I received an email from our agency this morning stating that they did NOT get our travel announcement in the mail today. That means that the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) did not get it done before the national holiday for the Chinese New Year. All of this means that we won't even have a chance of getting our travel announcement until at least February 5th. Our agency is currently trying to schedule travel 3 weeks after receiving the travel announcement, so the earliest we could travel is now February 26th. More than likely though, we won't travel until sometime in March due to guide availability.
Pros:
1. Our house will be closer to completion
2. The weather will be a little warmer in China by then
Cons:
1. WE HAVE TO WAIT EVEN LONGER TO GET OUR MAEMAE!
It ultimately boils down to God's plan and timing. We are so blessed to serve a God who looks out for our best interests in all situations! So, we will continue to seek His will and pray for patience while He irons out the details.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Past Week
The first thing we did last week was sign our referral and overnight it back to our agency so they could send it back to China. Once that was done, Kala started working with an online company who takes care of care packages for your child. We sent her a pillow with a picture of our family on it, a teddy bear, some fruit, and other kid stuff. That company offers other services that we ordered as well. They have a list of 12 pre-made questions that they can send to your child's orphanage/foster home for the caregiver to answer, and they get the answers, translate them to English, and send them to us. We also sent a disposable camera to her foster home for the caregiver to take pictures of Maelin, her home, and other things Maelin enjoys.
We have also been questioning members of our yahoo group who have already returned with their children. We have learned all kinds of valuable information like: Take small plastic boxes filled with snacks and drinks for the trip. Once the boxes are empty, fill them with your purchases from the trip. Don't play peek-a-boo with your new child because "boo" in Chinese means NO! They have given us tips on where to get our laundry done while over there, where the best and cheapest places are to eat, and where to shop. The group is really beneficial, and we are blessed to have them to answer questions for us!
I am sorry if this post is all over the place; I am trying to get it done quickly! I'll update when we know more.
Also, quite a while ago we were questioning Keelan about what she was going to call Maelin. She calls Rylan bubba, so we asked if she was going to call Maelin sissy. She responded, "No, I am going to call her Mae-Mae!" Well, we found out this last week that Mei-Mei in Chinese pronounced (may-may) means little sister! Doesn't God have a sense of humor. It is awesome to see God's hand in all aspects of this adoption!
We have also been questioning members of our yahoo group who have already returned with their children. We have learned all kinds of valuable information like: Take small plastic boxes filled with snacks and drinks for the trip. Once the boxes are empty, fill them with your purchases from the trip. Don't play peek-a-boo with your new child because "boo" in Chinese means NO! They have given us tips on where to get our laundry done while over there, where the best and cheapest places are to eat, and where to shop. The group is really beneficial, and we are blessed to have them to answer questions for us!
I am sorry if this post is all over the place; I am trying to get it done quickly! I'll update when we know more.
Also, quite a while ago we were questioning Keelan about what she was going to call Maelin. She calls Rylan bubba, so we asked if she was going to call Maelin sissy. She responded, "No, I am going to call her Mae-Mae!" Well, we found out this last week that Mei-Mei in Chinese pronounced (may-may) means little sister! Doesn't God have a sense of humor. It is awesome to see God's hand in all aspects of this adoption!
Friday, January 2, 2009
It's official, she is ours!!!!
The year started off better than we could have imagined. We got the call from our adoption agency saying that they have our LSC a.k.a. referral. We should travel in late February or early March to go get her. We are so excited! We are in Kermit right now and don't have any of her photos with us, so I will post pictures of her when we get home.
Friday, December 19, 2008
FAQ
Why adoption?
A couple of reasons...First, that is what God said! Next, Kala hates being pregnant, and for good reason. She is sick the whole time to the point of dehydration. Last, with every child we have, there is a 25% chance that child will have PKU. (But you are adopting a child with PKU! Hold-on, will get to that in a second)
Why international adoption and not domestic?
Once again for multiple reasons...First, that is what God said! Next, the laws protect the adoptive parents more with international adoption. I have a friend in the Dallas area that adopted a 9 month old boy from a lady who signed over all rights. Nine months later she filed with the courts to get the baby back--AND WON! It devestated my friend and his wife. After having "their" child for a little over 9 months, the courts took "their" baby away. Kala and I couldn't handle that.
Why China?
China has been running an international adoption program for a long time now. The process is fairly consistent and is not filled with the corruption that some other programs are. We researched other countrys' programs, and based on babies health, process, travel time, and cost, we decided on China.
A couple of reasons...First, that is what God said! Next, Kala hates being pregnant, and for good reason. She is sick the whole time to the point of dehydration. Last, with every child we have, there is a 25% chance that child will have PKU. (But you are adopting a child with PKU! Hold-on, will get to that in a second)
Why international adoption and not domestic?
