another country as our own and instantly grants her citizenship just because we adopted her. How cool is that? So, just because Karen and I are naturally born citizens, we can get the approval to bring a child in from another country through adoption and she is automatically a citizen. I Love the USA.
On another aspect of life...Karen and I are asking for prayers for her dad. He has been coughing up blood the last three months and has an appointment this Tuesday, 10/14/2008 for outpatient surgery to have a test run. Then Wednesday, 10/15/2008 for a CAT Scan. We ask that you pray that the Lord watch over him and that if it is His will that things turn out OK. That it turns out to be something that is treatable. It pains us both of what this could be and want him so badly to see Robin when we bring her home. Keep us in your prayers also that this wait actually starts to come down. It is now up to approx. 32 months and we have actually waited 18 months so far. I could do the math as to how long it actually will be, but it could also change for the better. So not something to dwell on anyway.
Well, I need to end this for today, check back again soon. Maybe I will post again sooner, now that we now have a link from our website about our journey to Robin. More people to look at it and see what I have to say. Hmm, kind of scary that someone might actually be reading what I am thinking...
God Bless us all,
Bob :-)
Seriously, I did find out that there were actually three children in that sibling group with "M". One was in the process of being adopted already by a family friend, and the older two..."M" and her brother had a family member come forward that wanted to adopt them. So, all is well in the world for them. I am happy that they have family and will more than likely be able to see their birth mom more this way. Karen and I are a little disappointed, but realize that all in all it wasn't God's plan for us.
Saturday (yesterday) we had a home visit with our social worker for a homestudy update for us to renew our I-171H. The I-171H is a document that allows us to bring a child into the U.S. from another country as our own and instantly grants her citizenship just because we adopted her. How cool is that? So, just because Karen and I are naturally born citizens, we can get the approval to bring a child in from another country through adoption and she is automatically a citizen. I Love the USA.
On another aspect of life...Karen and I are asking for prayers for her dad. He has been coughing up blood the last three months and has an appointment this Tuesday, 10/14/2008 for outpatient surgery to have a test run. Then Wednesday, 10/15/2008 for a CAT Scan. We ask that you pray that the Lord watch over him and that if it is His will that things turn out OK. That it turns out to be something that is treatable. It pains us both of what this could be and want him so badly to see Robin when we bring her home. Keep us in your prayers also that this wait actually starts to come down. It is now up to approx. 32 months and we have actually waited 18 months so far. I could do the math as to how long it actually will be, but it could also change for the better. So not something to dwell on anyway.
Well, I need to end this for today, check back again soon. Maybe I will post again sooner, now that we now have a link from our website about our journey to Robin. More people to look at it and see what I have to say. Hmm, kind of scary that someone might actually be reading what I am thinking...
God Bless us all,
Bob :-)
Saturday, September 27, 2008
A new decision for us...
Well, it is official, sort of. Karen and I have decided to pursue a domestic adoption in conjunction with our International adoption through China. You may ask, "how did this come about?" It was really simple...first since we have started the China adoption people seem to always ask us if we considered domestic adoption first. Well, the answer to that is always, "Yes we did". Because we did discuss it and prior to the pursuit of adopting from China. As an explanation to our reasons, here we go...
Karen and I are both older than what some birth mothers are at the stage in the game in reference to their child. Statistically we would not be considered by them, for whatever reason they would look to someone closer to their own age. Not realizing that we as more mature adults are already established in our career, financial stability, and mindset, among other things also. We also did not feel that we would want to go through the emotional roller coaster of possibly being selected and then the birth mothers changing their mind midway in the process of us adopting their child/children. With International Adoption, in particular China, we go through the paperwork, then wait with no birth mother to decide against us or changing their mind. They have already made up their mind by abandoning their child in some cases or being forced by their husbands to adandon in other cases. For whatever reason they have given up their child and now that child, mostly little girls, are in the government's care in Social Welfare Institutes (SWI's). The China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) assigns a SWI official to find a child for us and we either accept their choice or reject the choice for us. Either way, no emotional rollercoaster for whether or not we will get a child. Almost a guarantee, sort of.
Now for the way it came about...
Karen received an e-mail from the health room worker at her school telling her about a little girl (I will call her "M")and her brother that are living in a Children's Home here in town. Since M goes to the school where Karen works, she talked to M's teacher. Karen was given a picture of M and brought it home to show me. She is an adorable little girl, btw. After we discussed it, Karen was later talking to her mom and based on her mom's excitement, got excited and enthused by that as the Lord's sign that we need to pursue this.
So you may ask, What happens to Robin and our adoption of her? We are still going through with that. Nothing has changed except that now Robin will have an older sister and brother to come home to also. AWAA has a policy of allowing concurrent adoptions and that is what we will do. I will check into it as soon as I am home from work. To see how this pans out, keep checking back periodically to see the latest. I will post more often than I do now to keep anyone following this updated...later.
God's Blessings to all,
Bob
Karen and I are both older than what some birth mothers are at the stage in the game in reference to their child. Statistically we would not be considered by them, for whatever reason they would look to someone closer to their own age. Not realizing that we as more mature adults are already established in our career, financial stability, and mindset, among other things also. We also did not feel that we would want to go through the emotional roller coaster of possibly being selected and then the birth mothers changing their mind midway in the process of us adopting their child/children. With International Adoption, in particular China, we go through the paperwork, then wait with no birth mother to decide against us or changing their mind. They have already made up their mind by abandoning their child in some cases or being forced by their husbands to adandon in other cases. For whatever reason they have given up their child and now that child, mostly little girls, are in the government's care in Social Welfare Institutes (SWI's). The China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) assigns a SWI official to find a child for us and we either accept their choice or reject the choice for us. Either way, no emotional rollercoaster for whether or not we will get a child. Almost a guarantee, sort of.
Now for the way it came about...
Karen received an e-mail from the health room worker at her school telling her about a little girl (I will call her "M")and her brother that are living in a Children's Home here in town. Since M goes to the school where Karen works, she talked to M's teacher. Karen was given a picture of M and brought it home to show me. She is an adorable little girl, btw. After we discussed it, Karen was later talking to her mom and based on her mom's excitement, got excited and enthused by that as the Lord's sign that we need to pursue this.
So you may ask, What happens to Robin and our adoption of her? We are still going through with that. Nothing has changed except that now Robin will have an older sister and brother to come home to also. AWAA has a policy of allowing concurrent adoptions and that is what we will do. I will check into it as soon as I am home from work. To see how this pans out, keep checking back periodically to see the latest. I will post more often than I do now to keep anyone following this updated...later.
God's Blessings to all,
Bob
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