Getting Really Close

We are almost there!  We are SO ready!  We only have two more steps to go until we are on a plane to see our baby boy/little brother.  We are currently waiting on our Article 5 to be picked up, which will happen on March 23, and then we will officially be waiting on Travel Approval.  We are praying for a "Gotcha Day" of April 13, leaving around April 9!  Of course, this date will all depend on how quickly our Travel Approval arrives.  We have heard that they are arriving pretty quickly right now!  If not April 13, we are hoping for an April 20 "Gotcha Day". We should also receive our last update on our precious boy in the next couple of weeks!  The girls remind us daily that "it is taking such a long time to see our brother".  Not too much longer girlies, we are almost there!

We will be setting up a private Facebook page to journey our trip this time. Unfortunately, we don't think we are going to be able to update our journey on the blog for this trip. We are hearing that Google driven sites and email addresses are being blocked, even when using a VPN. This means we will probably not have access to our email or to the blog. We are hearing that Facebook is working at times, so this seems to be the best place to attempt to journal about our journey.  We will do our best to update our trip as we are able to, but if you don't hear from us, please know that we are doing fine. We are probably just having issues connecting to the Internet. Internet connection seems to be more inconsistent now than on our last trips.

Once we receive Travel Approval and our Consulate Appointment, we will be booking our flights and getting ready to leave!

Prayer Requests:

Please pray with us that we are able to have some good quality family time, in the midst of the business, with our girls before we all head out.

Please pray for the girls as they prepare for the changes and challenges that come with traveling across the word, adding a sibling, recovering from jet lag, and sharing their mama and daddy.

Please pray for Jonathan's heart as his entire world is about to change. He is about to leave everything familiar. He is leaving behind an incredible woman who has been his mother and cared for him since he was six days old.  He is leaving behind familiar smells, familiar faces, familiar foods, and familiar experiences to come to everything unfamiliar. Please pray for comfort and peace for him.

Please pray for Nathan and I as we prepare to be the parents to this precious little one and as we prepare our girls as best we can for the upcoming changes. Pray that our marriage will be stronger than ever.

Look for updates on Facebook!  I will post our private adoption page on our personal page and if you are interested in following along, you can just comment and I will add you!

Cleft Lip and Palate

Many of you have asked about the typical course of treatment for Jonathan once we have returned home from China.  I will give my best attempt at giving you an idea of what will happen and when.

After Returning Home From China:
After our initial visit to the International Adoption Clinic (usually about 1-2 weeks after returning home), we will schedule our first visit with the Cleft Clinic at Children's Hospital, where the team will discuss the best treatment plan for Jonathan. We are very fortunate to have a Cleft Clinic here at Children's Hospital were we will be able to meet with all the professionals involved in his care.  At this time, we will schedule a surgery date for his cleft lip to be repaired.

There will be three necessary surgeries for Jonathan...

Cleft Lip Repair
He will also have ear tubes placed at this time.

Cleft Palate Repair
Approximately 3 months after the lip repair, his cleft palate will be repaired.  The cleft palate surgery requires suturing of the soft tissue of the palate.  Jonathan will stay 1-2 nights in the hospital for this surgery. Depending on how well the palate closes will determine if additional surgeries for the palate will be needed. After the palate is repaired, a speech evaluation by a speech pathologist is recommended. 

Bone Graft

This surgery is typically done between 7 and 9 years of age.  Because Jonathan has a gap in the bone of the gum line, a bone graft will be needed along his alveolar ridge.  Bone from the hip is used to fill the gap in the gum line.

Additional Surgeries (If Needed)
If surgery for speech is recommended, a pharyngeal flap will be done. 

If a revision of his lip or nose is needed, the usual time is before kindergarten. 

As the child grows their face changes. A revision of the lip and/or nose may be desired around age 11-14 years

Around 12-16 years, orthodontics are usually started.

Between 15-20 years, some surgeries that may be needed include jaw surgery to bring the upper jaw forward and/or the lower jaw back, septorhinoplasty – to straighten and refine the nose, malar implants – to build up the mid-face (cheekbones), and revision of the lip and nose. 

The Lord has given us total peace and we are ready to tackle whatever is needed for our son.  Now, lets just get him home!!!

