Red Thread Photo Session

Chinese Proverb:

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break.

 We were blessed with a "Red Thread" photo session by Erin Hull Photography.  Erin specializes in birth and adoption photos.  After a long week of dossier drama, it was a pleasure to find the photos in my mailbox!  Share some happiness with us.  We'll catch up with the drama later...

 

Homestudy APPROVED!

Our homestudy has been approved by our placement agency.  Once we receive our notarized copy we will have it sealed at the county level then authenticated at the state level along with the other documents that originated in Ohio.  We're hot on the trail of our dossier now! 

We are unfortunately still holding on Ethan's record of birth.  Keep praying that it comes quickly!  This little guy has spent NINE YEARS in an orphanage and it is time for him to come home!

Pat is Nine

September 16, 2014 marked Pat's last birthday with the status of orphan.  We were able to send him a cake and treats so he could celebrate (a couple of weeks ago) with his friends.  He found out at that time that we would be coming to make him a part of our family.  I.CAN'T.WAIT! 

Our homestudy process was quick, so its been discouraging now as we just wait for the last two documents to arrive. Today the long awaited clearance came in so we are waiting on JUST Ethan's certificate of birth to be able to authenticate, seal and send this dossier to China.  Ethan was born to American citizens while they were on the mission field, so it isn't as easy as it sounds.  It gets a bit depressing as day after day goes by and the document doesn't appear in the mailbox.  There is no information to be had when inquiring about its status other than,  "It is in process."  We've been on track to be DTC by the end of the month, but the end of the month is quickly approaching.  We'd appreciate your prayers for some quick processing at the State Department to get this document done.

Mid Autumn Festival

One of the biggest festivals in China is that of the Mid Autumn Festival which is a harvest festival that traditionally gives thanks to the moon.  Some have likened it to be the Chinese version of Thanksgiving.

The ancient Chinese observed that the movement of the moon had a close correlation with the changes in seasons, thus they offered a sacrifice to the moon.  Romantically speaking, the festival is to commemorate Chang E, who in order to protect her beloved husband’s elixir, ate it herself and flew to the moon.  There are numerous other legends surrounding Mid Autumn Festival - the most well-known ones include Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine, Wu Gang Chopping Laurel Tree, and Zhu Yuanzhang and the Moon Cake Uprising. ( China Travel Guide) Our family's celebration is modified a bit.  Instead of giving thanks to the moon itself, we thanked the Creator of it.  

When asked what they wanted to eat this year, the girls all wanted the traditional mooncakes

And Isaac....well, he wanted SNAILS!

We also had fried rice, steamed buns, and dumplings.

We read the book Thanking the Moon after dinner

 and when it began to get dark the kids enjoyed playing with some glow sticks.

This year we had beautiful, clear skies and were able to see the moon really well through the trees in our backyard.

 

Who is a Football Lover Among Us?

UPDATE:  The auction has ended, but sadly with no bids.  Thanks for taking a peek!

A friend from our homeschool co-op asked if it would be ok for her to auction off some tickets this weekend as a fundraiser towards Pat's adoption. Oh YES!  It is VERY OK!   

If you are a football fan, especially of Ohio college ball, this may really interest you!  Here is her announcement:

ALL FUNDS RAISED go toward bringing Pat home to his family. 

FOUR tickets to 

Ohio State University vs Kent State University football. 

September 13, 2014

Columbus, Ohio

NOON KICKOFF

Face value is $360. 

There is nothing quite like a college football game in Ohio State's stadium - the horseshoe, the "shoe"!  If you are a fan, you already know this. If you have never been, it's an amazing experience you won't want to miss. 

These seats are on the home side (you see the band's performance right-side up), under cover (great in extreme heat or cold or rain), unobstructed by columns, you can see the whole field, has cushioned seats and seat backs, and has two aisle seats (on the correct side so that people going up and down the stairs do not block your view).  You will be near the end zone in the closed end of the stadium. 

Tickets can be transferred to you via email. You can either print at home OR get them sent to your smart phone!

I will sell to the highest bidder. Bidding ends Monday night, September 8, so the winner has enough time to make plans.  I will accept bids via email or Facebook post. 

Ginnyandkids@cinci.rr.com

FB - Ginny Baker Johnson

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. ANYONE CAN BID. 

Remember, this is for bringing this boy home to Ohio, all the way from China!  If that's not a worthy cause, I don't know what is. I love a good bargain, but some things are more important than a good discount. 

For more on this precious boy's story of adoption and to follow his family's progress toward  bringing  him home, visit their blog:  www.lanzadoption.com

Let's raise some money for the Lanz family's adoption fund!

So our process just got a lot shorter!

The one thing I really dreaded with the other adoptions was the long drawn out process of getting the i800a approval.  For those new to the adoption process, the full name of this form is Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, the convention country being China in this case. With the Princesses, this step took a month, and with Isaac, it took nearly two months.  The USCIS website says to allow up to 90 days.

So you can understand my excitement!  I just heard from our officer, and since we were approved for two children when we applied with Isaac, we get to SKIP that i800a step with Pat, and just use the approval we already have. This will save us one to three months off the time of the process!

Because of things happening in our family - the expected birth of a grandchild, a son graduating from college AND getting married - if we can't travel by February, we pretty much have to wait until June.  Skipping this step just made travel in the beginning of next year go from "highly unlikely" to "certainly possible!" 

Milestones

We arrived at a couple of milestones this week.  On Tuesday our social worker came for a home visit with a double purpose.  It was time to begin working on Isaac's SIX MONTH post placement report (how is THAT possible?) and to do the update for Pat's homestudy!

I'm told they are waiting on a few reference forms to arrive and then we should be DONE!  Our social worker was so excited when she heard Pat's story and saw the photos of the things we did with him this summer.  She said she was going to go home and write the report yet that night.   I'm hoping our placement agency will get our homestudy draft sometime next week.  This was all accomplished in less than a month!  Hoping this lightning pace holds.