Papers from Chicago!!! Yay

Today I was pleasantly surprised by the mail lady at my door. I think she asked me to sign something, all I knew was I knew where that envelope in her hand was from. :) I practically grabbed it out of her hand, and literally ripped it open in front of her. She got to share my excitement with me!!! Those Chinese are tricky though, at first it looked as though they did nothing to them. So I looked in the envelope- nothing just a receipt. The mail lady suggested maybe it was on the inside- sure enought the sticker I was waiting for!!! So relieved, and excited! They didn't stay in my hand to long though, we copied them, and off they went to the post office!! It feels nice to have them out of my hands, only 3 documents left to go through the same process, we are waiting for the i800 to arrive!!!! Yay!!!

We picked a name!!

Picking a name was NOT easy! Dan and I have had the hardest time with this one by far. It wasn't just about picking a name we liked, but finding a good meaning, making it fit with the other names, and some how keeping it Chinese. We decided to keep the first letter of his chinese name- N. 

His name is Nolan XiaoJohn Einfeld. Im trying to sneak one other middle name in there, but we will see if Dan agrees :) 

Nolan means "little champion, or fighter." 

Xiao is his chinese name meaning little. 

John is Hebrew (like our other children) meaning "God is gracious" He is named after all the "Johns" in our life.... Dans dad's middle name, our exchange student, John Epema, John Oneill, Im sure there is tons more but Im drawing blank right now. Please let us know. :)

Nolan is an answer to our prayers and it is by the grace of God that he is our little boy. He is truely a fighter, and our champion! 

No real updates... Chicago embassy hopefully has the paperwork done to their perfection, Im waiting anxiously to get that returned. The I-800, is complete and will hopefully be coming soon- thats the last piece we are waiting for. 

I got an update today from the agency, he seems to be doing well no change on his last Echo (which is great news), his oxygen levels remain consistent, and he is just waiting for surgery. We are putting together a package to send him, it has been really fun!! 

Today we got up early (4:30 am) to send John back to China for the summer. It was a family affair at the airport. He will be coming back to stay with us in August... August 17th... not that Im missing him or anything :) Hes been a lot of fun to have around, all of us really enjoyed him this year. I could sense his absence at dinner. The kids have been talking about him all day. I do have to admit I am a little bit jealous he is going to China, and Im not.... not yet anyways!! He says the flight is "painful." So maybe I shouldn't look forward to it so much. :) 

Thanks all for tonight, sorry about my lack of updates... nothing really exciting is going on, and we were enjoying the last weekend with John!!! 

Update...

This week nothing is exciting as our pre-approval last week... Lets see..

I got to spend Mothers day with my mom on Sunday. We spent the day looking for furniture for the kids rooms. Addy is growing out of her bed, and Asher is definitely growing out of his bed, PLUS we are trying to figure out how to organize the rooms with two kids in each.  :) About 5 furniture stores later...we accomplished finding stuff for the girls, and then Monday I took care of the boys. It was nice to spend time with my mom alone- we rarely get to do that.

Its been a crazy week, for some reason we have a ton of things on the calendar and months ago I picked up a ton of hours for this week! We are making it through, though. After I got home from work Monday we received in the mail our appointment notices to get fingerprinted. I was extremely worried that John would have been gone back home for the summer when the appointment came. Our agency encouraged us to apply last month, which I did. I was VERY happy to get the notices in the mail. Only problem was they had scheduled appointments for 2 weeks out, the day after John leaves! Our agency told us it was ok to just walk in and explain the story, they don't have to fit you in early, but they hadn't heard stories of anyone being turned away. So, Tuesday morning, John luckily didn't have any tests, so we made the trip to Kentwood to the USCIS- Department of Homeland Security. They did fit us in, but gave us the run around even though there was NOBODY else in there! It was a horrible experience, I have never been treated so inhuman in my life!! From the moment we walked in, it was ..."sit here, fill this out, back up, sit here, stand here, give me your left hand, leave the child there..." Then against the advice of the worker there, I sent Dan today without an appointment. They made him wait 2 hrs to get his fingerprints! It was horrible, Im glad its done. It was nice of them to fit us in, and hopefully it will speed things up by 2 weeks. :) Thats 2 weeks sooner to kiss those asian cheeks!!!

Tonight we were able to see the movie "Stuck" at church. It was so good, but horrible at the same time! The conditions kids live in are horrible, the politics and red tape involved keep the kids in institutions much longer than they need to be. Its so unfair!! They deserve to be in the arms of their forever family.

