Monday, October 22, 2007
Link: A wonderful 10 minute documentary about a family's journey to China and international adoption
This video is one of the best I have seen. The 1st orphanage in the video is Lianjiang SWI, where our Grace is. I have watched it about 8 times now and have laughed and cried every time.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
While waiting
Life is busy, as always, at the Reading Household...But we wouldn't have it any other way.
Tori is planning for her 16th birthday party on November 3rd... (which was originally going to be a surprise until I figured out I had too much on my plate). Turner just played in his 6th consecutive undefeated football game. Bryce is working on his "rock star" status...continuing with his guitar lessons. He and Turner(on drums) "jam" every night. Ben is always looking for something new to invent and exploring the bayous for alligators and other creepy-crawleys.
Oh, speaking of "creepy-crawlies"... we found a gecko and a baby tree frog in our guest bathroom last week. When we find a snake I'm movin out!!!
Tori is planning for her 16th birthday party on November 3rd... (which was originally going to be a surprise until I figured out I had too much on my plate). Turner just played in his 6th consecutive undefeated football game. Bryce is working on his "rock star" status...continuing with his guitar lessons. He and Turner(on drums) "jam" every night. Ben is always looking for something new to invent and exploring the bayous for alligators and other creepy-crawleys.
Oh, speaking of "creepy-crawlies"... we found a gecko and a baby tree frog in our guest bathroom last week. When we find a snake I'm movin out!!!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Where Is Grace Now?
Grace is now in Lianjiang, Guangdong. It is the southernmost province of china. The climate is considered "subtropical" which is like Houston's climate. 
This is a photogragh of the building where Grace is living now.
LOI
Our Letter of Intent (LOI) was electronically sent on Thursday, October 11th. Now we just wait until we receive a referral approval from China. (RA) We should hear within 2-4 mos.
Waiting is hard...but we've waited this long(two years)!!! We are not able to post any pictures until we have been approved by China. We all say prayers for her every night. We can't wait to get her home!!
Waiting is hard...but we've waited this long(two years)!!! We are not able to post any pictures until we have been approved by China. We all say prayers for her every night. We can't wait to get her home!!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Foreword
On December 22, 2005 our dossier was logged into China for a healthy orphanage child for adoption. What we were told, and what was happening at the time, was that we would have a 6-8mo. wait until we were matched with a girl 6mo.-2yrs.old.
Needless to say, the wait extended over time…and our lives were somewhat put on hold.
In April of 2007, we felt called to place an application for a “special needs” child. Our application was accepted.
September 28, 2007 the China Center of Adoption had matched well children with homes through the Log in dates of November 30, 2005. Referrals are sent out every 30 days. Unfortunately the number of log in dates referred each month had gotten smaller. (It took 6 months to get through the month of November.) November had so far the largest amount of parents adopting from the US ever. We thought that we might be in for another 2-3mo. wait until we heard anything!
October 1, 2007: We received this email:
We are thrilled to announce the receipt of 33 new special needs referrals! We don't have any specifics on the children right now, but once we are finished processing the referrals, we will send another email out with more details.
Special needs referrals are sent only every 3 months. Instead of being matched by China. The referrals are sent untranslated in a batch to the qualifying US agencies and then the agency matches the babies with families on the “interested list”. Once matched, there is additional paperwork and waiting before approval to travel to China. (3-5 months compared with 4-6 wks for a healthy child)
I knew that there were about 100 families on the list when we first applied to SN in April. And I knew that they had gotten 3 batches of referrals since then. I wondered…
We were so close to receiving our referral for a healthy child. I heard that we may already have been matched to a healthy girl. Chris and I wondered if we would be torn in possibly a hard decision. I told Chris that I had no doubt that we would immediately “know” when we got the referral.
Chris took the day off Friday to spend the day with me and celebrate my birthday. We made sure that we had the phone with us…just in case. Friday was to be the day that the first calls were made. About 3:00pm I looked at my watch and said, “Well on the East coast it’s now 4:00PM. I wonder if we will get a call this time.” Before I finished the sentence Chris’ blackberry was vibrating! My eyes widened as he answered, “Hi Melissa, we were just talking about you!” She said, “We have a Special Needs little girl who is 11 mo. old. Who we think would be a great fit for your family. Her birthday is Nov. 24th. She is healthy other than she has several small hemangiomas on her right knee.” Chris answered, with tears in his eyes, that our older daughter has a large one on her back.
