You're not going to believe this but....

We got our travel approval yesterday.  Seriously.  Our travel approval.   In days, not weeks or months, from our LSC.  Strangely fast.  But hey, not complaining here.  This puts us in a dizzy tailspin, as we could possibly travel in November.  However, there's one glitch:  A little piece of paper called the I171H we're still waiting on. If we had that in hand, we'd definitely be traveling in early November.  But, being that's still MIA, the chances seem slim that would happen.  Of course, stranger things have happened (like say, getting your Travel Approval just a few days after your LSC).  I have made a couple of attempts these past few days to contact the NBC (not the TV network, the National Benefits Center) to check the status again.  I'm hoping to hear back from a specific officer there in the next few days.

So, here's the travel info in a nutshell (as I understand it).  We MUST travel on or before December 9th or our travel approval will expire.  If it does expire, it's not the end of the world, but it would delay things several more weeks as we'd have to apply for travel approval all over again.  So, please focus your prayers on the I-171H document for us.  God keeps whispering to me that His timing is perfect, and I trust Him that it is.

Other good news:  Ginny will be receiving her first care package from us in the next few weeks.  Our agency sends a small care package (included in our fees) on our behalf, and we get to include a picture and a note (which will be translated.)  We'll be sending a more personalized one in the weeks ahead.

Our next immediate project is Visa applications for us (plus Nathan) and my parents, who have decided to join us on this adventure.

Please pray for that I171H!  And please consider helping with our fundraiser! (http://bit.ly/cRquB5)

Adoption Fundraiser

Would you like to help us bring our little girl home?  Michelle Dancy, one of our friends from church is a "Thirty-One" products consultant.  Michelle is a China adoptive mom herself, and has agreed to donate all of her commission to helping us raise funds as we enter into the travel phase of our adoption.  This equates to about 25% of the sales.  Thirty-one features many types of products, including bags and totes like the ones in the picture above, and make great gifts for Christmas!  

There are a few ways to place an order:

1)  Contact Sharon Bridges (704)663-0910 or Michelle Dancy at (704)657-3997.  

2)  Order online.  Visit mythirtyone.com/michelledancy.  Click on "My Events," then "Shop Now" on the line beside the listing: "Chris & Sharon Adoption".  On the screen that follows you'll again click the link that says "Shop Now."

Please note:

• There will be a 7.75% tax on orders. 
• THE DEADLINE FOR ORDERS IS MONDAY, OCTOBER 18.  It takes two weeks for the products to come in once ordered.

We're in Shanghai!!! Okay, not really. We actually just finished eating Chinese at the Shanghai Chinese Restaurant in North Wilksboro, NC after a day at the annual Apple Festival. It was a beautiful cool fall day, perfect for a festival like this.

We'll be in the real Shanghai soon enough.

Happy Birthday Ginny

Today, September 27th is actually Ginny's birthday.  She turns three today, and it saddens our hearts just a bit not to be able to be with her on this special day.  Still it's comforting to know that hopefully this will be her last birthday spent without her forever family.  We sang "Happy Birthday" to her at the dinner table this evening.

We did receive confirmation that the signed LSC reached the CCAA today.  Once it's processed, the CCAA will begin the work on the Travel Approval.  And also today, after a few email attempts to contact US Immigration, we did receive a reply that they expected our file to be assigned to an officer in the next two weeks.  Our agency worker mentioned that's a good sign and things should progress fairly quickly with that document once that happens.  That gave us a little spark of hope on that strangely late document.

Meet Virginia

Meet Virginia.  She's the most awesome little girl I know.  And we haven't even met her yet.  

Now that we've received our LSC, we're supposedly allowed to share information about our little girl.  Wu Jin Jun is her legal Chinese name, and she is in the orphanage in Shanghai.  She is considered a special needs, or "waiting child," as she was born extremely premature (and had other typical issues that go along with that), and had surgery very early to correct a hernia.  She turns three years old in just two days.  However, physically she's quite behind as you might imagine.  Doctors and others who reviewed her profile encouraged us that she has a very good prognosis and likelihood of catching up.  

Sharon and I have decided that her American name will be Virginia Grace Bridges, but we'll be most likely calling her "Ginny."  This was not the original choice we've had picked out for years as a girl's name, because what we had picked out just didn't fit anymore.  Why Ginny/Virginia?  Ginny sounds like Jin, part of her Chinese name, and likely what she's been used to being called already.  Plus, since our first six years in full time ministry was spent in Virginia, where the Lord saw fit to give us our first child, the name had double significance.  Plus, we know a few really cool people named Ginny/Jeni, and Sharon had a grandmother named Virgie.   

What's next now?  Well, the next big milestone is the TA, or travel approval.  In the meantime, we are also waiting for our I-171H renewal to come through, which we should have gotten by now.  And then there's the money thing.  We'll be beginning a fundraiser soon that we hope you'll help us with.  I just finished another grant application tonight as well, and plan to start a few more in the next week.  

LSC Surprise

Well guess what?  Do you remember the thing that was supposed to take 30-100 days?  It took 12 days.  Wow.  That had caught us by surprise totally. What this means in the long and short of it is that we could potentially travel in November.  It's doubtful it will happen that smoothly, as there are still a few other obstacles to clear first.  One of the things that has taken longer than we anticipated was the renewing our our I-171H,, which is US immigration paperwork we need to bring our daughter home.  The government has just added a new agency (there's a surprise) to handle adoption related immigration issues based at the National Benefits Center, whatever that is.  This change in the system has seemed to slow down getting that document finished, which actually should have gotten here before the other things we've had come in.  Still, the max wait on that document supposedly is 90 days, and we're still a few weeks away from it being that long.

Some of the excitement about this stage of the journey is that some of the secrecy of the file is lifted, and we are a bit more free to share information about our little girl, including pictures, etc. in the weeks ahead.  We'll also be able to send her a care package.  For some reason, Sharon has told me I am not allowed to send her a Transformer.  I am still baffled why she would deny me this request ; ) , but life goes on. 

And as most of you know, especially those who have adopted internationally before, we have quite a bit of dough to raise.  We feel confident we have enough resources to "borrow" our way to China, but we're hoping to minimize that as much as possible through grants, gifts, and other creative ways.  We are in the process of talking with Michelle Dancy about a fundraiser through her business, ThirtyOne Gifts.  More on that Later. 

Now off for a mad dash of document signing and mailing.

Pre-Approval here!

Much quicker than I expected it, we received an email from our agency today that we had received our "Pre-Approval" or "PA" from China.  This is a document that simply indicates China is aware of our intent to adopt this specific child, and that they will begin the process of getting things in order towards that end.  I actually didn't expect this to come so soon, but thrilled that it did!

The next document we'll be waiting for is called the "Letter Seeking Confirmation" or "LSC".  This is a letter I'm told that basically asks in a Regis-like way "Is that your final answer?"  Basically it's confirming our desire to proceed.  Our agency says that it has been taking between 30-100 days from this point to receive this for other families.  Again, because our paperwork is in order, we don't feel it will take that full time, but knowing our luck, we'll be the first for it to take 200 days.  Yeah, I know I can be a pessimist sometimes.

Meanwhile, we've been going crazy on the grant front.  I'm almost finished with my third grant application, and should have everything I need to send these three off by the first of next week.  Those of you that pray, I'd ask you to concentrate some prayers towards this process for us right now, specifically that we may be blessed with being a recipient for some of these funds.  Still, we know God will provide as He always has.