Megan is here! It all went well yesterday. We met her in a room with many other parents. She walked in the room and knew right away who we were. She came to Janet and called her MaMa and Kevin-BaBa and the boys - GuGu(big brother) and Jenna - TseTse. She was very excited and playful. She was playing on a rocking horse for a long time. She interacted well with everyone. Surprisingly, there were no tears for Megan. In fact, she was quite the fire cracker. She enjoyed being the center of attention and very outgoing. Wow! When the orphanage people said goodbye, Megan was completely fine with them going. After meeting Megan, we came back to the hotel room. It was a big party. We were dancing and singing and playing all kinds of games. She was so happy. She was a chatter box too. She slept well through the night.
Tuesday, Oct. 14th
Megan is officially a George. We went through all of the paperwork with the Chinese officials. They interviewed us and and we signed the papers. Today has gone well for the most part. Megan has started the grieving process for her past. So far, she has had three difficult times during the day. She would just start crying out of no where. It is hard to watch. Many times we end up crying with her. This is very normal for orphaned kids and actually healthy for them to express it. We have been calling Megan by her Chinese name for right now. We will gradually call her by her American name when the time is right. This girl has gone through so many changes. Even though she is six years old, she is probably equivalent to a 4 or 5 year old in size. We get to go shopping for her tomorrow at the Wal-Mart. That should be interesting. We are anxious to buy her a swim suit. This girl loves water! She isn't too crazy about getting shampoo out of her hair in the bathtub and have the water run down her face. Every fountain or pond we pass, she wants to get right by it. She has a healthy appetite. Last night she had 2 fairly large pieces of pizza. This morning she ate 2 bowls of congee (rice, milk, meat or vegies) and a whole plate of scrambled eggs.
Our Adoption Story
As you know now, we are adopting and adding another blessing to our family. Following is the story of how this all came together.
This process began in November of 2006. We felt that God was telling us to expand our family and adoption would be the right choice for our family. We didn't know where to start so Janet contacted a long time friend that just completed an adoption to receive her wisdom in this process. First, we needed to choose which country to adopt from. After considering many factors, we settled on China. Her friend's recommendation was to go with an agency that would only do adoptions with that country. Her reasoning was that the agency would be more aware of constant law changes in that country. That made a lot of sense to us so we went that direction and chose an agency based in Texas but specializing in Chinese adoptions.
Although the agency was in Texas, we needed to find a social worker up here in Illinois to do our home study. We found one that many referred. So we started the paper work in November of 2006. By February of 2007, we attended our first all day workshop on international adoption. After the eye opening day of information, we put on the brakes with the adoption. We had every excuse imaginable why we should not go forward. One excuse that ran over in our minds many times was that we have a son going to college in a few years. Yikes, this is crazy! So we did not go forward with any paperwork for months. Although we were not completing any paperwork, the adoption was always on our hearts. By June of 2007, we humbly realized that no one is bigger than God (not even us) and that we need to submit to his authority. If He wants us to adopt then we need to adopt. It was a leap of faith at the time. So we started the paper work again. Unfortunately, there was so much time that had passed that we had to redo some of the paper work that we had already completed.
In June, we had a social worker come to our home and go over lots personal information about families, parenting, marriage etc. Well, we were very nervous about this because back in February when we attended the all day workshop, the social worker that led that was a very different mind set than Kevin and I. So we were not sure if what we do as a family would be okay in the eyes of the social worker. We were wondering, how are they going to handle our faith? how are they going to handle our homeschooling? Well, through the interview we were nervous but also knew that this is what God wanted us to do, so we were really leaning on the Lord to work all of this out. At the end of the interview, the social worker (someone different than the one at the all day workshop) said that she is also a Christian and thought that homeschooling would be an excellent environment for a new addition to the family. Phew!!!!! Kevin and I were amazed of God's umbrella of protection in assigning us a social worker that is more in agreement with our viewpoint.
By November of 2007, our paper work was completed and in China. We were relieved to have the paper work completed! Now the wait begins. We assumed that God was wanting us to adopt a little girl that would be of infant age. The waiting process from the time your paper work is in China is about 26 months. Wow, we are not getting any younger, but we knew that God has cleared the path during this whole adoption process that we shouldn't be so concerned about our age. During this time of waiting and during the paper chase earlier, every member of our family would be praying for this little girl. Because of the wait, we knew that possibly she wasn't even born or that she may not have been conceived yet. One of our prayers was for her birth parents who made the heart wrenching decision to abandon her. We would be praying for her health and her circumstances. We were praying for her everyday. That is how time passed in our family regarding the adoption.
As we waited, family life went on for the family. April of 2008 was a particularly busy time for our family. Our oldest son, Kyle, was in a play one weekend and then, a few days later, we headed to Georgia for a long weekend for his team's robotics competition. It was a fantastic time to be there with so many teams from around the world. After a successful competition, we came home on a Sunday looking forward to a week of downtime. However, on Monday we received a phone call from our adoption agency. They had a little girl for us to consider, however, she has some eye issues and is 5 years old. They wanted to know if we would consider her for adoption. We have always thought God wanted us to have an infant, but by trusting Him, we knew that we needed to look at this little girl's medical file and pray about it. So we said yes that we were willing to look at her file and make a determination if we could handle her special need. So we began another very busy week.
