Christmas Care Package

Christmas is 2 days away.
We're sad Benjamin won't be home with us.....
but, we're so grateful for the MANY blessings in our lives. 

I was asked recently how many children we have.
Without thinking I answered "four".....
and then it really hit me.....we have 4 children!!

It's difficult having Benjamin so far away....
yet so deep and close and LOVED in our hearts. 
We love you BenBen!!

We are sending Benjamin a beautiful care package.
A lady who lives in China operates a care package service.
We wrote a letter to the orphanage and Benjamin & she translates.
We're also emailing her 20 photos to print and label in Chinese.
She'll send them in a beautiful keepsake silk photo album! 
Our hope is the orphanage will share the photos with Benjamin.

She's also including:

* a pillow with our family photo (holding Ben's photo!),

a soft blanket,

* a disposable camera (for the oprhanage to take pictures and return to us),

 * candies for the nannies,

* a donation of pajamas for the children

* and a bag for Benjamin to store his care package items. 

We think he'll receive the package on Christmas Day! 

Next step, we are driving to Louisville, KY on Monday, 12/27/10
for our biometric fingerprinting appointment!
This will finalize our preliminary approval to bring Benjamin home as a US Citizen.

Santa will be visiting Ben at his Indiana home this year and his stocking will be full! 

We cannot wait to hold him and kiss him and love on him (especially those cheeks!!).  

Merry Christmas and many Blessings for a wonderful 2011!

Homestudy Approval and a NAME!!

Yay!!!  One step closer to bringing our little guy home!!  Our homestudy is completed!

Next step, obtaining USCIS preapproval to bring Yu Xi Gang home as a US citizen.
We overnighted the documents today and hope for approval within 30-40 days. 

After MUCH discussion and input from everyone in the family....
we have decided to name our new son:
Benjamin Liam. 

We've always loved the name Benjamin and he just looks like a Ben to us!  
We've even ordered his monogrammed Christmas stocking so you know it's official! 

In China the surname is first -- so his last name is Yu. 

According to orphanage records, he was named "Yu" because all children entering the oprhanage that year were assigned the surname of "Yu".

He was named "Gang" because the orphanage has "the hope for him to be more and more strong in future life". 
Liam means strong. 

Following is a another photo we recently received that was included in his Chinese medical files. 

Seriously, could he be any cuter!?  Can't wait to love on those cheeks!!!

We love you whole world BenBen!!!



Beijing Children's Welfare Institute

From the Beijing Children's Welfare Institutes brochure:

Where the Love is, where the Home is

Introduction to the Center

Founded in 1984 and located in Qinghe Town, Haidian District, Beijing Welfare Center for Children is a welfare institution for orphaned and disabled children under Beijing Municipal Government. With the floor area of 248,000 sqf, it has facilities including residential building, rehabilitation building, medical treatment building, training building, and office building etc. It’s designed to have 500 beds for adoption of orphaned and disabled children from some districts and counties in Beijing.

Over 85% of the staffs in the center have received professional training. The front-line staffs include doctors, nurses, teachers, nursery governesses, nutritionists, psychiatrists, social workers and rehabilitation staffs etc.

Where in the world is Beijing?

For those of us less geographically inclined...(Holly! :)

Benjamin is awaiting our arrival at the Beijing City Children's Welfare Institute.

We will fly directly to Beijing City and stay for apprx. 7 days.

We'll visit the Orphanage on Day 2 to meet our little guy!

.....and have physical custody of Yu Xi Gang from then on!!!

Next, we're off to Guangzhou for our Consulate and Medical appointment.

We will spend the remaining 7 days in Guangzhou.

Finally, we fly home!!!

Yu Xi Gang becomes an American Citizen when he sets foot on U.S. soil!!!



Preliminary Approval!!!!!!!

We received our "Preliminary Approval" to adopt Yu Xi Gang today!! 

Following are a few updated photos taken just a week ago (late October)!

How precious is he?!! LOVE the chubby cheeks! 
We are so in love with this little guy and feel like he's a part of our family already! 
The kids are so excited and can't stop talking about "GangGang". :)

Letter of Intent - Yu Xi Gang

Ohhhhhhh my!!!!! 

It doesn't get any cuter than this!! 
We have officially sent China our "Letter of Intent" (LOI) to adopt a little boy from China!!



Referral Photo

His name is Yu Xi Gang.
He's in an orphanage in Beijing City, China.
He recently turned 2 years old.
He's absolutely adorable and melts our hearts.
The caregivers affectionately refer to him as "GangGang". 
He loves being outside, brightly colored cars, shrimp and laughing with "open mouth".  Awwww......

We won't know if we have Preliminary Approval (PA) for a few days. 
We've sent China information in advance of our Dossier (China's home study) for preliminary review and approval. 
Still lots of paperwork - but so worth every second!!!!

The photo of Sam below was taken outside the Huntingburg, IN library
immediately after we submitted our LOI (using their internet)!

We were traveling to French Lick, IN to visit the
Indiana Railway Museum.

We detoured into this small town
to submit our LOI after deciding (without a doubt!!)
Yu Xi Gang was our son!!!

Happy Big Brother!

Moving fast!!

We survived our first home study visit! -- (yes, with the kids!).  Our social worker is amazing and with 4 kiddos of her own she's very sympathetic to chaos!!! 

The exciting news is we're far enough along in the paperwork process that we could be matched with a child! Seeing the photos of these waiting children is an extremely emotional process and very new to us. 

How does one know God's plans?....is this my child?  We must trust our hearts and our heads as every child is precious and deserving of a family and love.  We've always said, "you parent the child you're meant to parent".  We have faith.

The Panda

Tonight we attended the Fall Carnival at Sam's school with my parents.

The kiddos were off playing games when we decided to share

the news of our adoption plans with my parents.

Needless to say, they were thrilled!

Moments later, Jack proudly came running back to show

us the prize he'd won & picked out.

A beautiful Panda!

We haven't discussed the adoption with the kids yet.

Waiting to be a little further down the process.

Perhaps a sign?...!!! :)



Let the journey begin!!!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!! 

We are beginning the process of adopting our 4th child!!! -- and our first international adoption. We are thrilled to be starting this new and exciting journey!!  Our lil guy/gal is likely already waiting for us! 

We will be adopting from China using a local agency, Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA). We submitted our application yesterday and it was approved today!

The earthquake in Haiti had a tremendous impact on us. Seeing those orphaned children and wanting so badly to help. We knew at that point -- we have enough love and means to bring another child into our home. Sadly, adopting from Haiti is currently not an option and the program is burdened with many legal hurdles and unknowns.

Soon, we began researching other international adoption programs and China clearly stood out. The Waiting Child/Special Needs program in China appears the most stable and there are nearly 2,000 "orphaned" children currently on the list. One may be our child!! We are open to either sex and a child at least 12-18 months younger than Jack. Let the journey begin!!!