That my faith may not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God

Hi friends, I hope I can explain this well but we are in the middle of a bureaucratic standoff between the US State Dept and US Consulate in China. The above scripture is getting me through and I am so thankful for that.

In a nutshell, we are approved by both the US governments and China of course to adopt our daughter. However, they are not able to legally finalize the adoptions until further guidance is given to the US Consulate from the US State Dept. on how to handle our paperwork. We are under the new Hague Convention protocol which was ratified by the US in April 2008 and are approved on counts. Our case is becoming quite urgent as our travel authorization from China (our permission to adopt Kristi Zi Han and travel to China to get her) expires on August 20. The US Consulate contacted us personally and has urged us to contact the US State Dept as well as our senators to urge them to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. I have contacted both Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar today. Please pray with us that this will be resolved quickly. I know God has it all under control and I am asking for his guidance daily on what part I need to play. Thanks so much.

Communicating with Kristi

Today I went to Jazzercise class and was so excited when I had the opportunity to try out the little bit of Mandarin I have learned with one of the students. I was thrilled that she could actually understand my pronunciation and after a brief one sided conversation of "Hello, my name is..., take my hand, come with me, I love you" - I was inspired to resume studying with the Mandarin for Adopting from China CD. Kristi may speak a dialect of Nanjing but just in case.

On Tuesday night I took a baby sign language class that was wonderful and will hopefully also be very helpful. We learned 60 signs in one night! I've been practicing with Keira and she is already picking up so many. It's really fun! Not to worry, we'll start out with one or two signs besides the minimal very broken Mandarin. Poor Kristi! It helps the time go by as we wait though:)

Another exciting thing-Hilary from Cooking Group's brother is going to China at the end of this month with his wife who is Chinese. The wife's brother lives in Nanjing and they are going there to visit and have agreed to bring a little photo album and tag blanket to the orphanage to give to Kristi. Isn't that incredible? God keeps encouraging us that we will see her soon and in the meantime to get ready for Kristi's arrival. It appears that travel during the Olympics (which runs August 8-24) will be possible. We will stay clear of Beijing just traveling to Guangzhou (in the south) and Nanjing. The travel authorization from China for Kristi expires August 20 but we are told that due to the Olympics they are extending them an additional 2 months (we have requested that in writing, English and Chinese of course) just in case.

It's a very exciting time and we doing lots of special family outings, Mommy-Keira days (we did yoga class on Wed. and went to our first play on Friday) and especially - Keira's favorite thing to do - "STAY HOME!" She is, however, very excited to go get her little sister. Today she must have overheard Roger and I talking about China and she ran upstairs and we heard all this commotion (chair moving, all kinds of rustling, chair moving back) and she came back down with her little China Fund jar and said she's "got her money and she's ready to go!" She is just so sweet and full of surprises. She will be a wonderful, wonderful big sister.

Getting Closer!

On Wednesday, July 2, we found out that we received the approval of our I800-A. Big Hurray! However, we then learned that now we needed to do the I800 (no A) before we can request our consulate appointment (CA). It's a whole you international adoption processing system for the US Customs and Immigration so we're all learning as we go. Fortunately, the turnaround time looks pretty good for the I800 which we hope to send off on Monday. We've requested an extension for Kristi's travel authorization which expires August 20 just in case. We are getting so close and we just can't wait to go to China and bring our beautiful girl home! P.S. It looks like they are allowing travel during the Olympics. We won't be in Beijing just Nanjing and Guangzhou.

New Pictures-Our Sweet Girl with a Great Big Smile!

This afternoon we received new pictures of Kristi Zi Han that were taken just this week. We had arranged a cake and an updated photo album with our pictures to be delivered to her this week through "Ladybugs N Love" a wonderful service that we found on the internet (created by an adoptive mother of 3 girls from China). Here is the most priceless photo of all - the first one with a great big smile on her beautiful face! It's not her birthday (that's September 23) - we just wanted to send her a treat!

Update

No news to report - We thought we were going to be in China on the 13th or maybe the 27th (still some hope there) but there's been some delays - the consulate appointments are booked through the month of June, our US clearance is sitting on the supervisor's desk :o and there's rumors going around no travel July 15 - September 20 due to the Olympics for adoption. :( I know God has a plan and it will be awesome but it's been alittle frustrating. We did find a service, Ladybugs N Love, that will arrange for a little cake and a new photo album with some pictures of us to be sent to Kristi which makes us feel so much better. I know she's 2 1/2 years old but someday she'll look back and see how we were thinking of her. Other than that, life is good and we can't complain, we have survived all the storms and rain well compared to all the poor folks in Iowa. It's just terrible. Keira is doing great and we are enjoying our time with her knowing her life will change quite a bit soon with a little sister on board. We've been doing lots of role plays and she really gets into it! She has written Kristi a few letters including one advising her to stop writing on the desk in Mommy's office. My favorite, however, is the one she did on her magnadoodle that says "Keira is waiting Mom too".

WE GOT OUR TRAVEL AUTHORIZATION TODAY!

At approximately 4:04 p.m. today my phone rang and it was Karin from Hand in Hand calling with our travel authorization! We are so excited but need to wait to get the US clearance before we can request a consulate appointment and book our travel. We hope that clearance will come soon! We'll keep you posted. I'm too excited to sleep!

New Picture of Kristi-May 2008

Here's the latest photo of our precious girl! We are getting closer to bringing you home, dear Kristi Zi Han. Update: We got re-fingerprinted last week and all our criminal checks in place for every state/country we have ever lived and all looks good. Just waiting for travel authorzation and consulate appointment now but no idea when it will come. It was so wonderful of one of the traveling families to take pictures for all of us still waiting.