I started making phone calls to any optometrist and ophthalmologist that I had some form of connection with. We know that doctors are very busy people and that they are not going to spend time with just anyone. The first two doctors who looked at her file gave us polar opposite opinions. We knew at that time that we needed to keep searching for more opinions. We were running out of connections and time. Janet thought of her aunt who uses an opthamologist in Highland Park, IL. We gave that office a call and explained our situation. Their response was, "Have you called a pediatric opthamologist?" We said yes, however we had no more connections with one and highly suspect they will have no time to look at a medical file. The Highland Park office said, "Where do you live?" I said, "Arlington Heights." The office replied, "The pediatric opthamologist that we were going to refer to you has their office in Arlington Heights." Wow, this is great that the office is so close to our home. Now the next hurdle would be if they would be willing to look at the medical file.
So we called the office and told the receptionist our situation. She responded by telling us that she is a grandmother of two granddaughters that have been adopted from China and one has special needs. We thought that was so neat. The Big question was would the doctor look at the file? The receptionist then went on to tell us that many of her patients are children that have been adopted internationally and that she has been to Asia several times to help train others regarding the eyes. So God has lead us to one of the most qualified doctors in the area of our need. The receptionist said that she would be willing to see the file. Hallelujah! Two days later Janet is at the office waiting anxiously. The doctor spent 40 minutes with Janet! That is amazing - plus she didn't charge us a penny. Wow! We were praying for direction on this little girl and this doctor could clearly see what issues there may be. We were so grateful to have a knowledgeable, trustworthy opinion.
So now, we knew that her eye issues were manageable for our family, but we still were challenged by the fact that she is 5 - almost 6 years old. We thought we were supposed to adopt an infant. Apparently, another leap of faith on our part. After much prayer, we know that God will walk us through this journey and that this is the child He had in mind for our family all along. We are excited that she will be joining our family. It has been an amazing journey through all of this. To think that we thought our family was done with three children. Wow, God continually reminds us that His plan is greater than our plan and that we need to humble ourselves to his loving authority. His plans will always produce good.
July 24, 2008
We received our LSC from China!!! These are the official documents from China saying that we will adopt Megan. We are thrilled about this because due to the paper trail, we now know that Megan knows about us! We are waiting for our travel approval right now which will take about 3 weeks. At that point we will have a better idea when we are traveling. Our adoption agency said that it would be in September or November. We are wanting to get Megan as soon as we can, but we are relieved that we are not going in August during the Olympics. The prices of airfare and hotel is through the roof. God is watching over us. We are wanting to take all three kids with us so hopefully we can. We will write another update when we know more.
This process began in November of 2006. We felt that God was telling us to expand our family and adoption would be the right choice for our family. We didn't know where to start so Janet contacted a long time friend that just completed an adoption to receive her wisdom in this process. First, we needed to choose which country to adopt from. After considering many factors, we settled on China. Her friend's recommendation was to go with an agency that would only do adoptions with that country. Her reasoning was that the agency would be more aware of constant law changes in that country. That made a lot of sense to us so we went that direction and chose an agency based in Texas but specializing in Chinese adoptions.
Although the agency was in Texas, we needed to find a social worker up here in Illinois to do our home study. We found one that many referred. So we started the paper work in November of 2006. By February of 2007, we attended our first all day workshop on international adoption. After the eye opening day of information, we put on the brakes with the adoption. We had every excuse imaginable why we should not go forward. One excuse that ran over in our minds many times was that we have a son going to college in a few years. Yikes, this is crazy! So we did not go forward with any paperwork for months. Although we were not completing any paperwork, the adoption was always on our hearts. By June of 2007, we humbly realized that no one is bigger than God (not even us) and that we need to submit to his authority. If He wants us to adopt then we need to adopt. It was a leap of faith at the time. So we started the paper work again. Unfortunately, there was so much time that had passed that we had to redo some of the paper work that we had already completed.
In June, we had a social worker come to our home and go over lots personal information about families, parenting, marriage etc. Well, we were very nervous about this because back in February when we attended the all day workshop, the social worker that led that was a very different mind set than Kevin and I. So we were not sure if what we do as a family would be okay in the eyes of the social worker. We were wondering, how are they going to handle our faith? how are they going to handle our homeschooling? Well, through the interview we were nervous but also knew that this is what God wanted us to do, so we were really leaning on the Lord to work all of this out. At the end of the interview, the social worker (someone different than the one at the all day workshop) said that she is also a Christian and thought that homeschooling would be an excellent environment for a new addition to the family. Phew!!!!! Kevin and I were amazed of God's umbrella of protection in assigning us a social worker that is more in agreement with our viewpoint.
