Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Raffle Tickets
The PayPal button to the right will get you tickets to the raffle.
These are the prizes.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
New News
Well, we just found out that the paperwork for our boy has been turned in to the CCCWA. We are waiting for our agency to confirm.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Adoption News
Well now, I was asked about a blog for keeping track of the progress of our adoption. I have had this blog setting idle for quite a while, so here we go.
I guess a synopsis of how it all started and how it was delayed is in order.
Adoption has been on mine and Elana's hearts for a while. As for why, that is a little interesting.
Elana and I have not had any issues having children since Nathan, our oldest, was born in 1994. We were wondering up to that point because we had been married for over two years when we cound out she was pregnant. We had been trying to have kids from the first. From that point we had three more.
We have found family life so fullfilling that we decided to share it with at least one more child. Yes, that will make a total of five kids in the house. We also have one in heaven.
We also chose to have an older child so that we would still have an empty nest on schedule. I know, that is pretty selfish.
Well now, the next thing you know Elana is lead by God to go on a missions trip with our church. This trip happens to be going to China to work with orphans at a camp.
At this camp she falls in love with on of the boy's assigned to her for the first week. It takes him a little over a day to warm up to her. The funny thing is this the third year that he has gone to the camp and the camp directors sayed he had never got close to any of his past volunteer partners.
Then on a whim Elana mentioned to one of the camp directors that she would like to take him home with her. Normally the following events wouldn't taken place.
Elana was asked if she would like to travel back to the orphanage with him on the bus. She was ecstatic and so was he. He hung on to her the whole way there. On the way they met up with the founder of the orphan camp Elana was working at. She was able to tell him her story and of her desires, which I have to tell you I left out the fact that she was sent by the camp director so she would have the opportunity to speak with the orphanage director.
The camp founder eneded up going with her to the orphanage and being her personaly translator and advocate on this trip. She was able to speak to the director after a little hassle with a lower official.
She and David Bolt, the camp founder, ended up having supper with the orphanage director and at the end of it all she was told that the only way for this to happen is if he wanted it and his surviving family would agree.
The following Monday she awas asked to go back to the orphanage when they went to pick up the next group of orphans for the camp. On this trip our boy was ask if he would like to be adopted by Elana. He whole heartedly consented.
At this point the orphanage director said that he would have to get the surviving family together for a meeting to get there consent. He said that it would be couple of weeks before that meeting could take place. Elana would be leaving the following Saturday. She prayed that if the Lord wanted her to adopt him that he would get her the word before she left.
The following Thurday evening before she was told that she would be going back to the orphanage Friday morning. That Friday she met with the family. Our boy set with her through the whole meeting. She was aske a bunch of questions and by the ended of the meeting she had the consent of every family member present. They even signed a letter to this effect and the whole meeting was video taped for posterity.
Then came the hick-up that put us behind. A month and a half ago the Chinese Civil Affairs in his province shut the process down saying his wasn't an orphan because of his surviving family. We accepted that and stopped our progress.
Then last week we received a call from a couple of the people Elana worked with in China. They were instrumental in a lot of the process while she was there. They said that the orphanage had not let up on getting the Chinese Civil Affairs to reconsider their position and had managed to get it done.
So, Elana and I have a lot of whirlwind work ahead of us. He ages out in February.
I guess a synopsis of how it all started and how it was delayed is in order.
Adoption has been on mine and Elana's hearts for a while. As for why, that is a little interesting.
Elana and I have not had any issues having children since Nathan, our oldest, was born in 1994. We were wondering up to that point because we had been married for over two years when we cound out she was pregnant. We had been trying to have kids from the first. From that point we had three more.
We have found family life so fullfilling that we decided to share it with at least one more child. Yes, that will make a total of five kids in the house. We also have one in heaven.
We also chose to have an older child so that we would still have an empty nest on schedule. I know, that is pretty selfish.
Well now, the next thing you know Elana is lead by God to go on a missions trip with our church. This trip happens to be going to China to work with orphans at a camp.
At this camp she falls in love with on of the boy's assigned to her for the first week. It takes him a little over a day to warm up to her. The funny thing is this the third year that he has gone to the camp and the camp directors sayed he had never got close to any of his past volunteer partners.
Then on a whim Elana mentioned to one of the camp directors that she would like to take him home with her. Normally the following events wouldn't taken place.
Elana was asked if she would like to travel back to the orphanage with him on the bus. She was ecstatic and so was he. He hung on to her the whole way there. On the way they met up with the founder of the orphan camp Elana was working at. She was able to tell him her story and of her desires, which I have to tell you I left out the fact that she was sent by the camp director so she would have the opportunity to speak with the orphanage director.
The camp founder eneded up going with her to the orphanage and being her personaly translator and advocate on this trip. She was able to speak to the director after a little hassle with a lower official.
She and David Bolt, the camp founder, ended up having supper with the orphanage director and at the end of it all she was told that the only way for this to happen is if he wanted it and his surviving family would agree.
The following Monday she awas asked to go back to the orphanage when they went to pick up the next group of orphans for the camp. On this trip our boy was ask if he would like to be adopted by Elana. He whole heartedly consented.
At this point the orphanage director said that he would have to get the surviving family together for a meeting to get there consent. He said that it would be couple of weeks before that meeting could take place. Elana would be leaving the following Saturday. She prayed that if the Lord wanted her to adopt him that he would get her the word before she left.
The following Thurday evening before she was told that she would be going back to the orphanage Friday morning. That Friday she met with the family. Our boy set with her through the whole meeting. She was aske a bunch of questions and by the ended of the meeting she had the consent of every family member present. They even signed a letter to this effect and the whole meeting was video taped for posterity.
Then came the hick-up that put us behind. A month and a half ago the Chinese Civil Affairs in his province shut the process down saying his wasn't an orphan because of his surviving family. We accepted that and stopped our progress.
Then last week we received a call from a couple of the people Elana worked with in China. They were instrumental in a lot of the process while she was there. They said that the orphanage had not let up on getting the Chinese Civil Affairs to reconsider their position and had managed to get it done.
So, Elana and I have a lot of whirlwind work ahead of us. He ages out in February.
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