Wow! This was completely unexpected! Usually when you send in your Letter of Intent it takes an average of 1 to 4 weeks to receive the Pre-approval, but we just had ours submitted on Thursday and got it today! That was really quick. I hadn't even begun to think about when we were going to get it yet!
Pre-approval means that our application to adopt Min was received and that the China Centre of Adoption Affairs agrees to move the application file into the procedure for the adoption of special needs children.
We are now getting a home study addendum to include the special needs that were listed with Min's file and waiting for the Letter of Acceptance.
The time from the PA (pre-approval) to LOA (Letter of Acceptance) is 1 to 3 months.
Then, from LOA to TA (Travel Approval) is 6 - 8 weeks.
Then, TA to final travel is approximately 3 to 4 weeks.
Just wanted to tell the world about the quick Pre-approval!
Karen
Thank you for visiting! This blog is a hodgepodge of things that interest me such as writing about our family and our new adventure into soap making, advocating for orphans & adoption, providing links for freezer meals we like etc. etc. We are a Christian, homeschooling family with 9 children: 1 was born in China, 5 in Colombia 3 are biological. Welcome! I hope you find something that interests you :)
Monday, July 26, 2010
We LOVE how God works!
Well, Thursday morning Kevin and I were down in our basement working on getting our Letter of Intent together to adopt "Min" when our agency emails us that they just received an update from the orphanage in China and to stay by the computer - that they would send it shortly. Boy, did we stay by the computer!
I have to admit, I did start getting a little nervous. In the past, whenever we asked for an update on a child, the update always came back that there was something a bit more severe with the child than what we thought we could personally provide the best care for - so with this soon-to-be-arriving update, I was nervous. We had already decided that she would become our daughter, no matter what. We would provide the best care for her that we could, but still the doubts crept into my mind that her need(s) would be more severe than we thought we could properly care for.
Minutes passed (which seemed like A LOT longer!) when we received the update. It said that she does have a physical and mental delay of about 12 months, but that the People's Hospital of China believes that she only needs to have good nutrition and nursing in order for her to catch up. She does not have disease of small stature (which is a part of the hypoevolutism diagnosis), her body is in proportion, just tiny compared to other children her age. We do not know about the low hemoglobin diagnosis, but will have her retested once we are back in the states.
I love the way that God confirmed this adoption. We had already decided to adopt Min, no matter what issues she had, and were in the process of sending in our Letter of Intent, when we received the updated information - and it was a great update! Yeah!
Also, we had an adoption fund-raising sale this last weekend in which I will post more about later. Once again, God worked in wonderful ways!
Please bear with me as I am updating the blog!
Thanks!
Karen and family
I have to admit, I did start getting a little nervous. In the past, whenever we asked for an update on a child, the update always came back that there was something a bit more severe with the child than what we thought we could personally provide the best care for - so with this soon-to-be-arriving update, I was nervous. We had already decided that she would become our daughter, no matter what. We would provide the best care for her that we could, but still the doubts crept into my mind that her need(s) would be more severe than we thought we could properly care for.
Minutes passed (which seemed like A LOT longer!) when we received the update. It said that she does have a physical and mental delay of about 12 months, but that the People's Hospital of China believes that she only needs to have good nutrition and nursing in order for her to catch up. She does not have disease of small stature (which is a part of the hypoevolutism diagnosis), her body is in proportion, just tiny compared to other children her age. We do not know about the low hemoglobin diagnosis, but will have her retested once we are back in the states.
I love the way that God confirmed this adoption. We had already decided to adopt Min, no matter what issues she had, and were in the process of sending in our Letter of Intent, when we received the updated information - and it was a great update! Yeah!
Also, we had an adoption fund-raising sale this last weekend in which I will post more about later. Once again, God worked in wonderful ways!
Please bear with me as I am updating the blog!
Thanks!
Karen and family
Thursday, July 22, 2010
It's a Girl!
Yeah! Tuesday morning we were blessed to receive in my inbox the referral of a very cute, just turned 3-year old girl from China. I wish that I could post pictures of her here for all of you to see. Gosh, it's hard to believe that we will soon be parents to four children - when we go get her they will be 12, 11 and 9 - and she will be 3 1/2!
The little girl who we pray will become our daughter (we are sending a letter of intent to adopt her to China tomorrow) has big eyes and is smiling in almost every picture we have of her. We are very grateful to already have 7 different pictures of her. She does have a special need listed, it is called hypoevolutism. Most doctors here in the states have never heard of it before so we will have her completely checked out when we get her home. It was also noted in her file that she has low hemoglobin, which could be that she has some type of anemia. Whatever her needs are, it doesn't really matter. We will do our best to care for her and love her unconditionally as one of our own. (She looks like she will add a lot of giggles and laughter to our lives.)
So when do we travel to go get her? It could be December - but we are hoping for much sooner than that!
Praising God for this wonderful gift,
The Burgess Family
The little girl who we pray will become our daughter (we are sending a letter of intent to adopt her to China tomorrow) has big eyes and is smiling in almost every picture we have of her. We are very grateful to already have 7 different pictures of her. She does have a special need listed, it is called hypoevolutism. Most doctors here in the states have never heard of it before so we will have her completely checked out when we get her home. It was also noted in her file that she has low hemoglobin, which could be that she has some type of anemia. Whatever her needs are, it doesn't really matter. We will do our best to care for her and love her unconditionally as one of our own. (She looks like she will add a lot of giggles and laughter to our lives.)
