High Court Order and Travel

Well Hello!

So last Tuesday we got fantastic news! The High Court Order was issued. Praise The Lord! Hallelujah! It only took 7 & 1/2 weeks. I cannot even tell you how shocked I was to receive the news. It took 10 & 1/2 weeks for my friends in Atlanta to get their HCO. We were not expecting to hear from HK until the week of Dec. 6.

So it happened like this. The kids and I were sleeping late. It was about 9:15am and my home phone began to ring. Nobody but soliciters call my home phone. I take that back, my sister in law and a few friends call it occasionally, but for the most part, it is just junk calls. We have one of the phones that announces who is calling. So instead of getting  out of my warm bed to answer the phone I waited for my phone to tell me who it was. When she announced that it was Bethany Christians Serices I lept from the bed to reach to phone. I couldn't see the phone so I mashed the wrong button and somehow had Alison on speaker phone.

It was really quite hysterical. The big kids were coming from their bedrooms all sleepy eyed trying to figure out why mom was knocking things over and making all kinds of noise to get to the telephone. Once they realized what had happened they joined me in celebration. Happy, happy day.

Mother's Choice recommended meeting John on Monday Dec. 3 which meant we needed to arrive the weekend before.  That gave us roughly  1 & 1/2 weeks to get to HK. Good grief, these people don't play. David spent the rest of the day making flight arrangements.

On a side note, our church (Old Peachtree Presbyterian) decided about a week or so ago to give us some extra money for the trip. God's timing is perfect. With the extra money we were able to buy Holley Kate a ticket to come with us! Yippee! She has been such a good sport about this whole process. She desperatley wanted to go. We have told her time and time again that we probably wouldn't be able to afford it, and not to get her hopes up. But guess what! God totally proviced a way.

Now you may be wondering about Calvin. I kid you not. The child begged me not to make him go. He had no desire to sit on an airplane for hours on end, go to a foreign country, eat weird food, etc. He just wasn't having any of it. The good news is that our family has come through for us. I'll drop Calvin off with his grandparents the day b/f we fly out. He'll go between both of David's parents' houses and maybe even get to go to Americus as well. I found out later on that he was super stoked to get to have his grandparents to himself. He said he had never had them to himself. Come to think of it, I guess he hasn't.

Praise The Lord for plans coming together! Everybody is happy with the arrangements. Of course I'm worried about leaving my eldest. I am not one of those moms that leaves her kids for any extended amount of time. I'm not super mom. I'm just extremely needy and want the ones I love close all the time. Heck, I  usually take our dogs with us everywhere we go. They even go skying with us in the summer. They hang out on the boath with us and bark at boats that come too close.

I have experienced about every emotion you can imagine in the last couple of days. I feel like I'm going into labor without the labor pains (for which I am grateful). I'm anxious about leaving Calvin, leaving the dogs, leaving my house... You name it and I've worried about it.

If you think about it, please remember us in your prayers. We've got a long road ahead of us. I'll be keeping everyone updated at this blog while we're gone. I'll also post pictures of John and maybe some of the other kiddos on a different blog, my password protected blog.
Here is that address:
schrammclan.wordpress.com

If you want to look at the picutres just  go to the site and fill out the new user info. It will send me an email asking me if you can view my blog. I'll say yes, then you can see all the pics.

 Love and kisses to all!

Waiting, waiting... and Pictures!!

Well, today marks 6 weeks that we received the Article 5 letter. The count to our High Court order began. The adopting agency told us the average is 8 weeks. So theoretically, we should hear in 2 weeks.

I'll tell you right now, I don't believe it. I think we have at least 4 more weeks before we hear. My friends, that arrived in Hong Kong this morning, had to wait 10 & 1/2 weeks to get their HCO :0(

That would put us in Hong Kong the week of Christmas. Oh, I do NOT want to be in HK the week of Christmas. But,  if that is that is what it takes to bring John home then we'll be there with bells on.

On a brighter note, they finally told John that he has a mommy and daddy! He didn't understand why we were changing his name from Kevin to John. How do you explain to a 3 year old that his older brother's name is Calvin which is way to similar to Kevin?

Funny thing is, on the video that we sent to John, I kept saying Calvin's name. That confused John since he thought I was saying "Kevin". Oh, this is going to be confusing when we get him home.