The movie made me feel blessed to be with an agency we trust, and to feel we are moving along in the process. One of the things that is stressing me out right now is that most of our dossier paperwork is at the embassy in Chicago being authenticated. However, there was a silly problem with one document that had to be corrected. Being corrected meant getting a new one, sending to the Secretary of State again (where it is now), and then sending back to the embassy- meanwhile they held all of our documents at the embassy. I check the mail anxiously everyday waiting for the S of S to send it back. Im nervous that the embassy will lose our papers or something in the mean time. It makes me even more nervous because the number at the embassy doesn't accept calls, its just a recording, so I had no way of getting ahold of them AND Dan took this message while I was at work one night... It makes me nervous. You can keep that in your prayers. :)

Last week I began the paperwork for a grant due today! Im so thankful for our homestudy social worker, CCAI, Scarlet Thomas, Emily Dewitte, and Pastor Rick, who all on a moment notice took time to email paperwork to the foundation for us. Im not sure how we pulled off getting all of that paperwork together in 3 days, but we did!!

Its been busy, but things are coming together, Thanks for keep us in your prayers!!!

Here he is!!!

Its so exciting to finally be able to share him with you!! CCAI told us it could take 2 weeks to get our pre-approval from China... it took 2 days!!! It still seems so hard to believe, thats our SON!! I just wanna kiss his sweet little cheeks. :) Now we get to pack a little package to send to him. Does anyone have any ideas? It has to fit in a shoe box....

Our journey isn't over yet, keep praying for us. Paperwork keeps coming at me. We are still working on getting all of our money. We are in the process of applying for a grant, pray we meet the deadline, and get a grant to bring our sweet little one home.

We still haven't nailed down a name yet, we are still thinking on it. Suggestions are welcome. Its a happy day. :)

Busy Week!!

So sorry I haven't updated in awhile. We had a busy week with the garage sale, I feel like I was going 90 miles an hr, all week. We are so thankful for all the help we had with the sale. I would name everyone, but the list would be toooo long!!! Everyone was so generous with there time and resources, and watching my children. Thank you Thank you!! The sale was a HUGE success, we raised over $2,000!!!

Other big news this week.... We accepted the referral!!! Now we are waiting for China to accept us!! :) This will be a big week for us!! We had so many God signs last week, and we just felt like God laid this kid in front of us for a reason. Yes, he has needs, but yes they are repairable- thats good enough for us. We talked with Aviela and asked her how she felt about Mommy and Daddy spending time at the hospital with the "baby," and we told her he was sick, she just said, "it will be ok Mom." And we agreed she was right. For some reason God really speaks to us through music. Its the moments I spend in the car that I do most of my thinking and praying. We felt God speaking to us through the words of Jeremy Camp's "Reckless,"... 

"Everytime I try to play it safe 

Holding back just a little part of me

I find myself forgetting what

I say that I believe

The promise of Your Word

Is all I need

I'll lay my life down

And give it up

I'll give it up"

I guess its true! Why should we say no to a sweet little soul that needs the medical attention, love, and family that we can provide.... Its really not about us. So we wait to see what China says...When they approve we will share his sweet little face with you. We can't wait to show him off. :)

We do need name suggestions though...its been a real struggle trying to come up with one we both agree on, it doesn't necessarily have to start with A. Please share ideas :)

Every time the seasons change I get overwhelmed, just naturally (without the adoption stress)- but this time I can't do much about the feeling. Going from winter to spring means new things to worry about like... cutting the grass, maintaining the lawn, blowing out the underground sprinkling, changing the kids clothes, etc. Its like the kids book "If you give a mouse a cookie..." If I go outside and think about the grass then I realize I need to change the kids clothes, when I go inside to change the kids clothes, I see that our walls have kid marks all over them and still haven't been painted since we moved in, If I think about the walls being painted I notice the cob webs that I can't reach to clean, then I realize so many other things need cleaning and organizing, and the carpet needing cleaned, but Thats when God gives me a reality check and reminds me that our sweet little boy is worth more than any aesthetic thing money could buy. So if you come over please don't notice- the grass, the landscaping/ weeds, the walls, the carpet, the cob webs, or the unorganization of my house. :) 

Yesterday we had a busy morning just catching up from the week... but in the afternoon we went to Tulip time in Holland. Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE Holland! It was wonderful watching the dancers, eating an elephant ear, pictures with Tulips, dinner at Russ', Captain Sundae's with Grandpa VandenHeuvel, and the park!! We enjoyed spending time together, plus just being in Holland made me happy!

Today we met a new family and had lunch together at a park. We were just meant to be friends! They are young, have 3 biological children, and just brought the 4th child home from China (Who has special needs as well). She is a wealth of resources about fundraising, adoption and China! Get this... we met at my garage sale!! She came, told me a story that gave me goosebumps, and said we should hang out... so we did!! More than just raising money, we raised support! I hope that we are friends for a long time! It was really a great weekend.

Thats all for tonight, my toddler decided to learn a new trick- getting out of her crib! So I guess I will have to add, buy a twin mattress to that overwhelming list of tasks... but this one might be important. :)

Thanks for the prayers, keep them coming....

XOXOXOX Jen