Flights are booked!

We got Travel Approval yesterday and, after receiving confirmation of a Consulate Appointment in China, booked our flights today! I will get to meet Rebecca on June 11th and Peter on June 15th!

It was a bit of an ordeal booking the flights to China. We tried doing it online, but nothing would go through. We tried to call the Chinese airline directly, but they could not book over the phone. We finally ended up working with a Chinese travel agency and that went pretty well. There was a lot of back and forth (we couldn’t travel through Canada, we had to have long lay-overs, etc.), but it’s all booked!

The amazing part is that we will be on U.S. soil only days before Peter turns 14! It is so awesome how God worked out all the timing.

Please be praying for safe travels. Also, we are still thousands of dollars short of our goal, so please continue to give or purchase shirts (www.christianwarriorwear.com). Everything helps!

A tough decision...and an update on Rebecca

We got a brief update on Rebecca earlier this week.  I was not able to post it sooner because we spent the earlier part of the week racing to get a Power of Attorney notarized, signed by the Secretary of the State, and now it is off to the China consulate for final authentication!

Sadly, we were not able to raise sufficient funds to bring our entire family to China, so I will be going alone to bring home Peter and Rebecca. It is not ideal, but we just could not afford to bring everyone. Bill will continue to sell shirts while I am in China to help recoup a lot of the expenses (the fees are detailed here and are accurate, except we have had to spend much more in postage fees for all the overnight shipping of documents! http://fourtosixfamily.blogspot.com/2014/12/funding-adoptions.html). We are also planning to attend a local Christian festival in July to sell shirts, so that should help, too. If you would like to help, please purchase a shirt at: www.christianwarriorwear.com or give at: http://reecesrainbow.org/85271/sponsorrobinson-6.

With regards to the update, it was answering the questions that we had a chance to ask about her (what are her fears? what does she like to eat? etc.). It says she likes congee, eggs and carrots! :-) The update included two new pictures, which show that she is out of the hospital and back at the orphanage.

If you see her previous photos (such as this one: http://fourtosixfamily.blogspot.com/2015/01/therapy-options-for-cp.html), she looks much weaker now. She seems to be fully supported above by the wheelchair, which makes me think that she has lost a lot of her upper body strength.

As for the adoption process, we are waiting for our Article 5 to be picked up (hopefully later this evening!), then we just wait for Travel Approval, which will hopefully come very soon (as we need to finalize the adoption by July 1st).

Thank you to those who have already supported! Please keep us all in your prayers and please share our story as you feel lead.

Depraved Indifference

From Bill:

Today’s highlighted resource is a short film from the Ellerslie Mission Society, entitled “Depraved Indifference.” This was actually the first resource (outside of Scripture) that got me to start really considering our place, as Christians, to adopt those whom the world has thrown away.

By God’s grace, this video is just one of many Holy Spirit-empowered resources that the team at Ellerslie has put together. Pastor Eric Ludy is a great example of a Christian Warrior, empowered by the Holy Spirit to confront the world with the truth. Please share this video; there are just too many Christians for there to be so many orphans. Not everyone is qualified to adopt, but most can help those who do, if they choose to. What’s your choice? Who do you serve? (Really, if you aren’t broken when you look around this world, you may want to check if you have the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the elect to see the truth and then give them power to engage this world with such veracity that the Christians of today should no less turn this world upside down, then the disciples did back in the day!

Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHJ6-YhSYQ

Thank you for following and, if you feel called, please support our adoption through your purchase of a shirt on ChristianWarriorWear.com, or you can donate on our Youcaring page: http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-us-adopt-a-teenage-boy-and-a-girl-with-cerebral-palsy/278760. To God be the glory alone!

Great update on Peter!

We just got our final update on Peter and it was awesome! Much better report than the stressful news we got on Rebecca (see here: http://www.christianwarriorwear.com/blog/distressingfirstupdate).

