New pictures of baby Jacob!

We received some new pictures and video of Jacob in the mail today! He is so cute--as I'm sure you will agree. haha Molly says he is "the cutest baby I have ever seen in my whole life!" She can't wait for him to come home. :)

We have not heard anything from Detroit CIS. They did not respond to the email I sent about our fingerprints not needing to be re-done. We are just waiting to get something in the mail from them--and have no idea when that might be. In case you're wondering why we don't just ASK them for info, we don't because they get very bugged about it. They do not 'allow' people to request information on the status of their paperwork.

Enjoy the pictures of sweet Jacob! I wish you could see the big smiles he gave us on the video!

I love red tape...NOT!

ugh... We got a lovely packet in the mail today from the Detroit Immigration office (USCIS). I knew it could not be a good thing. It wasn't. They returned everything we had submitted, saying they didn't understand what we wanted to do. HUH???

We had mistakenly sent the wrong amount of money (for one set of fingerprints, rather than two). Instead of picking up the phone and calling us to request the additional money, they just sent it all back with a rude comment.

We actually have fingerprints on file with their office that will not expire until July.

I decided to email them today (you cannot call because they convienently do not have a phone number available). I asked if we needed new fingerprints to submit the paperwork, and they emailed back that we did not.

HUH?

So...let me get this straight. You rejected our paperwork because we didn't send enough money for fingerprints that we don't even need?

Yep. Ya gotta love that logic.

I had not gotten an answer from them before the post office closed today, so I sent everything back--including the fee for fingerprinting, just in case it was needed. I explained that we had current fingerprints, though, and shouldn't need new ones. I suppose this will confuse them.

We are praying that they don't get confused again, and send it all back to us.

Our agency told us today that they expect our paperwork and Jacob's to be all done in Guatemala in about one month. We would probably be waiting a few weeks for a visa appointment--but basically, Jacob will be ready to come home in approximately 6-7 weeks.

Detroit USCIS 'could' get our paperwork done by then if they do not make us re-do our fingerprints. Could you please pray with us that they go ahead and process us with our current fingerprints?

God moves mountains

God has been moving mountains for us today! First though, I want to share with you how He encouraged me last night.

All day I was so discouraged over the thought of having to do all that paperwork over. Where would I get the energy? ugh. Despite the lethargy toward the paperwork, my mind was racing with all that needed to be done. I had made many phone calls but was not able to speak to anyone and was forced to leave mesages and wait for a response. This frustrated me even further. Worst of all was thinking that baby Jacob would be stuck in Guatemala while we waited for approval from the US Government. I knew that I should be trusting God, but despite my attempts to tell myself to do that, I was a bundle of pent up energy.

I needed to spend some time with the Lord. After taking the kids to Awana last night, I planned to put a praise CD on in the car and sing at the top of my lungs. ha. Praising God always gets my focus where it belongs--on Him.

I grabbed the nearest CD and popped it in. It was a CD I had used to practice some Christmas music for church. The second song was the one that inspired the Christmas poem for Jacob--about Jesus being "One Small Child' who was sent to redeem the world. I knew God was reminding me not to get side-tracked in the mire, but to press on and keep my eyes on the goal of getting Jacob home.

The next song came on and by then I was just smiling.... It was a song that was about Mary, called "When Her Eyes are on the Child." Some of the lyrics are as follows:
There's a mother....
And she's traveled very far
But she's not thinking about her journey now
There's a baby in her arms
And when her eyes are on the child, she finds all the strength she needs
All the struggles and the trials just turn into perfect peace
She can even stop and SMILE when her eyes are on the child.

God is so good! It felt like a hug from Him and a gentle reminder that He had everything under control.

This morning I started making phone calls again. The first one yielded results as I was able to connect with our homestudy agency. The director had gotten my email and phone message and her wheels were already turning about the best way to help. She was very frustrated with the situation at Immigration since our paperwork was still current. However, because of that, she is able to update our homestudy very easily. And...she said that we would not have to get all new police clearances, physicals, etc. Everything we have is still current. Praise God!! Our social worker was too busy to handle it this week, so the director said she would have to figure out which one of her workers would have time to help us.

A few hours later I got a call and a very sweet voice on the other end said, "Karin...I handled some of your paperwork last summer. Do you remember me? Joan called me this morning and I told her that I already knew you! I am not busy this week and I can have this done by tomorrow. I am also planning to go to the office tomorrow and I can get this all notarized and sent off to you. I am the perfect choice to do this for you this week. I already have your homestudy on my computer and I can just go in and make the necessary changes"

Yay...GO GOD! :) Our homestudy agency is located across the state and they have social workers all over Michigan. It was no accident that the only one available already had our homestudy on her computer!