So when do we travel to go get her? It could be December - but we are hoping for much sooner than that!
Praising God for this wonderful gift,
The Burgess Family
Monday, July 19, 2010
It's been a long time since I last posted!
Sorry for not posting sooner than this about the few things that have happened within the last month or so! I'll try to give you a brief rundown now. We did get a referral last month and although it was hard to do it, we decided to turn the referral down.. The little girl was 14 months old and had some special needs that we weren't familiar with and we didn't know the extent of what those needs were. It's hard to make a decision like that. Once you have a child you will do whatever you can to provide for them and give them the best that you can. But with adoption, you have a choice - and it isn't always easy.
We had to make that choice a second time today. There is a little girl with a diagnosis of CHD (has to do with her heart, which was repaired) and an umbilical hernia. The repaired CHD wasn't a problem, neither was the hernia or the club foot, but looking more closely at her file it seems there are a host of other things that aren't quite right with her. These needs, again, are ones that we felt our family would not be able to provide the best care for.
So tonight... tonight a new list of children comes out. I am praying now that we not only get a referral from that list, but we find out who our future daughter will be as well!
I'll try not to let so much "grass grow under my feet" before I post again!
In His name,
Karen
We had to make that choice a second time today. There is a little girl with a diagnosis of CHD (has to do with her heart, which was repaired) and an umbilical hernia. The repaired CHD wasn't a problem, neither was the hernia or the club foot, but looking more closely at her file it seems there are a host of other things that aren't quite right with her. These needs, again, are ones that we felt our family would not be able to provide the best care for.
So tonight... tonight a new list of children comes out. I am praying now that we not only get a referral from that list, but we find out who our future daughter will be as well!
I'll try not to let so much "grass grow under my feet" before I post again!
In His name,
Karen
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Puzzle Fundraiser is almost done! Sponsor a piece today!
How does it work? For every $5.00 donated we add a piece to the puzzle. When it is all done we will write the names of every one who donated to it on the back of the puzzle, glue it all together and hang it in our new daughter's room.
I love this puzzle because it was made to look like the panda's are, oh! I almost said what the finished product looked like! (You can get an idea it from the picture - but it looks really neat when it is all put together, and I hope you will check back often to see how it is going!)
Thanks everyone!
Karen
Friday, May 28, 2010
No match.
I would have posted before now if we had been matched off the last list. Nothing though. No email, no picture, no call. Have to wait another month...
One bit of good news is that a little girl who I would have loved to have had as a daughter found a family. I advocated for her before on this blog. She had waited for so long. My husband and I had decided to ask our agency to find out if she was still available for adoption (because we wanted her). Turns out she was recently matched with a family.
Is it selfish to say that I wanted her for myself? I found out about the match on my birthday. I know it is good that she will have a family soon. They are so blessed to be able to bring that precious girl into their family. It also means that God has another little girl planned for us. Can you guess that I am ready to find out who she is?
Waiting in Him,
Karen
One bit of good news is that a little girl who I would have loved to have had as a daughter found a family. I advocated for her before on this blog. She had waited for so long. My husband and I had decided to ask our agency to find out if she was still available for adoption (because we wanted her). Turns out she was recently matched with a family.
Is it selfish to say that I wanted her for myself? I found out about the match on my birthday. I know it is good that she will have a family soon. They are so blessed to be able to bring that precious girl into their family. It also means that God has another little girl planned for us. Can you guess that I am ready to find out who she is?
Waiting in Him,
Karen
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Let the fund-raising begin - again!
Summer is coming and fund-raising is once again in the works! This Friday I may be meeting with a couple of other moms who are also adopting and need to raise money to help ease the financial burden of adoption. We will be doing a brainstorming session to come up with a few ideas that we can put together for this summer. Some ideas so far include a huge yard sale along US 40, a pancake breakfast with a company called Chris Cakes, and a Longaberger Basket Bingo Party. They all sound like a lot of fun to me, especially since the proceeds means that more children are able to finally have a family.
A new list of children available for adoption from China should be coming out within the next couple of weeks. I'm praying that we will finally be able to see our new daughter's face this month.
On a good note, it seems as if once we do find out who our daughter will be we may get to travel to get her about a month sooner than what it would have been last year. If we are blessed with the referral this month, we would probably be traveling in the fall to get her. Laurel, our youngest, will turn 9 on October 17th. It would be a lot of fun to celebrate with her in China! (Oh my, the girls just found a lizard in our basement! Ahh - it just landed on me when Carissa was showing it to me! Now they are talking about keeping it as a pet. Time for me to intervene!)
In His name,
Karen
A new list of children available for adoption from China should be coming out within the next couple of weeks. I'm praying that we will finally be able to see our new daughter's face this month.
On a good note, it seems as if once we do find out who our daughter will be we may get to travel to get her about a month sooner than what it would have been last year. If we are blessed with the referral this month, we would probably be traveling in the fall to get her. Laurel, our youngest, will turn 9 on October 17th. It would be a lot of fun to celebrate with her in China! (Oh my, the girls just found a lizard in our basement! Ahh - it just landed on me when Carissa was showing it to me! Now they are talking about keeping it as a pet. Time for me to intervene!)
In His name,
Karen
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