Has the Lord Called You to Help an Orphan This Summer?

Introducing the California Taiwan Summer Tour...
The summer tour in which my husband and I met the little girl we are currently adopting is coming back this summer with new kids who are in need of their forever families and are currently available for adoption. This is a great opportunity for them to experience American family life and may just lead them to their forever families. If you live in Southern California and are interested in hosting a child or sibling group for about 2 1/2 weeks this summer, please see the link below for more information. Also, even if you are in a different state, but are currently looking to adopt, please visit the link below for information on these great kids that are in need of their forever families. There is a financial need as well to fly all of these kids out for the summer. If you would like to help, but are not called to adopt or host at this time, chipping in for the financial costs would be a great blessing to these kids. Please prayerfully consider helping these beautiful children this summer. Your help could be all they need to lead them to the love of a family of their very own.

For more information on the kids or how you can help click below.
http://californiataiwantour.blogspot.com/

Please pray for these kiddos!!!

Together Again Via SKYPE...

I love this program! Last year, it comforted greatly this anxious mama as her (then 12 year old) daughter was swept away by her grandparents for a Mediterranean cruise for two whole weeks. I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't SKYPE her regularly during her excursion to make sure she was happy and OK. Well, it has come to the rescue again.

We were able to see Jing-Qi again for the first time since last summer on Tuesday during our first SKYPE session. She looked healthy and happy to see us. They let us spend about 45 minutes with her, which was wonderful, although somewhat challenging to think up enough fun things to do to keep her occupied. For some reason, we couldn't hear their side of the conversation, but they could hear ours. They would type back responses until they found a headset for Jing-Qi to talk into. Then, we could finally hear her sweet little voice. It was great! Thank you to whoever thought this program up! I think we get to have another session with her maybe in a month. What a comfort!

Please pray that we will hear something on our court date soon and that everything will go smoothly with our process. We are planning to have a fundraising garage sale next month with a bunch of donated furniture, clothes, and things. I will post about it later as we get closer.

Video Clips of My Sweetie!

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. We just found out that our dossier has been translated and has been taken to the courts, but we are stilling waiting for our court date. While we are waiting, Chung Yi has sent us a couple short video clips of Jing-Qi. They have told her the news, which I am so relieved about. I was concerned she would think we had forgotten about her. She seemed happy in her videos. I cannot post them due to child safety concerns and our adoption process not being finished yet, but I will tell you what she said. She said, "Emily, Christina, I want to come to US" and "Daddy, Mommy, I love you." My heart melted. I can't wait until she comes home. Please continue to pray for our adoption process and for its provision. We are so grateful for all your prayers.

Thanks While Waiting...

Well, we are at the stage where we get to put our best waiting skills to the test; however, while we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting (perhaps I need to work on my waiting skills : )  ), I want to make sure that I thank all of you who have been praying for us or have even contributed to our adoption costs. We have been so touched by the many neighbors, friends, and family that have helped us with our costs, many of whom didn't even know we were fundraising. I love to see God answer our many prayers for provision for this whole process. We just sent in the first of our large agency and orphanage fees and were so grateful that we were able to come up with about half of it ourselves through contributions to our fundraiser. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! The other half was lovingly lent to us by my always so generous parents. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you as well! Please continue to pray for us as we await our court date. Your prayers mean so much to us!

Happy Chinese New Year, Jing-Qi!

Well, I know she can't read this yet, but she is in my thoughts this Chinese New Year. It has been fun to learn about a holiday that is probably quite special to her. I went to a chinese market to purchase a hong bao (a red money envelope given to children on New Year's day) and was excited when I could pick out a couple words in Mandarin from other customers. I could recognize the word for hat and the word for computer. OK, so I have a long way to go. At least, I will be able to better empathize with her struggles learning a new language when she comes. I filled the envelope with 8 US coins that amounted to 88 cents. I hear multiple eights are good numbers in Taiwan. Sam tells me that 8 is the number for new beginnings. How perfect! Having just signed the adoption agreement a couple days ago, this Chinese New Year is an interesting time to reflect on the year's possibilities. I so hope to have our daughter home soon, and to my Jing-Qi, I hope she will discover the unconditional love of family in the new year. Please continue to pray for our adoption process. I, of course, am hoping for a fast judge, but it is comforting to know that my Lord knows the future and will bring our daughter home to us at just the perfect time. Happy new year everyone!

Finally...Paperwork with my daughter's name on it!

I'm so excited! We received the adoption agreement from Taiwan and signed it yesterday. I was thrilled to see my daughter's name for the first time on the adoption agreement. All our dossier paperwork came in at the same time, so we were able to turn it all in and send it off to be authenticated. Next, I think we go to the Taiwan courts and wait. More waiting. This doesn't get any easier, not only for me, but for our youngest daughter as well. Her prayers only seem to get more earnest and more frequent as she hopes to have her sister home with us soon. I love to hear her pray for her sister. I'm hoping maybe I can send something to her for Chinese New Year, but I'm waiting to hear. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I'm hoping for a fast judge. : )

We Have Immigration Approval!

Well, the USCIS approved our I600-A form. We are very excited to have yet another piece of the puzzle that we need before we can bring our precious girl home. Now, we continue to wait for the adoption agreement to come from Taiwan as we prepare our dossier paperwork. Sam and I went and received our local police clearance today. That was easier and quicker than I thought. We are waiting to hear from our doctor to see if we need to do another physical for the Taiwan medical form. We had full physicals done for the US homestudy in August, so I think we probably can go off of that to fill in the new form. We have to get the doctor's signature notarized, however, and there isn't a notary in our doctor's office. I will have to wait to see how we work out this one. 

In the meantime, we have been preparing Christina and Jing-Qi's room. I have lovingly painted clouds on their ceiling, although they don't look as much like the originals as I was hoping. It was fun, though. I also found glow paint that looks white in the daytime, so I painted stars and a crescent moon with it over the clouds. Now, the family gathers at bedtime in their room to star gaze with the lights off. It's pretty fun, and it seems to help with the wait. I miss my girl more and more and wish I could hear her cute little voice trying to convince me in Chinese to come outside and play. By the way, please pray that my efforts to learn Mandarin would be fruitful. I am notoriously horrible at picking up foreign languages and seem to be better at reading it than hearing it on the Rosetta Stone. Also, please continue to pray that God's hand and timing will be upon our whole adoption process. We are so grateful for the prayers.