We still needed an employment letter since Jeff had changed jobs and also proof that Jordan had been to the doctor. It can take days to get that verification. I typed up a letter and emailed it to the Human Resources director at Jeff's company and within the hour, she had put it on letterhead, signed it and emailed it back to me! Our doctor's office normally takes days to get me copies of anything but they, too, had the paperwork ready within an hour. WOW!

We should have everything sent off to Homeland Security on Monday. We are going to pray that our approval is completed by the time Jacob is ready to come home.

Some good news...some not-so-good news

The good news first... :) Our agency emailed us today to let us know that our paperwork was submitted to PGN on January 30! :) So exciting!! This is where our paperwork will be looked at with a fine-toothed comb. The time in PGN is variable--but the average time to wait is 1-3 months.

Now the bad news... grrrrrr.... When we adopted Jordan, we applied to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for approval for TWO children. Our current approval states that we ARE approved for TWO. When we started paperwork for Jacob, we had to send a special form, homestudy addendum and money (of course), to Homeland Security so they would send a copy of the approval to the US Embassy in Guatemala City. This notifies them that we will be adopting a child from Guatemala.

Today, I got a letter in the mail from them saying that rather than allow us to do this, they want us to submit a brand new application (why do they have the form and instructions for doing it the other way then???) I am not a happy camper. The difference is this: with the first option, we only had to send the homestudy addendum and a fee. By having to submit a brand new application we will have to do:

*Criminal background checks at the local police station
*New doctor's physical's for EVERYONE in our ENTIRE family!!! (yes, 9 physicals!!!!) This is a Michigan requirement for a homestudy approval. We do have a co-pay, but $15 x 9 is still a chunk-o-change.
*Letter from Jeff's employer confirming his job/salary, etc
*Child Abuse Registry check
*All new homestudy (at least $1,200, plus time filling out info for the social worker)
*Another big fat check to Homeland Security for $550
*travel to Detroit for both Jeff and I to be fingerprinted (another $70)

It normally takes us about 2-3 months to complete all the above requirements. It is time-consuming and has us running all over town and to Detroit.

I can only liken it to being told that in order to take your baby home from the hospital after giving birth, you will now be required to spend another 35 hours in labor with no pain medication. Oh--and you WILL be charged double for your time using the delivery room.

Maybe the next thing to come in the mail will be a letter comfirming my reservation at the Nut House. :)

I'm sure that God will meet our needs financially and emotionally regarding this latest turn of events. It is not the end of the world...but it IS very frustrating and energy draining.

The Guatemalan process

The Guatemala adoption process is quite a bit different than the China process. China has a centralized system run by the government. Guatemala has a system that is handled by a combination of government officials, judges and attorney's, which makes it more variable than the somewhat predictable China process.

We are about half-way through the wait for Jacob--we think?? It could be longer if there are any problems with our paperwork. We were recently given the DNA results of Jacob and his birth mother. They are a match! We are currently waiting for the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala to review the DNA paperwork and issue an approval for us to enter the final phase of the process. That phase is called PGN. This is where they will be going over our paperwork with a fine-toothed comb. It normally takes 1-3 months to move through this phase, depending on whether or not there are problems with our paperwork. We think we did everything correctly, so are hoping not to have to re-do anything!

Baby Jacob is living in a hogar with about 12 other babies who are waiting to be adopted. We have some video of him there and he looks happy and loved. We tried to put it on a YouTube for you to see on this blog, but sadly, the format was incompatible with YouTube. Drat....

Our adoption facilitator, Melissa, is in Guatemala right now and has promised to send us some pictures and video soon. Yay! We can't wait to see how our little guy has grown in the past few months!

Our Christmas poem to friends and family telling them about Jacob:





T’was the night before Christmas
And all through the house
The noise was just deafening
And stressed was my spouse.

The girls were all playing! Their giggles, how merry
They seemed to have more fun than Moe, Curly and Larry
Sweet Jordan toddled and tried to catch up
And at his heels, nipped our frolicking pup
Ryan retreated to his cold basement cave
While Taylor attempted his sanity to save

Our home was bulging and t’was all a’ bustle
And to church on Sunday’s, we all had to hustle
We couldn’t imagine a life more full
And then, to the computer, I felt a strange pull….

An email was waiting, a child’s fate to share
A plea for a family, for someone to care.

When what to my wondering heart should I hear
But God asking again about a child so dear
“He is motherless, this little one is
Is there room in your hearts for one such as this?

As I struggled to listen and not make excuse
A thought came to me that I could not shake loose
“God sent One Small Child, the world to redeem
Is it really too much to ask you to lean
On the strength that I promise, if you will just trust
In My provision and help, even though you are dust”.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I listened to Him
Could I refuse this child, so sad and so thin?
Who needed God’s love, from His hands, then through ours
He would give us the strength, in spite of long hours.

