Waiting for a LOA

Our Letter of Intent has been sent to China. We are now waiting for a Letter of Approval (LOA) stating that we have China's permission to move forward with this adoption. We hope to have the LOA back in a couple of weeks. We would love to have it back sooner. Please continue to pray that this process moves smoothly and rapidly. We are so eager to have her here with us. The waiting seems to get more difficult with each passing week.

Videos of Faith Lanxin Ginn

Letter of Interest

On Friday afternoon, Shannon and I received the packet of information that Lifeline will need to submit our Letter of Interest (LOI). We have completed everything and are going to submit it tomorrow. The director of the China program will review the care plan that we have written as well as the other documents that we are submitting. We hope that this LOI will be sent to China this week. This letter will tell the CCAA (the government agency that handles adoptions) that we are seeking to adopt Jiang Lanxin. The care plan we have written details how we will meet her needs. There are many sections to this document, each specifying how we will handle issues such as medical care, education, cultural issues, integration into our family, and others. As we understand it, the LOI will be reviewed and, if it is accepted, we will receive a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) in 3-4 weeks. Our homestudy will be submitted, and we will wait to receive a Log In Date (LID). This wait takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks. From LID to travel usually takes 5-6 months. While we are making progress, we still have a long way to go. Please join us in praying that the process continues to go smoothly and we continue to move very quickly through each stage.

Father's Day 2012

Many of the people with whom I’ve discussed our adoption process have heard me state my belief that God is using this journey to reveal to me much about Himself.  The adoption journey is filled with periods of waiting.  I know that God is using these periods to reveal to me a deeper understanding of His steadfast love for us.  He is the Heavenly Father that longs for his children to have a relationship with Him.  I am an earthly father longing to have a relationship with our waiting child.  As we approach the father’s day weekend, I must admit that it feels bittersweet for me.  Don’t get me wrong---I’m absolutely looking forward to spending time with Christy and our two boys.  But, I just can’t escape the feeling that our family isn’t complete.  Our little girl sits in an orphanage across the world waiting on a family to love her enough to bring her home.  We are steadily making preparations for her and she isn’t even aware of our existence.  She doesn’t have our DNA, our language, or even our skin color.  But, she already has our hearts.  I long for this journey to be complete and to finally be able to welcome her home.  I want her to know that I have prayed for her and long to be her father.  I want her to know that my ultimate prayer for her is the same prayer that I have for my other children---that she will come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior and have a deep, personal relationship with her Heavenly Father.  I want her to know that what the world judges as imperfect was, in fact, wonderfully made by God.  I simply want her to know that she is loved.

“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” –Psalm 27:10 ESV

This is fast?

Shannon completed his individual interview yesterday. During the interview our social worker, Ashley, commented that we are very quickly moving through this process. Shannon and I so often feel that this is taking FOREVER. It was nice to hear that we are making progress and that we are actually ahead of what was projected. Please continue to pray that we continue to move rapidly through this process. We both accept that Lifeline has a projected timeline that has us completing this adoption in May/June of next year. We both also believe that God has His own timeline. We so hope that His plan is not to have her wait another year. Please join us in praying that He allows us to move very quickly.

Hurry Up and Wait

I just got home after completing my individual interview with our social worker. It was 90 minutes long and went very well. Shannon will complete his interview Thursday of this week. We are still waiting on my background check to come back. Shannon's was returned last week. I called the company doing the check today and they are looking into the delay. They say that the Alabama Bureau of Investigation should have completed it by now. They are calling to check on it and say that they will have an answer by Thursday. We should receive our passports by the end of this week. Shannon has a physical scheduled for tomorrow. I have completed mine and am simply waiting for paperwork to be completed. Our goal is to have all paperwork submitted to our social worker by the end of June. Please be praying that this happens. At this point, all of the paperwork we need is being processed by someone else. We have no control over when they complete it or when they submit it to us.  We pray that this goes very smoothly. We do not want a paperwork delay to cause this sweet child to have to wait on us. Thanks friends.