Sunday, July 27, 2014

LOA Wait Day 58

Until July rolled around I think I had been pretty chill about this whole adoption process. I was actually becoming a little concerned because I wasn’t responding with the same level of worry and emotion as the other adoptive moms in the plethora of new China adoption Facebook groups I have joined.
Well faithful audience….I have arrived! I am now counting the days. It doesn't particularly help that another waiting mom/online friend (and former financial analyst) has shared an incredibly detailed spreadsheet of everyone’s time lines in an attempt to predict when coveted milestones will occur. For instance, I know that it has been 58 days since our dossier was logged in, and that the shortest wait to have a dossier reviewed is 59 days. I know that on average, 4 days after it is reviewed, the match between child and family is reviewed. Then per current trends, about a week later it’s official! You receive your confirmation that the adoption is actually happening, in the form of a document called the letter of approval (LOA)! FYI: That is when we can share pictures publicly! Don’t get me wrong, this is valuable information to have. I’m sure other adoptive families can relate to wanting to somehow determine when the ever anticipated gotcha day will arrive! But it is also MAKING ME CRAZY! Even with all this counting and predicting, there are certainly no hard and fast rules. Anything can happen, and you never know how long it will take. Needless to say it been a pretty rough few weeks! I’m starting to become so weary of waiting to meet my son and bring him home. I’ll just say that Jesus is getting a little extra weight on his shoulders lately. It’s on Him that I cast my burdens, knowing that it WILL happen in God’s timing, in His way! Fortunately, I was also given a gift a few weeks ago, in the form of a long video of Micah sent with an update from China. I can’t tell you how relieved and happy I was to see a smile on his adorable little face! He seems to enjoy playing with toys very much, and is quite pleased with himself when he completes a goal. I was also incredibly thankful to hear that he receives 40 minutes of rehab each day in the orphanage. I imagine that the nannies wanted to show off his accomplishments, as they were sure to include moments of my boy standing against a wall and taking a couple side steps toward his weak side. With all of this good news, also came a bit of concerning information. Micah has a very sensitive stomach, and has some GI distress if he is not fed a very specific diet. Who knows what the cause of this is. Hopefully it is a minor problem, but it will definitely need to be addressed as soon as we get him home. The positive in this situation, is that it does shed some light on why Micah is so very small for his age. After converting all his recent measurements I have determined that he is the size of an 18 month old (less than half his actual age). Over the last few weeks I have been fighting the hard fight to distract myself. I have painted Micah’s room and have been hitting up yard sales for toy storage options. Now that we know Micah’s size we have also been able to get a car seat. Thank you so much Laura and Brandon Priest for this gift; and to Cassie Sartin for giving me the safe car-seat thumbs up! We also got a crib, which Phil so expertly put together (Babies R Us- yay for sales!). I am probably most excited about the crib quilt I made for Micah, and actually finished just this afternoon. I was so happy with how well the fabric matches his room! What do you think?


On the fundraising front, we just got a much needed boost from a yard sale that my family in Kentucky had. Again, thank you again to all who donated and made it possible!
Even with their generous gifts, we are very far from being fully funded. We still need just over $10,000 to pay for all of our travel costs and mandatory orphanage donation. A live auction fundraiser event is still in the planning stages. So please pray for sponsors and donors, because it won’t happen without them! As we get closer and closer to the finish line (3 months), that dollar amount makes me pretty nervous (as my husband can attest). Again, I know in my heart that it will happen. To this point we have been provided with funds as we need them, and not a minute sooner. I have to expect that this will continue to happen, regardless of what my planner’s brain may tell me. My God is continually challenging me to not box Him in. He’s got this! While we wait, we ask that you continue to pray us and our boy.