So quick as a flash, the paperwork flew
Off to Guatemala, a country so new
A sweet baby boy awaits his new Mom and Dad
And sometime next summer, his heart will be glad
He’ll make his way here, to our home and our hearts.
To join his new family; his new life to start.

Jacob’s Story

In December of 2005, I was looking at waiting child lists of children in China. I fell in love with one little boy from Datong but before my husband could decide if he wanted to adopt again, another family stepped forward to adopt him. I began to look at other waiting child lists, thinking that perhaps God had a different little boy for us. Only one other boy pulled strongly at my heart. He was also at Datong and had spina bifida. We considered moving forward to adopt him, but God just didn’t give us the go-ahead in our hearts. Shortly after that, we were contacted by the agency who had the first little boy's file saying that the family who originally wanted him, had backed out. We knew he was our son--whom we named Jordan!!

A month or two passed and I continued to check the website of the second little boy. Week after week, he didn’t have a family. I began to pray and advocate for him on every adoption list I could think of. Still no one looked at his file. Finally I began to feel led to check into pursuing him ourselves after seeing several messages about China allowing two adoptions at once. After several weeks of persistent pleading, the agency who had his file agreed to petition the Chinese government on our behalf. We were just starting paperwork for Jordan, so we asked our social worker to approve us for two children in our homestudy. We also petitioned BCIS for approval for two children, rather than one the way we usually do. During that time, God very clearly gave us the name, "Jacob" and we knew that our next son would have this name. The verses He used were: Isaiah 44: 3,5 "...I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants...One will say, "I belong to the Lord'; another will call himself by the name of Jacob."

While we waited for news from China, God gave Jeff a verse that he wrote out and we tacked up on the refrigerator. It was: "You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob." Psalm 44:4 After a month of waiting—and being so confident that God was going to do a huge miracle for us-- we got the answer from China. It was, ‘No.” We were stunned. God had so very clearly given us the name, “Jacob.” We knew He had a Jacob for us. If it was not this second little boy in China, who was it? Where was he?

After encouragement from God to look for him, “leave the 99 sheep and search for the one that is lost,” I began to search other countries and waiting lists of children with special needs. Month after month yielded no results. Guatemala was the country that continued to be forefront in my heart, though. I asked God what type of special need I was supposed to be looking for, and he impressed on my heart that our next son had a congenital hand defect. Over the next week, I saw three different people with congenital hand defects and it seemed to confirm in my heart that God was leading in that direction. (I haven’t seen anyone with a hand defect since!) Eventually, I left my name with the Guatemala coordinator for The Shepherd’s Crook ( http://www.theshepherdscrook.org/ ), a ministry that helps agencies place children with Special Needs.

She told me that she rarely had children with that type of special need in Guatemala, but put our names on her list, just in case. I also contacted agencies about other countries and was told that they also ‘rarely’ saw a child with that SN. I started to wonder if maybe Jacob WAS in China after all, since that type of special need is not uncommon there.

About six weeks before we were scheduled to leave for China to get Jordan, there was an email in my inbox titled: “I have a little someone I want you to meet.” It was a three month old baby boy in Guatemala with six fingers on each hand. After a lot of prayer, I felt confident that this little boy was our Jacob. After three weeks, Jeff, however, was not so sure. He had two objections: 1., He did not want to adopt from a different country than China where he was comfortable with the program, and 2., He did not want to do two adoptions at once. God—ever faithful—answered Jeff’s objections with the following scripture where Rebekah asks God about the twins she is carrying: Genesis 25:23 “The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb…’” Jeff said it addressed both his concerns…that there were two children at once…and that they were from separate nations. Neither one of us felt we could question God about funds, since we had just told our small group not to worry about money if God called you to adopt. Ha!

So we were off and running! We were scheduled to leave for China in two weeks! Since our homestudy was already approved for two, and our US Immigration approval was for two, we had the hardest part already completed--we just needed an addendum to our homestudy. I spent the next week doing nothing but adoption paperwork and was able to complete our dossier and send it to our agency. I had not planned on doing an entire dossier two weeks before going to China! Ha! I was very stressed by the end of THAT week!

While in China, as we saw the costs mounting for both adoptions, Jeff shared with me a verse God had given him in regard to the money situation. Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight...” Now Jeff is fond of telling me that “Eight is enough!” I told him to take that up with God. haha

We were told that the wait would be approximately 6-9 months after our dossier arrived in Guatemala, so we anticipate bringing Jacob home sometime during the summer of 2007 if all goes well. His given name is Tony, so we are naming him Jacob Anthony. His birthdate is July 14, 2006.

"Jacob I have loved..." Romans 9:13