By November of 2007, our paper work was completed and in China. We were relieved to have the paper work completed! Now the wait begins. We assumed that God was wanting us to adopt a little girl that would be of infant age. The waiting process from the time your paper work is in China is about 26 months. Wow, we are not getting any younger, but we knew that God has cleared the path during this whole adoption process that we shouldn't be so concerned about our age. During this time of waiting and during the paper chase earlier, every member of our family would be praying for this little girl. Because of the wait, we knew that possibly she wasn't even born or that she may not have been conceived yet. One of our prayers was for her birth parents who made the heart wrenching decision to abandon her. We would be praying for her health and her circumstances. We were praying for her everyday. That is how time passed in our family regarding the adoption.
As we waited, family life went on for the family. April of 2008 was a particularly busy time for our family. Our oldest son, Kyle, was in a play one weekend and then, a few days later, we headed to Georgia for a long weekend for his team's robotics competition. It was a fantastic time to be there with so many teams from around the world. After a successful competition, we came home on a Sunday looking forward to a week of downtime. However, on Monday we received a phone call from our adoption agency. They had a little girl for us to consider, however, she has some eye issues and is 5 years old. They wanted to know if we would consider her for adoption. We have always thought God wanted us to have an infant, but by trusting Him, we knew that we needed to look at this little girl's medical file and pray about it. So we said yes that we were willing to look at her file and make a determination if we could handle her special need. So we began another very busy week.
I started making phone calls to any optometrist and ophthalmologist that I had some form of connection with. We know that doctors are very busy people and that they are not going to spend time with just anyone. The first two doctors who looked at her file gave us polar opposite opinions. We knew at that time that we needed to keep searching for more opinions. We were running out of connections and time. Janet thought of her aunt who uses an opthamologist in Highland Park, IL. We gave that office a call and explained our situation. Their response was, "Have you called a pediatric opthamologist?" We said yes, however we had no more connections with one and highly suspect they will have no time to look at a medical file. The Highland Park office said, "Where do you live?" I said, "Arlington Heights." The office replied, "The pediatric opthamologist that we were going to refer to you has their office in Arlington Heights." Wow, this is great that the office is so close to our home. Now the next hurdle would be if they would be willing to look at the medical file.
So we called the office and told the receptionist our situation. She responded by telling us that she is a grandmother of two granddaughters that have been adopted from China and one has special needs. We thought that was so neat. The Big question was would the doctor look at the file? The receptionist then went on to tell us that many of her patients are children that have been adopted internationally and that she has been to Asia several times to help train others regarding the eyes. So God has lead us to one of the most qualified doctors in the area of our need. The receptionist said that she would be willing to see the file. Hallelujah! Two days later Janet is at the office waiting anxiously. The doctor spent 40 minutes with Janet! That is amazing - plus she didn't charge us a penny. Wow! We were praying for direction on this little girl and this doctor could clearly see what issues there may be. We were so grateful to have a knowledgeable, trustworthy opinion.
So now, we knew that her eye issues were manageable for our family, but we still were challenged by the fact that she is 5 - almost 6 years old. We thought we were supposed to adopt an infant. Apparently, another leap of faith on our part. After much prayer, we know that God will walk us through this journey and that this is the child He had in mind for our family all along. We are excited that she will be joining our family. It has been an amazing journey through all of this. To think that we thought our family was done with three children. Wow, God continually reminds us that His plan is greater than our plan and that we need to humble ourselves to his loving authority. His plans will always produce good.
July 24, 2008
We received our LSC from China!!! These are the official documents from China saying that we will adopt Megan. We are thrilled about this because due to the paper trail, we now know that Megan knows about us! We are waiting for our travel approval right now which will take about 3 weeks. At that point we will have a better idea when we are traveling. Our adoption agency said that it would be in September or November. We are wanting to get Megan as soon as we can, but we are relieved that we are not going in August during the Olympics. The prices of airfare and hotel is through the roof. God is watching over us. We are wanting to take all three kids with us so hopefully we can. We will write another update when we know more.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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4 comments:
This is so exciting. Khalia says, "Megan and I will get along great!!!!" I can't tell you how many times I check your blog waiting to hear of news.
We are supporting you in prayer and praying that Megan realizes that you love her with the love of Christ!
Love,
The Wightmans
We are so excited that you have Megan and that she is officially a George. We will continue to pray for her as she grieves and bonds with your family. These are such normal things in the world of adoption. We are also praying for health and safety for all of you! We can't wait to see more pictures and of course meet Megan!
God Bless,
The Seafields
Hi Everyone!
Yeah! I just read your blog about finally meeting Megan. I'm sitting at my desk at work with tears in my eyes...tears of happiness, of course.
What an amazing blessing from God to all of you! I am so glad that you are able to share this incedible journey together as a family. I sure can't wait to meet my new adorable niece!
I pray that you will have improved health (no more colds) and for lots of love, smiles, hugs and laughter.
Love you all,
Rene
This is really great! I'm sitting here, getting a choked up because, well, just because. I can't wait to meet Megan.
If the timing was right, I would have read this while some meaningful song played from my I-Tunes playlist, but instead I'm listening to Gary Glitter. The mood is not ruined, though, because this is one of the coolest things that's happened in our family in a long time. Thanks for listening to God and setting an example for us all.
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