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| Arrived via FED EX this morning!!!It contained... |
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| Our official "hard copy" of our Referral Approval letter from China! |
IN ANY EVENT,
WE HAVE IT!!!!!!!!
And in related news, the USCIS agent who is wonderfully expediting our file for us not only emailed me yesterday to tell me she had our file and was beginning to process it!! JUST NOW she called to ask for several documents that she needed to complete the process!!!
My visa application is at the Chinese Consulate, the travel experts are working on an itinerary, China will assign our Civil Affairs appointment for the week of September 9 and THAT, dear friends is THE DAY that Dang Meng Meng becomes LEVI MATTHEW SMITH, former orphan, and forever legally a member of a family, our family! He is already bound to us by "heart strings" but on that critical day the heart strings gain legal strength! The US Embassy business will happen after that, but its the Chinese date which is so important ! Be it hours or days before his 14th birthday, the Chinese documents MUST be signed off on when he is still 13. Unlike Cambodia where the "referral" or match had to be made before the child's 8th birthday for that child to be eligible for adoption, and the process could continue after that as long as need be, in China everything must be COMPLETED by the child's 14th birthday, with no exceptions
Our Reece's Rainbow Support account has been set up for a few weeks and we are SO grateful to anyone who has contributed to .Levi's adoption fund but we are in the home stretch now!! I will be traveling on about September 6 or 7. If you'd like to help us with the travel expense portion of this wonderful journey, you just need to click on "donate."
. IF YOU WOULD BE IN PRAYER FOR ALL OF US ,
T H A T
would be of even more value and worth in the Big Picture!! There will be lots of adjustments for our whole family as we prepare to and as we welcome Levi home. We have not adopted in quite a while....new in-love sons and daughters have come into our family by marriage, and we have added several babies but adding an older child, especially one who speaks no English and has some physical limitations for now....................this is huge for every family member, not just Levi, , and his adjustments will be even more than enormous!!!!!!!!!!! WE ALL covet your prayers for smooth transition and adjustment, for patience in communicating, quick understanding of English for Levi and of Mandarin for us, that we would choose to love freely and to reach out with "abandon" to let Levi know he IS loved and IS family. Please pray that in all we say and do we show Jesus' love and His Plan for Levi so that he will soon come to know Jesus as his personal Savior?
An internet friend who has spent several summers working at Levi's orphanage told me that when the staff told Meng Meng that a family had started the paperwork to adopt him, he was overjoyed. He didn't think a family would adopt............him.............. Yet he wasn't nervous, just excited. He loves to sing and he told our friend that he was trying to decide what song to song for me when I came!!! For me, what song to sing to HIM was already determined: "THE Song," my other kids call it; it is "Masterpiece" and its been my lullaby , my song of dedication graduation and wedding blessing, since I first learned it in the late 80's. I've sung it in the US, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand while completing Leah and Rachel's adoptions, in Liberia over Junior and Diamoh and over Daniel there and here at home.
We have much to do to ready the room Levi will be sharing with Isaiah, shop and pack for him to leave China and come home, I have a LOT TO DO TO GET READY on every level!!! I am praying for peace and calm in my spirit to reign and prevail where frustration and short "tempered-ness" could so easily sneak in. For this too, I covet your prayers!
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