We got two new pictures of our smiley boy and found out his shoe size! I was trying to buy shoes for him the other day and was worried about guessing wrong- glad I waited! (He is a 4.5 men’s for those who are curious).

The report is answering some questions that we asked, so it may sound unusual to hear things like “He is not afraid of anything.” I love it!

The update said:



5/15/2015 update

Medical/Development:

Current health is good. His left hand is not as agile as other children. His intelligence is delayed compared with other children of his age.

Personality:
(States Chinese name) He is not afraid of anything. He is happy when he is playing or drawing.
General:

He sleeps by himself. He showers daily. He brushes his teeth daily. He has daily responsibilities. He is in grade 3. He likes math and English. He knows some English words. He has a best friend.



What an incredible update on our sweet boy! He is going to fit in so well with our family.  I can’t wait to meet him in about 3 weeks!

Second Video Resource

From Bill:

As I said in yesterday’s video, for the next few days we will be highlighting certain resources that the Holy Spirit used, in conjunction with Scripture, to propel us to adopt Peter and Rebecca. 

Today’s resource is another documentary on conditions in orphanages, this time in Bulgaria:

We originally came across this documentary when we were considering adopting a young boy named Whittaker, from the Ukraine. His story was actually the one that God used to burst open the doors of our hearts to the abandoned and helpless. 

Whittaker had cerebral palsy and was only four years old; he looked a lot like our son, William, who is also four. Whittaker was left in a bed all day and his muscles had completely atrophied. We had also learned that he was about to be transferred from his orphanage if not adopted soon. Why, you ask? Because in the Ukraine and Bulgaria, children like Whittaker only have until they are four years old to get adopted from their orphanage before they are transferred. 

Now, you can adopt from the mental institutions, but it not as easy- to say the least- because sadly, there are so many kids that those who don't get adopted are simply seen as lost and ultimately forgotten.  Additionally, if you watch today’s documentary, you will see that these mental institutions are essentially Hell on earth. There are just too many kids and not enough people who care, Christian or not.

Thankfully, when we inquired about Whittaker, we learned that another family had already started the process of adopting him. In the end, God used this to lead us to Peter and Rebecca.

If you feel compelled, please support our adoption by purchasing a shirt at www.christianwarriorwear.com or give on our YouCaring page: http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-us-adopt-a-teenage-boy-and-a-girl-with-cerebral-palsy/278760.

The only help for orphans like Peter and Rebecca is found in God Almighty as He moves sovereignly, and as He leads though the acts of his Saints, God’s elect. To God be the glory alone!  

Call for Fire!

Bill shares how God lead our heart towards adoption, describes how Rebecca is currently doing, and explains why we are in such a rush to get our children home.

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"Return to Dying Rooms" can be found here: https://vimeo.com/22068507

Please purchase a shirt or give on our YouCaring page: http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-us-adopt-a-teenage-boy-and-a-girl-with-cerebral-palsy/278760.

Purple Awesomeness!

We had a request for a purple version of the women's True Faith shirt, and I think it turned out awesome! What do ya think? Only $22 and all profits help bring home Peter and Rebecca!

Purchases can be made through Christian Warrior Wear: www.christianwarriorwear.com/womens/

Letter(s) of Acceptance

We just signed and overnighted our Letters of Acceptance (LOA) for Peter and Rebecca! We had to sign 6 documents, two of which were solely in Chinese. I accidentally got the papers out of order and almost put the wrong child's name on each of the Chinese documents, but I was able to figure out the characters and straighten it out! Those letters are now sent off to our adoption agency and will be sent to the CCCWA (China welfare organization), so that we can get Travel Approval (TA)! We are so close now. The USCIS has the electronic copies already of the LOAs, so we should get our letters of approval from them in the next day or two. After that, I think we get a GUZ number and fill out a really long form called the DS-260, then I think that is all we need for TA!

I wanted to share that we just applied for a grant with an adoption grant agency. We're only applying for one since our time is so short and each grant costs between $25 and $50 to apply for. I see a lot of people who do not get accepted for these grants, but hopefully we will! That could mean $5000 towards our travel fees!

