Irish Stew

A couple of weeks ago, we received an email from our adoption agency that they would be asking China for an update on JQ and did we have any questions we wanted to pass along?

Yes.

So, we asked a little more about his foster family and where he lives, if there is anything he doesn't like (so we could try to avoid that or at least know ahead of time) and if he knows he is being adopted. The agency said they would ask and then let us know, but keep in mind that it could take up to a month to get an answer.

A week later, they sent us an update on our sweet boy.

Current health is good. His development is normal. He can run and jump. His speech is normal and he can say some simple English words.

They call him Jia Qing. He is extroverted. He does not like when other children take his toys or things. He is excited about coming to the United States. He does not have any fears about coming to the US.

He has been in a foster family for three years. There are foster parents and three other children from the orphanage. He knows what adoption is. He knows he is being adopted. He and another younger boy share a room. He does not share a bed. He showers daily. He has a best friend. He brushes his teeth daily. In the school, he will help sweep the floors. When he is at home, he will help fold the quilts.

And, we received two new pictures:

They also sent his current measurements. He is the same height as Caleb and weighs two pounds more. Caleb, in response, has started eating more and told me that he needs to put on weight now since he is the oldest. In reality, Caleb and JQ are 10 months apart. They are both 8 years old right now, but Caleb will turn 9 in a few weeks. I have the feeling they will be mistaken for twins once they are together.

The boys are very excited about JQ. They will share a room with him they keep finding things that they want to show him or to take along to China when we go.

Speaking of China, we are going sooner than we thought. At least, that is, if everything keeps going at the same pace as it has. We are in stage 2 of immigration paperwork and may now be traveling in September! We shall see. We have really had only one snag so far, related to Asher's passport. It's more of a hiccup than a snag. We got the kids passports--Caleb's was renewed and Asher and Ellie's are new. Since they were all born in China, we had to send birth certificates and some Chinese documents for Ellie (it's a convoluted story) and then we waited. We received new passports for Caleb and Ellie, but not for Asher. Instead, we got a letter asking for more documentation about him and his citizenship.

Here's a tip: if you need to talk to someone--a person--about the status of your passport and what is needed to ensure that your 6-year-old son's passport is renewed in time for you to get a visa to take him to China, don't call the hotline provided. It gets you nowhere. Russ put his phone on speaker while he was on hold for 45 minutes. We all listened to the elevator music playing on the phone while we were sitting down to dinner. He was told there were 143 callers ahead of him. He finally got a hold of an answering service and left a message, in which they reminded him that they have 2 weeks to return his call.

So that was not productive. We mailed some more paperwork back and prayed for the best and now we are waiting and hoping that they will give us Asher's passport. This must be in time for us to apply for visas to go, which is soon. Unfortunately, Asher overheard us talking about it, so we tried to reassure him that it will work out and be fine. Still, the next night at dinner, he asked to say the prayer before the meal and it was something like,

"Dear God, thank you for this food. Thank you for JQ. Please let me get my report card [his term for his passport] on time so I can go to China, too. If not, I guess I'll stay home by myself. Amen."

Sigh. Please, no. So we talked about it some more and reassured some more. It will be fine. I wish he had not heard us in the first place, but it was hard to cover up the fact that his passport never came in the mail. So, we press on. We are going forward on faith that it will work out. This will not be the worst of our snags in this process, and this is all actually going so fast that sometimes, it makes my head spin. Six months ago, it was the middle of winter and our main focus was moving furniture and getting the house done. I never dreamed I'd be heading back to China before the end of the year. Well, that's how life works, and it keeps things interesting.