The Little Princesses are Jr. Bridesmaids

Our daughter, Ruth was married last Saturday and her littlest sisters were junior bridesmaids!  Abigail was a little too timid to walk the aisle without Mama, so she came in with me.  Jen followed with one of her nephews on either side.  She was just glowing at the attention!

The week was a crazy one as you can imagine, with lots of overnight guests and upset schedules.  When you couple that with the realization that is beginning to set in that they have "lost" a beloved sister, my Little Princesses are just "off" this week.  We'd appreciate your prayers as our household readjusts to a new normal.

i800a Approved At Last!

Wow oh wow.  Our approval was waiting for us when we returned home late from the wedding last night.  I never imagined the wait would be this long.  It was a simple update, just a Supplement 3 form to our i800a.  No fingerprints were required as ours from the girls have not expired yet.  Easy right?  Apparently nothing in this adoption is easy since everything seems to be taking twice as long as predicted.  Here is the timetable for what was supposed to be quick and easy.




08/28/2013  Supplement 3 to the I800A sent to immigrations
09/04/2013  Receipt notice of Supplement 3 at USCIS
09/16/2013  Supplement 3 on our officer's desk.  She confirmed that she ordered our original file with the i800a to be consolidated with the Supplement 3.  
10/01/2013  Spoke with our officer on the telephone and she looked into what was causing the delay.  Someone for some unknown reason had cancelled her request for the file.
10/08/2013  Received an email from our officer that the original file had finally arrived and she would complete our paperwork that day.
10/16/2013 Called USCIS and was told our paperwork was actually not approved until Friday the 10th.
10/19/2013  Wow, it is here.  52 days.  Unreal.   NINE days to receive it in the mail once it was approved.  We had to have fingerprinting and everything with the girls and it was only 33 days from sending it in to arrival in our mailbox.  Have I ever mentioned that adoptive parents are obsessive about dates? 

So what happens now?  Our placement agency will have the form notarized and then send it (along with the other two documents required to update our dossier) to the embassy in Washington DC.  Once they are authenticated our dossier will finally make its round in China.  I am REALLY glad to get past this step. 

Fundraiser Blog Hop

Believe it or not, the holidays are just around the corner!  We invite you to skip the crowds and do some quality gift shopping with families fundraising for their adoption.  You know you'll shop somewhere, so why not contribute towards a great cause instead of shopping at the mega mall?

We are Ethan and Randi Lanz.  We've been married for thirty-three years, and are in the process to adopt again from China.  Most of our children are adults now, so we no longer have a "mega-family" at home.  Our eleventh child, an eleven year old boy whom we will name Isaac, will be joining three sisters who are anxiously awaiting his arrival.

Isaac was born with Spina bifida and is confined to a wheelchair, so in addition to raising funds for his homecoming we also need to make significant changes to our home and vehicle.  We have several fundraisers going on to help us towards those goals, and hope that you'll find something you'll like for gift giving this Christmas season.  Thank you for taking a look!

Gorgeous ornaments made in Haiti from recycled oil barrels and cereal box paper beads!  These are totally amazing!  Half the proceeds will go back to the Haitian families and half will help with Isaac's homecoming.   More details http://lanzadoptionadventure.blogspot.com/2013/09/ornament-fundraiser.html

Isaac's advocate from An Orphan's Wish made some stunning glass bead bookmarks to help with our fundraising efforts.  You may purchase from our Etsy shop or send me a request (via the comments below) if you have a particular color in mind.  I have many of them that are not on our shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/AsOneRescued

And lastly, I have created several scripture and adoption themed jewelry pieces.  See a design you like, but want a different scripture or saying?  I'd be happy to custom make one for you.  Feel free to comment below or send the request through the Etsy shop  http://www.etsy.com/shop/AsOneRescued

Be sure to click on the Blog Hop graphic at the top of this post to see what other families have to offer.  Thanks for stopping by!

Playtime shows us what Abigail REALLY thinks

My blog is primarily about our adoption adventure, and living with these blessings on a daily basis.  Because of that I don't often talk about my adult children and grandchildren.  I guess I figure THEY didn't sign up to have their life broadcasted on my blog. :)

This week you will likely see more of the rest of the family.  We have one adult daughter who still lives at home.  She has been engaged for about a year and her big day is this coming Saturday.  I've been attempting to prepare The Little Princesses for what is ahead.  They KNOW they got pretty new dresses, flowers, and are going to a REALLY BIG party.  What I think they don't "get" is that in less than a week Ruth will no longer be living at home, or even in this state.

As we've worked on wedding flowers and the many other preparations this week I've tried to gently break it to them that Ruth will be getting her OWN house with Gerret after the wedding. Abigail has smiled and seemed happy about it. 

Tonight we learned the truth, or perhaps she grasped the reality?  Tikvah (eleven years old) was playing ponies with Abigail and Jen.  She set up a wedding for them, and the pony Ruth married the pony Gerret.   Kids, look closely because the wedding party is totally represented in this group.

