The (most of the) Dossier is IN THE HOUSE!!!

My mom rocks! Thanks, Mom! We have our dossier (minus the I-797 of course) in our hands now, and Chris will drive it down to CCAI on Monday afternoon. We emailed to give our CCAI peeps a heads-up. It sounds like CCAI is planning to start the critical review process (making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed) and translation prior to receiving our I-797.

The quicker our dossier gets to China, the quicker we start the ball rolling at the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs), and the quicker we bring our two little munchkins home!

称赞上帝!

Ephesians 3:20  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Our Names

Jason means... Healer.

Christine means... Follower of Christ.

Joshua means... God is my salvation.

David means... Beloved.

Samuel means... God hears.

He heals us. He saves us. He loves us. He hears us. We follow Him.


Deuteronomy 32:3-4  I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! 
   He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.
   A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

Fingerprints!

We received our appointment to be fingerprinted by USCIS yesterday... but our appointment date was not until February. SOOOO, we went to the USCIS office in Aurora, Colorado today to see if we could be fingerprinted early. They took us in right away. I think we were there for about 7 minutes. Praise God!

Right now this very minute, our dossier (minus one item) is in Chicago and Chris' mom is hand delivering it to the Chinese Consulate to have our documents authenticated. Isn't this exciting! As soon as we get that packet back Chris will drive it to our adoption agency for critical review and translation. We pray that they will have time to start the review before the one last document arrives.

So now we wait for our I-797, which is the LAST document we need for our dossier. This should be mailed to us from USCIS after our fingerprints are cleared. YAHOO!!! I'll try not to call Immigration every single day to check the status ;-)

After we get our I-797, we'll put Chris' mom on the case again to authenticate it at the Chicago Chinese Consulate. Then, finally, our dossier is complete and it can fly around the world to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs.

Then, guess what surprise surprise, we wait some more for the next step... it's all in His hands.

Psalm 27:14  Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Cleft

I have been doing research on cleft lip and cleft palate, and honestly I am overwhelmed. I studied speech-language pathology as an undergraduate for a year before changing majors to special education, so the vocabulary used in discussing cleft lip and palate surgeries and therapy is familiar to me. I knew there would be many surgeries, but I am reading about people having between four and eighteen (that's 18!) surgeries... yikes! And the recovery time after each surgery, while it does vary, requires a liquid diet then soft diet and "no-no's" until the child is beyond the point that they can hurt themselves. "No-no's" are removable arm braces that keep the child from being able to bend at the elbow. They keep the child's hands out of their mouth until they heal enough that they can't undo whatever was fixed during surgery. Recovery instructions vary greatly depending on the doctor, so we'll see what our recovery instructions will be when we get there. None of it sounds like much fun for the boys. Or for us. We'll need lots of prayers, that's for sure!

I have no idea how we would do this if I was working outside our home.

Another thing that's for sure is that God is on this journey with us, leading us to these boys. We feel His love every day, and He prepares us for each obstacle we come across. He brought us here, and He will be with us for the whole ride. He has prepared our family for dealing with cleft issues by my education, our choice to have me stay home, an amazing pediatrician with a heart for orphans, and Jason's unbelievable patience and strength.

Psalm 18:32  It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

Buddies

Family is great, don't get me wrong. I couldn't live without my family. They are always there for you no matter what. But we all really need buddies too, don't we? Josh has his buddies. He was telling his buddies about his new brothers in the car a few days ago, talking like he knows them. I loved it! He told his buddies that his brother David will be really fun to play with, but Samuel, well, he's just a baby so he won't be very much fun to play with. He and his buddies share all sorts of things with each other. They can listen to him go on and on at just about the time I start tuning out...

We need our buddies too. We love seeing our friends at Saturday night dinners. They are more like family now, and we really miss seeing them when a few weeks goes by without a Saturday night dinner! I love seeing my girlfriend buddies. They are always there for me: to listen to me, to give me advice, to let me cry on their shoulders, or just to be goofy with them! Jason and I both need our friends. We might go weeks without talking to our family, but hardly a couple days goes by when we don't talk to one of our friends. What is that saying about that you can pick your friends and pick your nose, but you can't pick your family? God puts our family in our lives, and I believe God puts our friends in our lives too. We know our "buddies" are a gift from God.

We pray that our two little ones on the other side of the world have buddies. We don't know if Samuel does. He may have a foster brother but we are not sure how old he is or any details. We do know that David does, because we have seen him in pictures with his little buddies making silly faces at the camera. We pray that Samuel and David are having fun with their buddies right now. They sure will have plenty of silly buddies to play with once we bring them home!

Proverbs 27:10  Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,
   and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—
   better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

Backlog, Shmacklog...

I read somewhere today that USCIS has a backlog of clearances. I also heard guesstimates that things could get jammed up in their office for an extra couple weeks beyond their normal time frame. Maybe sending our dossier to China a few weeks after the Chinese New Year will make things on the China end go faster? I am going to go with that thought for a while. I know in my heart that things will work out exactly when they are supposed to, and I have this feeling like when we get the boys we'll see clearly why the timing is exactly right. In the meantime we continue to pray and know that it is all in His hands.

And we are starting to plan Joshua's new bedroom! We are moving the transportation theme into the little boys' room and we let Josh pick out a new theme. Guess what he picked? LEGOS! Yup, that's a surprise, isn't it? Since there is no Lego fabric available anywhere in the world we have to improvise. We're still working on the design, but I think we can make it work for very little money (bonus!). It helps that Josh has so many Legos to "decorate" the shelves in his room.

Psalm 40:16  But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you.
   May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, “The Lord is great!”

In The Meantime...

We found out that our USCIS check was cashed on David's 3rd birthday ~ January 4. This means that hopefully we'll get our invitation to be fingerprinted for our federal clearance soon. Picture me running to the mailbox each day as our favorite mailman, Bill, arrives with our mail. I need to share our news or he will think I have a crush on him! Each step is one step closer to bringing our boys home...

In the meantime, we are not taking our lives for granted. We are enjoying each night we sleep well. We are enjoying each meal we eat while sitting down the whole time. We are enjoying planning our family vacation in March ~ it could be the last time we take an airplane on a family vacation for a while! We are enjoying our son who is rather independent at doing things like putting toys away, using the bathroom, getting himself a snack, buckling his own seat belt, etc. I am enjoying carrying just a purse and not a diaper bag, and my mornings "off" while our son is in kindergarten. Life is gonna change at the Oehlkers household and we can't wait! Bring on the chaos!

In the meantime, we are also not taking for granted things that our sons in China might not have right now. We are healthy. We can have whatever medicine we need if we get sick. We are not hungry. We can choose whatever food we want if we have a "taste for something". We are warm. We have plenty of clothes and bedding no matter how cold it gets. If we are "chilly" we just turn up the thermostat. We have a warm, safe, clean house. We have plenty of love and plenty of hugs and plenty of kisses and plenty of snuggles. We pray that our sons have these things too.

1 John 4:19  We love because he first loved us.