Update
We are currently waiting on our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China.  We have been waiting 56 days and the average wait is 60-90 days.  We are CREEPING closer and closer to the average wait.  The wait for LOA is so hard and long, but with frequent reminders, we remember that this process is all in the Lord's timing, so we try to wait patiently.  Some days are just plain difficult though.  That longing to just touch and hold our little boy sometimes gets the best of our patience.  You would think the waiting would get easier the third time around, but NOTHING is easy about knowing your son or daughter is on the other side of the world and you must wait.   

Once we receive our LOA, we should have a better understanding of when we may travel.  We are hoping and praying for the end of April/beginning of May.  The girls are genuinely excited and are ready to get on that plane to China to get their little brother (we shall see how long that excitement lasts ;)).

Jonathan should have received his care package!  A friend of ours delivered his package to the director of the orphanage who will then give it to his foster family for him to enjoy!  Our friend is currently in China meeting her precious little girl who is in the same city as Jonathan.  Thank you so much Rushton and Derek for hand delivering our little one's package!

And last but not least, we received updated pictures, a video, and answers to 10 questions!!!  This was such an amazing blessing during this time of waiting!      

God Is Faithful!

We continue to stand amazed at the Lord's provision for this adoption.  We are so incredibly blessed!  My prayer is that our family never forgets the incredible stories of selfless giving that we have experienced throughout this process to bring our precious little boy home. 

 

My best friend's daughter greeted me the other night by handing me an envelope.  She was so excited and had a look of pure joy when handing it over.  Below is the most precious letter that was sealed within the envelope, along with $50.00.         

 

"A few days ago I was raking leaves.  Daddy said $5 a bag. I said ok, that's fine with me!  So I did 10 bags. And for a Christmas gift I did a little math and it added up to fifty $. I thought that it was better to give than to receive. The fifty $ has gone to Jonathan's adoption fund."  

What an amazing heart this precious little girl has!  Of course, my eyes filled with tears, and as I stood there, I prayed to the Lord for his guidance in helping us raise our little ones to have giving hearts like this. Truly amazing!

I also want to thank a sweet, sweet friend of mine who approached me several months back about wanting to find a way to help raise money for our adoption.  She hosted a "Holiday Shop Fundraiser".  The proceeds of the items ordered were given to our family for adoption costs. Over $800 was raised!  We are so thankful for her sweet heart, her desire to help our family, and the time she gave to make this a huge success. Again, we just stand in awe each and every day as we walk through this journey of adoption. 

We have also been blessed to receive 3 adoption grants!  We have received grant money through Lifesong for Orphans (matching grant), Forever Families Foundation, and Families Outreach.

 

We are so thankful to be on this incredible journey! 

A Thanksgiving Surprise

Our family had A LOT to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!  We saw our son's face for the first time on Wednesday afternoon, literally 10 hours before Thanksgiving Day!  We were logged-in to China's system on Tuesday around lunchtime, which basically means our family was officially eligible for a referral or match. Roughly 24 hours later, we were staring at our precious sons sweet face!  Our God is so in the details and timing of this entire process!  We sent our letter of intent to China this Tuesday afternoon, expressing our intent to adopt our son. Friday morning, we received China's pre-approval to adopt our son and are we now allowed to share publicly our EXCITING, WONDERFUL, AMAZING, and FANTASTIC news! We have a son!  We now introduce to you....

Jonathan Harvey An Berck

(aka "Brother")

The meaning of "An" in Chinese is "Tranquil" or "Peaceful". 

 

Our little peanut is almost 1 1/2. His birthday is in June.  He has the most precious eyes, cute little bald round head, and pinchable chubby cheeks!  

He currently lives with a foster family, and as far as we know from his paperwork, he has never spent a night in an orphanage. This is such wonderful news!  He lives with a family y'all!!!  How amazing is this!  His paperwork states that he loves bath time, loves to play outside, and loves playing blocks and cars with his foster siblings. 

He has a diagnosis of bilateral cleft lip and palate that will require several surgeries once coming home.  I will post more on what that journey will look like at a later time. He is a healthy little peanut, with all of his measurements on the growth chart. He is developmentally on target, with the exception of his speech, which is to be expected with the cleft lip and palate. 