I'm not sure if I mentioned the video we sent John before, but it was about a 10 minute tour of the house. We made sure to go out in the back yard and show him the play set. Calvin and Holley Kate demonstrated the swings and slide. Apparently, the ladies in HK asked John if he was scared to go down the slide. His response was no, that he would sit in his sister's lap and go down.

Our heart melted! Holley Kate cried; I cried; I think we had everyone in the house in tears. It means so much to Holley Kate to hear that John wants a big sister. She loves him already.

So, for the most important part! Pictures! HK is real weird about us showing pictures of the kids. I have another blog that has pictures of John since I couldn't figure out how to password protect certain posts here.

So, here is the address:

schrammclan.wordpress.com

The wordpress blog  is password protected so if you want to see the pictures just private message me and I'll send you the password. You can do it via Face book or my regular email which is :

schramm.julie@gmail.com

Love to all!

Article 5 Approval

I know, I know, long time no blog.

Well, I'm here to update on all things John. Last Thursday, September 30, we received our Article 5 letter. I really don't know a whole lot about what an Article 5 letter, but I do know this. You have to have it to adopt. It takes about 8 weeks after you get the Article 5 to receive the High Court Order. Once we get the HCO we will be given travel dates which are usually 1-3 weeks post HCO.

I've been scouring the internet looking for blogs from people who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Hong Kong. So I'm going to add a little technical info here for others who may be reading this blog to get some answers.

We received our Matching Approval on August 10. It took about a week for the documents from HK to arrive at our adoption agency. In the mean time David and I filled out documents for immigration. Everything was mailed to USCIS on either 8/20 or 8/21. We received immigration approval on 9/5 which was about 2 & 1/2 weeks.

After than all of our immigration info was supposed to be sent to the US Consulate in  Hong Kong for the Article 5 letter . A friend of mine who is a few weeks ahead of me in the journey told me that it took them 10 days after immigration approval to get their Article 5 letter. That was not the case for us.

Ten days came and went without hearing anything from the consulate. After much fretting and gnashing of teeth I called Bethany. Long story short, our paper work got left on a bureaucrat's desk and was not sent to the consulate. Craziness ensued on my part which involved me calling the consulate on a Sunday night to try and figure out if they had received our documents. Ok, I have to tell you, those poor English speaking Hong Kong ladies had no clue what this South Ga redneck was saying. I kept yelling "article 5" into the computer (I called on Skype). Travel over there is going to be real interesting for us.

Thank the good Lord, Mother's Choice confirmed with us that Monday that the consulate had received our immigration and was in the process of getting the Article 5 together. The actual Article 5 was issued September 27. Hallelujah!!!

Now we are waiting for the High Court Order. They say it take 6-10 weeks with 8 being the average. Please pray with me for the HCO. All of this has been perfectly ordained by God. I know His timing is best. I want to be comfortable and peaceful with God's timing. But, I really want that HCO to come sooner rather than later. God hasn't been doing any of this according to my time table, so maybe I should start going with His. The only problem with that is that I can't print off His table study it, and make plans accordingly :0)

I got a video in the mail last week. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Almost there!!!

Almost a week ago today, we found out that Hong Kong had approved David and me to be the parents of our 3 year old boy (we knew he was ours even when they didn't). Woo Hoo! It only took 3 months & 27 days to make that decision, but who's counting? We are so excited! It almost seems unreal that we are getting closer to traveling.

So that is the next question. When do we travel? From what I understood them to say, here is the break down:
2-3 weeks for I-800 approval
2 weeks for Article V approval
8-10 weeks for the High Court Order

So that is roughly 4 months, which puts us into December. I also found out that we will only get about a 1-3 week lead time for airplane travel and hotel. I'm already worried that the airline tickets will be astronomical because of both the time of year and the fact that we can't buy the tickets earlier. I'm praying about that. I called Clark Howard's consumer action number to ask the best way to handle this. They said the best way was to sign up on various websites to track ticket prices.

Another reason I'm concerned about ticket prices is because we had originally planned to take Calvin and Holley Kate with us. If the tickets are real expensive then that will not happen. Of course, that make me sad    :(

But you know, whatever happens is what was supposed to happen. God may not make a way for Calvin and Holley Kate to go with us. He may have other plans that my human self has no way of grasping. And if that is the way it shakes out, I'll be ok with that. I'm trusting in Him to handle this little hiccup.