  After the wedding, Tikvah told them that now Ruth and Gerret were going on a long trip.  She placed those particular two ponies away from the others.  Abigail got up, went and got the Ruth pony and put her BACK with the others.  She chucked the Gerret pony across the room!  HAAA!  Now we know what Abigail REALLY thinks about the wedding!

The Littlest Princess is Seven!

After being a guest at the parties for a few of her nieces and nephews, Abigail was VERY excited to have her very own birthday party!  She gave us the countdown each day - several times a day.  At last it was her turn!

 

She had requested cupcakes, and they were VERY appreciated!

  She didn't exactly know what to do about the gifts, but very quickly learned the routine!

 

Happy Birthday, Little Princess.  We are so, so happy to celebrate it with you this year!

We meet at last!

As the Disney song goes, "It's a small world after all...." and the Internet has made the world even smaller!  As I've walked the international adoption path I've met many wonderful people.  A few of them contacted me when we were in the early stages of process with The Little Princesses to say they had been praying for our Abigail to find her family.  From my experience, sometimes we read the story of a child, and even though we cannot adopt them ourselves, the child still holds a piece of our heart.  (I pray for a couple of those "other people's kids" myself!)  Our Miss A was one of those children for Janice.

Janice was my cheerleader during the process, and has been a great encouragement to me.  She has so enthusiastically supported our fundraisers that I've jokingly asked her how she will get her Christmas shopping done in 2014 without us having fundraisers!

A couple of weeks ago Janice, her husband John, and their sweet little Emily traveled to Cincinnati for medical tests. It was so sweet to meet them in person, and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit!  Thanks, Janice for taking time out of your busy day to stop in for a couple of hours.  I hope we can do it again soon.

Talking about eye rolling, head scratching, and ramps

Our announcement that we are adopting again was met with some eye raising from acquaintances. When it was discovered that our son is totally dependent on his wheelchair there was some head scratching.  Yes, I saw it and really, it is ok.  We have been scratching our heads a bit too!  I will be honest that I fought against the idea at first.  I mean, it is totally impractical, right?  We have three little girls at home, and have hit our groove with a good household rhythm going. Why add a boy (and one with significant needs at that) and complicate matters?

 When we visited the orphanage where The Little Princesses lived we were struck by the number of boys. It may surprise you to know that the orphans in China are no longer primarily girls. The number of  boys waiting for a family far outnumber the girls.   

Since we visited the orphanage at naptime, we were able to see the children that Jen had roomed with.  In the room for her age there was a small row of beds against one wall with just a couple of little girls, and what appeared to be at least a dozen beds on the other side of the room with little boys.  The nanny in the room told us that most of their girls had been adopted.  I believe we realized right then and there that we would eventually return for a boy.

 No one was more surprised than I was when “eventually” ended up being VERY SOON.  We had been home perhaps a month when a boy’s photo showed up on the Facebook feed of an organization that helps orphans in China.  I had been aware of “Peter” while in process with the Little Princesses, and it saddened me that his family had not found him yet. 

 A few days later a dear friend asked me how things were going.  Since I knew she would "get it" I mentioned Peter to her and the fact that I couldn’t get him out of my head or my heart.  I believe after she stopped laughing (the usual reaction from those who  know us well) she said, “Very interesting!”  Yes, indeed.

I confess I tried to dismiss the idea.  Our house is not handicap accessible.  Certainly we couldn’t be the right family for him.  I can’t share everything that went on in the background, but as quickly as we attempted to dismiss the idea, evidence presented itself to suggest we do otherwise.  Ethan finally said to make the call to see if our agency would even approve us to adopt again so soon.  The short to this story is they did, and we are. 

There is much to be done before Isaac arrives home, and our budget is stretched to the max.  International adoptions are expensive -  very expensive.  We just did it - times two!  Modifications to a home are expensive also. One of the major things on our to-do list is a ramp so Isaac can get into our house independently.  I just have to share how this is to come about.

A local church (one that we are not members of) gave us a grant towards the adoption expenses of The Little Princesses.  At that time they also offered to help with home modifications if needed.  Jen can walk short distances without her walker, and hold a rail or sit down to do stairs.  We have actually done fine with our current arrangement, so I never followed up on that offer – until this week.

As our dossier gets closer to its submission to China, the practical aspects of “Peter” (our Isaac) joining our family become more urgent.  I contacted the church this week to find out if their offer of help was still good.  I am still amazed that about forty-eight hours later two men were at our house to do measurements and plan the ramp!  They are very informed as to building code requirements and know what they are doing. 

 It will be a substantial change to the landscape of our house.  The ramp will come out ten feet from our front porch, land on a 5’ by 5’ deck platform, then turn and go out six feet to the driveway.  They estimated three to four days to build it.  Amazingly they are offering their labor free-of-charge, so we have only to purchase the supplies!  I am very encouraged by this practical outpouring of love for our boy, and cannot wait to share with him the excitement that others in our community have concerning his homecoming.