The girls are SO excited!  They are ready to go to China yesterday!  They carry his pictures around the house and cannot wait to pray for him at night while they clinch his pictures tightly. 

We are so incredibly blessed that the Lord has chosen our family!  We are so in love with this little boy that we can now proudly call our son!  We can't wait to wrap our arms around him!  

We hope to travel roughly 5 months from now, give or take a month. 

Thank you all so much for your support and prayers. 

We love you all. 

God Can Do Amazing Things Through Pumpkins!

 

When Nathan and I felt the Lord calling us back to China again, I must admit that the first thought that entered my mind was “Lord, I really want to obey what you have placed on our hearts and I would LOVE to adopt again, but we cannot afford to do this again!”.  My initial thoughts consisted of…we don’t have enough room in our car for another child and we certainly cannot afford a larger car, we live in a garden home with three smaller bedrooms-where exactly will we put another child, we have completely exhausted our savings on the previous two adoptions and really cannot fund another adoption, etc…  As my mind continued to be filled with worry and anxiety about the financial piece of adoption, the Lord kept assuring me over and over again that He would provide.  Eventually, these thoughts seemed so insignificant compared to that of having a son to pour our love into and to teach about the love of Christ.  A son that would now have a mama, a daddy, and the two most amazing big sisters!  All of a sudden, cramming three kiddos into the back of our 4 Runner and sharing bedrooms seemed like a great idea! 

Our little family continued on just as we always do after a significant life decision or event…with some major drama.  For those of you who are unaware of these dramatic events, I will name a couple.  One month before our wedding, our reception venue burned to the ground.  And as if that wasn’t enough wedding drama, Nathan lost his job the day after we returned from our honeymoon.    Fabulous!  We like to keep things alive over here!  So, as if we didn’t have enough financial endeavors on our plate with beginning the adoption again, our refrigerator decided to quit cooling, our car needed new breaks, and we had some unexpected job challenges.  And just for an additional comical event, between beginning this post last night and completing it tonight our dryer decided to quit working...yep, completely dead.

Through all of this, Nathan and I just continued to pray and trust that the Lord would see us through this adoption process.  The Lord quickly began showing us that He was going to guide us through this and provide for our needs throughout this adoption.  Friends, family, and people in our community began approaching us with questions about how to donate to the adoption and  with ideas for fundraisers they wanted to host.  We researched and applied for numerous adoption grants.  I felt like we were finally starting to make a little progress! 

In the meantime, The Waltchacks, some friends of ours, were planning a fundraiser for their second adoption from China.  They were planning the most creative and amazing fundraising event that I have ever seen…a harvest sale!  They grew over a thousand pumpkins on their farm, and after lots of hard work, brought them to their front yard for a pumpkin sale.  They were raising money for their adoption and they were going to surprise another family that was adopting as well.  Our family was so excited to get up that Saturday morning to pick out pumpkins and support international adoption at the same time!  The weather was perfect for picking out pumpkins and the girls had a blast!  The Harvest Sale was a success! 

A few days later, I received an email from the Waltchacks with the subject line titled “Surprise:)!”.  I thought it was a group email to our local adoption group revealing who the surprise family was and I could not wait to see!  As a looked more closely at the email, I realized it was only addressed to me…I could not believe it!  We were THE family!  I just sat speechless with my eyes full of tears (happy tears of course).  I stopped and prayed, thanking our Lord for providing and thanking him for placing our family on the Waltchack's hearts.  Our God Provides!  I pray daily that when the fear of funding this adoption creeps in, that I am quickly reminded that our God is faithful and will stand right beside us through this process, even if it is in unexpected ways like pumpkins and sweet friends!

Thank you so much Waltchack Family! 

            

 

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5

Feeling Blessed

I am not sure if anyone continues to follow our blog, considering it has been nine months since I have posted, but I am back to update with some exciting news! 

We are going back to China for our third blessing, a precious little boy!!
 

We are all very excited and we feel so blessed that the Lord has called us once again to expand our family through adoption! 

We are in the beginning stages of the process, so it will be around 12 to 18 months before we will travel to China to meet our newest addition.  We have completed our first home study visit and will have our second home study visit on Monday!