We started decorating his room. Nautical!! I'm painting a Goodwill dresser right now. I'm so excited to do these little things for him. We have to work on a video to send him too. I'm having a lot of fun right now.

God Bless Y'all!

For the Love of All Good Distractions

Good grief! It really has been a long time since I last blogged. I have to say I've been rather busy.

So, where to start? Let's see. The dossier finally got sent to Hong Kong. About 6 weeks later ( 2 weeks ) ago we received a ton of questions from the HK government. Most of them were very well thought out. With that being said, I practically had to write an essay to answer the questions they asked.

One of the questions read, "Explain to us in concrete terms how you understand his diseases and what you are doing to prepare yourselves for them". Whew! So basically, I had to take each of his illnesses one by one, explain to them how I understood it, and what we were planning to do to best treat these illnesses.

Most of his "diseases" are life long that he'll just have to learn to live around. It just comes down to finding the right physician to help manage them.

Our sweet pediatrician wrote a fantastic letter explaining that she had reviewed his charts with us and that we knew what we were getting ourselves into. It was really a glowing referral, and I am so very thankful to Dr. Khan for that.

There were also many questions about finances. Oh joy! I deferred to David for that. It should be relatively easy to show why we had way more money in the fall than we do in the spring, mainly because it belongs to Bethany now. But, of course, nothing is easy. For some reason everyone wants proof ;0)

About 2 weeks later we had answered all their questions to the best of our abilities. Now we are praying that that is good enough for the Hong Kong government. The next step is getting the referral which is, as I understand, the approval from the Hong Kong gov't that we can adopt their kid. Once they give us that, we'll get our travel dates, Lord willing.

Please pray for expediency. This waiting process is quite difficult for me. Most of the time I am either impatient, mad, gloomy, irritated, or all of those at the same time. I should be resting in God's peace and perfect timing. But unfortunately, most of the time I do not.

I did beg the Hong Kong specialist for information about my baby. Glory Hallelujah! We got some news! He is now walking and speaking in full sentences, albeit Cantonese. He is also reaching for tiny objects. I'll take that to mean his vision is not as bad as I had feared. Woo Hoo!

I found out the name of his primary care giver is Stella. She is holding my baby in her arms and teaching him how to love. From everything that I've read, the orphans that have a caregiver that they bond with have an easier time bonding to their family. Please pray for Stella as only the body of Christ can!

So, there's the adoption update in a nutshell. I hope I have new news soon.

Oh, and there's been this little thing called VBS that has been going on this week. I'm the director. Praise the Lord for fruitful distractions!

The kids are having a blast! We've got two extra kids going with us, one of which is un-churched. Please pray  that through VBS and gospel presentation God will draw her to Him. That would be amazing!

Now, I will be completely unproductive and go take a nap. Peace out!

Roller Coaster of Love

I'm sitting here at the computer when I really should be cleaning the house. But honestly, I'm sick to death of it. I've got so many things on my mind that I thought maybe blogging would help me chill. So here goes.

This week has been full of many fabulous ups and one not so fantastic down. The I800A not only got approved, but I received it Friday. I had it in my greasy little hands for about 1 hour before I rushed to the post office and overnighted it to Alison, the lady in charge on Hong Kong adoptions. Before you ask, yes, I made a copy of it before I mailed it off.

On Tuesday I found out that we were accepted for the Promise 686 Grant. If you aren't familiar with Promise 686 I'll give you a quick tutorial. Perimeter Church in Atlanta ( a Presbyterian PCA church like us) backs this grant. It is a matching grant of up to $8000. Meaning they match dollar per dollar up to $4000. You have to live within the greater Atlanta area to qualify.

I cannot tell you how thrilled we were! And the crazy part is that we already have people giving us money. I'm trying desperately trying to figure out how to set everything up. What an amazing problem to have!!

I have to tell you, I'm not a very eloquent prayer. It usually sounds something like, "Please, please Lord let so and so happen ", or " Please, please Lord heal my kid, save my kid, help him/her find a Godly spouse". See, not very original. But one of my best friends, Allison (who happens to be a wonderful Godly woman), had told me that she prayed for open or closed doors ( in a situation they were dealing with). So that is what I did. And guess what? He has blown the doors off the hinges for us!