Melissa said she would e-mail the pictures and info.to both Chris’ blackberry and our home e-mail. After impatiently waiting for 45 minutes and no email we drove home to check our home mail.
I can’t put into words how strong the emotions were for this little girl when we saw her for the first time!!! God is so good!!! All the bumps, delays, and frustrations were not in vain! All of these delays led to this particular little girl. It is so amazing that even her picture looks like Bryce’s baby pictures! I purposefully held my tongue so Chris could speak first. His first response was, “She looks like one of our children. This is Grace.”
On Monday, we will write and send to China a “Letter of Intent”…and then we will wait some more. I SO want to go get her now!!!
We will try to keep everyone updated by creating this blogsite. All you who know me know that I am computer illiterate... So this has been a huge accomplishment for me!
Thank you for all the prayers!!! Don’t stop!!!
Sherri and Chris
Needless to say, the wait extended over time…and our lives were somewhat put on hold.
In April of 2007, we felt called to place an application for a “special needs” child. Our application was accepted.
September 28, 2007 the China Center of Adoption had matched well children with homes through the Log in dates of November 30, 2005. Referrals are sent out every 30 days. Unfortunately the number of log in dates referred each month had gotten smaller. (It took 6 months to get through the month of November.) November had so far the largest amount of parents adopting from the US ever. We thought that we might be in for another 2-3mo. wait until we heard anything!
October 1, 2007: We received this email:
We are thrilled to announce the receipt of 33 new special needs referrals! We don't have any specifics on the children right now, but once we are finished processing the referrals, we will send another email out with more details.
Special needs referrals are sent only every 3 months. Instead of being matched by China. The referrals are sent untranslated in a batch to the qualifying US agencies and then the agency matches the babies with families on the “interested list”. Once matched, there is additional paperwork and waiting before approval to travel to China. (3-5 months compared with 4-6 wks for a healthy child)
I knew that there were about 100 families on the list when we first applied to SN in April. And I knew that they had gotten 3 batches of referrals since then. I wondered…
We were so close to receiving our referral for a healthy child. I heard that we may already have been matched to a healthy girl. Chris and I wondered if we would be torn in possibly a hard decision. I told Chris that I had no doubt that we would immediately “know” when we got the referral.
Chris took the day off Friday to spend the day with me and celebrate my birthday. We made sure that we had the phone with us…just in case. Friday was to be the day that the first calls were made. About 3:00pm I looked at my watch and said, “Well on the East coast it’s now 4:00PM. I wonder if we will get a call this time.” Before I finished the sentence Chris’ blackberry was vibrating! My eyes widened as he answered, “Hi Melissa, we were just talking about you!” She said, “We have a Special Needs little girl who is 11 mo. old. Who we think would be a great fit for your family. Her birthday is Nov. 24th. She is healthy other than she has several small hemangiomas on her right knee.” Chris answered, with tears in his eyes, that our older daughter has a large one on her back.
Melissa said she would e-mail the pictures and info.to both Chris’ blackberry and our home e-mail. After impatiently waiting for 45 minutes and no email we drove home to check our home mail.
I can’t put into words how strong the emotions were for this little girl when we saw her for the first time!!! God is so good!!! All the bumps, delays, and frustrations were not in vain! All of these delays led to this particular little girl. It is so amazing that even her picture looks like Bryce’s baby pictures! I purposefully held my tongue so Chris could speak first. His first response was, “She looks like one of our children. This is Grace.”
On Monday, we will write and send to China a “Letter of Intent”…and then we will wait some more. I SO want to go get her now!!!
We will try to keep everyone updated by creating this blogsite. All you who know me know that I am computer illiterate... So this has been a huge accomplishment for me!
Thank you for all the prayers!!! Don’t stop!!!
Sherri and Chris
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