It's Been Awhile

Okay, seriously, no judgement here. I know it has been 3 1/2 years since I wrote a word on this blog. We basically adopted Ellie, came home from China, I wrote a blog or two about it, turned off the computer, and didn't return to the site again. Life just gets in the way, sometimes. Actually, it gets in the way a lot, as I'm sure most anyone reading this knows. It is hard to keep up with a blog and I admire anyone who is faithful with theirs.

So, a lot has happened in the last 3 to 4 years around our house. Here is a short recap of our life in abbreviated form:

• We adopted Ellie and became a family of 5.
• I started working in surgical recovery at the hospital and the kids went to school/daycare.
• I changed jobs to work as a school nurse at a Head Start program.
• Russ changed jobs and started working at his current position with the State.
• I quit my job outside the home to stay home with our three lovies and work at what I love: writing.
• My beloved Dad died of leukemia.
• We started homeschooling. 
• We sold our house.
• I went back to China to work with Love Without Boundaries' cleft team, caring for kids undergoing surgical repair of cleft lip or palate.
• We moved into an apartment after selling the house. (Yikes!)
• We started building our new house on the land left for me by Dad.
• Our house was finished and we moved in!

That's a recap of some of the major events we have been involved in lately, although there is so much more...too much to write in one blog post, certainly. We moved into our house in the country on January 31st of this year. The next day there was a blizzard. Since then, we have managed snowstorms, hail, flooding, and a small tornado. Alternatively, we gaze every morning at a beautiful expanse of land, wildflowers growing, trees swaying in the wind, and space to run. We have room for a garden, we planted trees, and we are growing grass. I walk up the driveway to the mailbox and we live on a gravel road. We have country sunshine and beauty all around us and we love it. I can't say that enough.

So, we have been happily living in our house and adjusting when one day we happened along a post from our adoption agency that we used when we adopted Ellie. China requires 5 years of post-placement visits after adoption, so we have stayed in contact with them. Russ and I had been thinking somewhere in the back of our minds that we might adopt one more child, someday, but as time has gone on, it never really materialized, for several reasons. 

1. All of our children were toddlers when we adopted them and we weren't sure that we wanted to go through the diapers, tantrums/screaming, complete lack of rational communication thing again. Really, once you're out of it, it's nice to be out of that stage and we didn't really want to go back.
2. While it may seem like we go to China a lot (okay, maybe more than the average person), it really is a big deal to go. It is not just jetting off to Asia once every couple of years because we have the time and money to do so. It's a big deal. Adopting another child is a very big deal.
3. We were tired. Maybe too tired to consider it anymore. 

Because of these reasons, we were mostly content to just be. Until one day, while going through some post-placement stuff for our agency, we learned of a little boy who was waiting for a family. We were a bit thrown by his age: he was seven years old and turning eight soon. We had really never considered adopting an older child. I'm sure it has its own joys and its own issues as well, but we just hadn't thought about it and we weren't sure that we wanted to think about it. 

But, the whole thing persisted. The topic kept coming back to greet us and we couldn't turn away from it. Could we adopt an older child? Would we be right as a family for this child? Was it even possible? Finally, we asked our agency for more information about him and they sent us a file about him to review. When I first opened his file to look at his pictures, I was greeted with this handsomeness:

And....that was pretty much it for me. This sweet boy grabbed my heart. I couldn't believe that he had not been adopted and that he was still waiting for a family. The more we read and learned about him, the more we knew that he was to be our child.

His name is Jia Qing (JQ) and he had a birthday about 10 days ago; he just turned eight. He was actually hosted by a family in the U.S. this past winter and we had the amazing opportunity to speak with them about him and his time here. They had wonderful things to say about him and sent us many more pictures and videos, which was such a blessing. In truth, with our other adoptions we received about 3 grainy pictures of the kids bundled up in five layers of clothes or sitting propped in a basket or a chair. Through the videos and photos of JQ, we were able to see so much more of his personality, which just shines through. He is awesome.

It didn't take much more convincing. We said yes.

We contacted our agency and submitted a Letter of Intent, which is a letter saying that we want to adopt him and why, as well as how we will care for him. We received a soft "lock" on his file, which meant that we were matched with him but couldn't really announce it or say anything for a while until it was made official through China. We had to redo parts of our homestudy, meet with a social worker again, and file immigration papers again.

We are currently waiting on our immigration paperwork. We have an appointment to be fingerprinted with the Department of Homeland Security, which sounds intimidating, but we've had to do it three other times before. After our fingerprints are processed, we will receive approval and then we can move into the next stages of processing.

That is it in a nutshell. I know it doesn't do anyone justice to provide a short re-cap of life over the course of a few years, as well as a very important process that we are taking on again. If only I had been updating this blog for the past three years! Oh well. For now, I will continue to add updates here as we go through this process. And let me say...we are over-the-moon excited! Our lives are so blessed and full to begin with and now we are adding another precious child to our family. Our cups are overflowing!