Please pray for Nathan and I as we prepare our girls for this transition over the coming months.  Please pray for Karlye and Lucy’s hearts as they experience the many different emotions that come with adding a sibling to their little world.  Please pray for our newest little one that the Lord has already chosen to be a part of our family.

We are so excited to be on this journey again and can't wait to see what The Lord teaches us throughout this next adoption!

Happy Birthday Lucy!/Life Around Here

Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Lucy!  We have two 3 year olds (for 3 months)...please pray for us!  It is hard to believe that Lucy is already 3.  She is just so tiny and petite!  She has come so far since we brought her home.  She really is an amazing little girl who has adjusted very well...and I am proud to announce that this does now include sleep (after EIGHT months)!  Praise the Lord, because we were one tired family!

 

BIG announcement...Lucy is sleeping through the night in her room!  The ENTIRE night!  I went to a sleep seminar at our adoption agency a few weeks ago, because I was so desperate to get help with sleep challenges.  I spoke with the sweet doctor for a while and she provided some really good ideas for our family to try.  Well, she slept through the night that night...she was asleep before I got home from the seminar, so I didn't need to use any of the new ideas!  The Lord new I was really serious about getting some sleep to attend a seminar after being home 8 months ;).  Don't get too excited...that was just for one night.  But, it wasn't too much longer before she began to sleep through the night regularly!  We can even put her in her bed awake (with the door wide open of course) after we rock her for a few minutes!  Such a huge praise!           

 

 

Lucy is so full of personality! She has the brightest eyes that just light up a room! Her smile is amazing too and usually involves a wide open mouth. She is very sweet and gentle...that is unless she is biting or hitting her sister. She is wide open at home, but still takes time to warm up and feel comfortable in new places. She is talking up a storm and says the funniest things! She absolutely adores her big sister (most of the time) and looks up to her for everything.  

 

We had a wonderful time at the beach towards the end of the summer!  We went with my BEST friend from high school and her family.  We always have an amazing time and our kiddos just love each other and get along amazingly well!



 

We finally managed to get pictures of the girls in their silks.  We just couldn't get it together in China  to take pictures because someone was always melting down.  Just in case anyone was curious...these wonderful pictures of the girls in their China silks resulted in a million mosquito bites which led to our worst nightmare for a few weeks...Mr. Staph Infection :(.  But they sure did turn out cute!

 

The girls are taking a ballet and tumbling class.  They love it!  Karlye can't wait to dance on a stage, so she says.  We shall see, since she gets embarrassed in front of me to do anything ballet.  We didn't sign Lucy up for the ballet class initially, but she really wanted to dance with "KarKar" so off she went...first in line! 

 

To say that the girls love school would be an understatement!  Karlye is doing so well in school and learning so much!  She is so close to being able to write her name...I can't believe she is growing up so fast.  Where does the time go?  She loves her teacher and her teacher is exactly who Karlye needed this year!  So amazing how the Lord works out these details!

 

Lucy proved us all wrong!  I prepared the teachers for a crying fit for the first day of school, as she continued to have difficulty with separating from us into new places.  She walked up into that classroom like she was a pro!  I had to interrupt her playing to ask her for a hug and a kiss.  She hasn't looked back sense!  In fact...she was only signed up for 2 days a week, but she had a meltdown the entire time Karlye was at school (Karlye goes 3 days a week) and she was not so needless to say, she is going 3 days now.  Such a big girl!

 

Lucy had a small get together with family and close friends to celebrate her first 3 precious years of life and for us to dedicate that we will raise our child to know the Lord.  It was a special time!  Thank you Pat for leading her child dedication...it means so much to us to have you do this for our family!  

 

Karlye did an amazing job being the helpful big sister for Lucy's big day!  We had prepared Karlye for this day for a while, as we knew it may be difficult for her, but she did wonderful!  

 

Lucy is growing so well since being home from China!  She has gained 6.5 pounds since coming home!  She is still not on the growth chart, but progressing well...we believe in slow and steady over here;).  She is actually 25% on the growth chart for height.  This poses a challenging problem in the "pants" department.  She needs an 18 month size for her little waist, but she looks like she is waiting on a flood, a high flood!