Once again for multiple reasons...First, that is what God said! Next, the laws protect the adoptive parents more with international adoption. I have a friend in the Dallas area that adopted a 9 month old boy from a lady who signed over all rights. Nine months later she filed with the courts to get the baby back--AND WON! It devestated my friend and his wife. After having "their" child for a little over 9 months, the courts took "their" baby away. Kala and I couldn't handle that.
Why China?
China has been running an international adoption program for a long time now. The process is fairly consistent and is not filled with the corruption that some other programs are. We researched other countrys' programs, and based on babies health, process, travel time, and cost, we decided on China.
God or Coincidence???
As I posted in the first blog, God first told me we were supposed to adopt back in October of 2006. Maelin was born in October of 2006! She will be 2 and a half when we get her.
From the beginning...
We are Brad and Kala Parker of Denver City, TX. Back in October of 2006 our church showed a video during the service to promote "Operation Christmas Child." God started tugging at my heart telling me that giving to children less fortunate during Christmas is a good thing to do, and I should; but he wanted me to do more. He wanted our family to take one of these children in as our own. Okay, God has a sense of humor...I knew the toughest part was going to be telling Kala what God had told me. I spent many a night praying for God to prepare her heart for the news. He took care of it. She didn't immediately jump on board, but after some prayer, research, and consideration she was ready to get the ball rolling.
We started by researching the different countries from which we could adopt and there are a lot. After more prayer and research, we decided on China. We chose our agency, Great Wall China Adoption because some friends of ours had used them and had nothing but nice things to say about them. Next step, the paper chase. I don't even want to look back at that frustrating time. It is a lot of work, but we knew it would be worth it. We sent in our paper work on 3/19/07, and it got logged in with the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs on 4/4/07 which is our log-in-date or LID. At that point it was out of our hands. We just had to sit back and wait, and wait, and wait.
As the wait continued to lengthen, our agency started sending out emails with information about kids with special needs who were available for immediate adoption. On September 26th, 2008, I got the email and started looking through the children on the list. I noticed a little girl who has phenylketonuria (PKU) just like Rylan our oldest. Kala was gone to a teachers' conference in Lubbock, so I sent a text telling her we need to act now if we wanted to get her before someone else got her. I was hoping and praying that she had her phone on and within a few seconds, she texted back ACT NOW! At that point, I contacted our agency and notified them that we wanted to apply to adopt her. Now there was more paperwork that had to be done in 48 hours. We got that done and submitted our Letter of Intent or LOI on September 27, 2008. Next we had to wait on our pre-approval or PA, and it took longer than what was being averaged at that time so we started getting a little anxious. It arrived on November 7, 2008 which brings us to where we are now, waiting for our referral or LSC. I'm not sure what LSC stands for.
If I had to give an estimate of when we will travel to go get her right now, I would say sometime in March. We will be in China for two weeks. We are so excited and ready to go get her. Once we receive our referral, I can post more information about her and a few pictures!
We started by researching the different countries from which we could adopt and there are a lot. After more prayer and research, we decided on China. We chose our agency, Great Wall China Adoption because some friends of ours had used them and had nothing but nice things to say about them. Next step, the paper chase. I don't even want to look back at that frustrating time. It is a lot of work, but we knew it would be worth it. We sent in our paper work on 3/19/07, and it got logged in with the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs on 4/4/07 which is our log-in-date or LID. At that point it was out of our hands. We just had to sit back and wait, and wait, and wait.
As the wait continued to lengthen, our agency started sending out emails with information about kids with special needs who were available for immediate adoption. On September 26th, 2008, I got the email and started looking through the children on the list. I noticed a little girl who has phenylketonuria (PKU) just like Rylan our oldest. Kala was gone to a teachers' conference in Lubbock, so I sent a text telling her we need to act now if we wanted to get her before someone else got her. I was hoping and praying that she had her phone on and within a few seconds, she texted back ACT NOW! At that point, I contacted our agency and notified them that we wanted to apply to adopt her. Now there was more paperwork that had to be done in 48 hours. We got that done and submitted our Letter of Intent or LOI on September 27, 2008. Next we had to wait on our pre-approval or PA, and it took longer than what was being averaged at that time so we started getting a little anxious. It arrived on November 7, 2008 which brings us to where we are now, waiting for our referral or LSC. I'm not sure what LSC stands for.
If I had to give an estimate of when we will travel to go get her right now, I would say sometime in March. We will be in China for two weeks. We are so excited and ready to go get her. Once we receive our referral, I can post more information about her and a few pictures!
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