We are trucking right along, and currently waiting for our Immigration to be authenticated here in the states and then our Dossier will be on the way to China. At that point we will have hit the next BIG step DTC (Dossier to China). This means, your entire stack of important papers with all of your personal information, home study, medical reports, and authenticated documents will arrive in China. From there it takes some time to get a LID (Log in date) which means you are officially logged into China's system. Then comes a fairly long wait (blah!) for your official LOA (letter of approval). This is a big one! If you remember, we received Pre-approval for Maverick back in February. LOA means, it is a done deal! Oh, how I cannot wait to get that letter in the mail. There are a few more steps after that before we receive approval to travel, but we will get to those later. Are all of those acronyms starting to blend together to you too? They used to be gibberish to me and now I am obsessed with them.
While some days are just plain hard to wait, I have to say that God really prepared us for this wait while we were in process to adopt from Ethiopia. That road was so long and many times frustrating, that this road to Maverick and the China process has been, well, kind of a walk in the park in comparison. God knew what he was doing! Of course He did! I think he prepared our hearts well for this stage.
The thought that our son could potentially be home before the end of the year, seems almost unreal to me. I mean, here we are in May already! We have been in this process for only 4 months and so much has happened already. So while the ache in my heart is heavy because we want our son home with us, it is also thankful for how quickly this year will fly by. I kind of have a vision that I would love to see come to fruition. My constant prayer is that I will have all 4 of my kids sitting in front of our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I can see it in my head. It is my heart's desire! I am praying it can become a reality. Will you pray that along with us?
It does seem that Maverick is in a very loving foster family and this gives us so much peace. Being able to watch his birthday video as he sat in his foster mom's lap and she clapped his hands together as they sang, was good for this mama's heart. It kills me that someone else is caring for my child halfway around the world when I want to care for him, but it really does seem like he is well loved for now. That has been my prayer all along. When I thought he was in an orphanage, which he was for some time, I always prayed for him to have favor with his care givers. That they would truly love him and give him extra care (which is hard because you want all of those babies to be loved and cared for). Then, we found out that he was on the Show Hope floor for some time (which is wonderful) and that he has been with this one foster family for a year. God heard my prayers!
We are excited for all that is ahead. We are trusting God day by day with our boy and with this process. I know He is watching over him even when we cannot. I may be watching his birthday video over and over, just so I can see his little face everyday and feel close to him somehow. I find myself staring at the screen with the goofiest grin on my face. Thank you Jesus for birthday videos and pictures! Here are a few pictures from his third birthday, if you missed them on facebook. Seriously, I am in love!
This is the first time we have seen him smile!
He was showing that he is 3!
On another note, we are so close to our fundraising goal. I cannot even believe it! This has been a long time coming! We may have one more event later this year to knock this out, but we are in the home stretch! We do still have a few shirts left (some sizes are not available). If you would like one, send me a message and let me know what size and style you are looking for and I can let you know if we have it.
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