We did not have the money to do this adoption. We were in a doing ok financially only because God had led us to Dave Ramsey. We had become debt free in October '10. But we were still working on our emergency fund when we started considering adoption. Money was probably the biggest hindrance to adopting. How were we going to come up with the estimated $20,000 it would take to pay for this adoption? I spoke to some ladies at my church who had adopted multiple times and asked where the money came from? They said that it just comes. What?? How in the name of Sam Hill does that happen? We were about to find out.

For some reason, we decided for forge ahead without a check for $20K sitting in front of us. The first thing we did was have a garage sale. I've blogged about that. It was AMAZING! So to date, we've paid $8700 to the adoption agency and probably $2000 in miscellaneous bills related to the adoption ( passports, I800A, doctor visits etc.) So where did we get the money? We made about $4500 with the yard sale. The rest was just bizzaro. We got a tax refund, and somehow we had the rest of the money in the bank. Crazy, huh? Not crazy, but God. David and I didn't do anything fantastic but trust that God would provide. I can't explain the amount of peace I have had with the "money" issue. I just trusted it would be there. If you know me, you know this is SOOOOO not my personality. I'm a worrier and I especially freak out when it comes to money. God is providing in more than one way.

We still have about $10K to raise. But as crazy as this may sound, I'm looking forward to raising it. This adoption process and helped strengthen my faith. If we are doing His will, He will provide. That has been shown to us over and over again.

So, as for the bad part of the week, I think I'll wait and see if that situation sorts itself out. It could look pretty bad for a company and for their employee. I'm not into bashing them publicly on the internet. Not saying I wasn't ticked, but I've had time to calm down. David and I made a decision together to turn the problem over to our pastor and elders (if it is not handled properly). I am much more at peace knowing I don't have to go after Goliath by myself.

Ahhhhh! I already feel better ;0)

Hopefully Alison will mail out the dossier to Hong Kong on either Monday or Tuesday. Then we get to wait for Hong Kong to give us a referral. After that we travel!!! Please pray for an expedited referral. The little boy we are adopting is turning 3 in July. We'd really love to have him in our arms to celebrate his birth.

One last thing I forgot to mention about praying. David and I had about an hour long discussion with our pastor a few weeks ago. It was and interview for a grant that requires your pastor to ask you some questions about salvation etc. It turned into a "mini" counseling session. It was fantastic. One of the little gems I picked up while there was another way to pray. My pastor said that a way to ask God to expedite our plans, and help with funding would be to make our case to God. Basically list the reasons why we want to hurry up an get to Hong Kong. List the reasons we need the money to make this trip possible. I am so grateful for this advice. David and I are truly blessed to have such a wise and Godly man as our pastor.

That is all for now. Hopefully we'll have that referral soon!

Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?

It is so hard to write on my blog when I'm frustrated. I think it will sound whiny and pathetic. But maybe if I get that out of the way real quick it won't sound so bad??? So here goes!

It is taking forever to get the I800a form back. For those of you who don't know the "adoption lingo" that is some form that has to go to INS. Once they take a look at it they send me a form to get our fingerprints for our VISAs. It's been almost 7 weeks and still no appointment for fingerprints. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

The adoption agency is calling INS every other day. They are also submitting some form to speed up INS. Ha! Speed up the government. Good one.

If this form doesn't work they'll have to get GA's sentator, Johnny Isakson, involved. I'm just so over this. I asked if there was anybody I could call and bless out. They said no. Dangit!! I really need to unload on the government employee who is holding up the process. And people wonder why I REALLY dislike the government. Hmmm???

The super, fantastic, incredible news I got last week came in the form of pictures. They sent me pictures from the orphanage!! I screamed and cried and smiled! And then I did them all over again. I also showed everyone around me the pictures. Since David was at work and all my friends weren't around I had to show them to the Home Depot guy and the ladies at the dry cleaners. Bless their hearts, they pretended to be happy for me at least.

It was great taking the pictures to church yesterday and showing him off. Everyone clucked over him just as I had hoped. It was great. Now they have a picture in their heads of the little boy they've been praying for.

I'm hoping I can put his pictures here on my blog. We'll have to wait and see though. They are very funny about putting kid's pictures out there.

In other news, Calvin signed up for football. I think it is a conspiracy b/w my son and my husband to see how much stress I can take. He'll be playing for a home school league but I hear they are fierce. Great.... Calvin is tall and thin. He wants to play wide receiver. I assume this means he wants to be the one to catch the ball when the QB throws it. Eeek! I just hope he's fast.

I hope all of y'all are doing well. Thanks for reading!