If we are not able to raise the $20,000 still needed, I (Kristin) may have to go to China alone to get Peter and Rebecca. We were really hoping to have the entire family go (including our two bio kids), but we would have to get another credit card to make that happen, if the money doesn't come in, and that does not seem like a good way to start as a family of 6!

If you would like to help us with the adoption expenses, please buy a shirt at www.christianwarriorwear.com. You can also give a tax-deductible gift through our account with the Reece's Rainbow Family Sponsorship Program: http://reecesrainbow.org/85271/sponsorrobinson-6.


On a side note, as I was rummaging through the garage the other day, I came across a large bag of Emma's size 2 clothes that I had intended to give away. The clothes are in almost new condition, since she pretty much skipped size 2 and went straight to 3! These should fit Rebecca perfectly, at least for a few months home, since she is so tiny. Small blessing!

Distressing first update on Rebecca

When we began the adoption process, we received one medical report on Rebecca (Yana). It was from April of 2012, just two months after she was abandoned at the orphanage at the age of two (her estimated age). She is now five years old.

At the time, she seemed to be doing pretty well, considering she has athetoid cerebral palsy. She was making sounds and we learned that she could sit up and grasp things. Her weight was 9kg or about 20lbs, and 86cm.

Since that report, we have learned additional information about Rebecca's health. Over the past five months of the adoption process, we were blessed to come across a wonderful woman who visited Rebecca's orphanage last year. From this woman's information, we knew that Rebecca is, sadly, not progressing in her development. She is now in a wicker-basket wheelchair- sitting over a bucket potty- muscles atrophying, hardly socializing, and drooling. The woman also said that Rebecca is very quiet and shy. Other than that, she did not have a lot of information.

Three days ago, our adoption agency let us know that they just received a medical update on Rebecca, so I thought I would share. The update was very brief. It states:

4/28/2015 Update

Medical/Development:
Due to her special needs, local clinic could not give her immunizations.
She had fever recently and is treated in the hospital.
Very delayed, she cannot sit on her own, cannot stand or walk.
She is not potty trained.
She cannot make sounds or say any words.
She often puts out her tongue even when eating.

Personality:
(Gives Chinese name)
Introverted, is not affectionate and has stranger anxiety.

General:
She is in the orphanage.

The report included her vitals and current measurements. Her weight was listed at 12kg (26.5 lbs), which is only 3kg or 6.5 lbs more than she was 3 years ago. Her height is now 88cm. She has grown only 2cm in 3 years, so she is barely growing! On the Chinese growth chart, she is not even on the chart (http://www.infantchart.com/chinese0to18weightforage.php).

As for the hospitalization, I had a bad feeling that she was in the hospital a month or so ago. I had been following updates on her orphanage by an organization that supports certain foster children around China (I believe that 13 of the 60 children at Rebecca's orphanage have sponsors- Rebecca is not one of them). The organization had said that some of the more malnourished children from her orphanage were hospitalized recently because of high fevers, and I was concerned that she might be one of them- sadly, I was right. I do not know if she is still in the hospital, but our agency is asking for an update from her orphanage.

Here are the two photos that were sent with her update. You can tell in the first one that she had an IV port in, so I assume that these were taken at the hospital.

Such a somber update.

I don't know if Rebecca knows that there is a family racing to get her home. I don't know if the orphanage workers have told her, or if she could even understand if they did. I doubt it. But we are here and we are getting every piece of paperwork processed as quickly as possible to get her home. Thankfully, we got through three major steps (DTC, LID and LOA) in just 4 business days...God is at work in this process! We MUST be in China by July 1st, in order to finalize the adoption of Peter (Pang Pang) before he turns 14. Isn't it such a blessing that we get an expedite for his adoption, since she is also in so much need of love and care?

Please pray for little Rebecca- that she will stay healthy while we work to get to her, and also that God would fill her with His peace when she does meet us. If you would like to help with the remaining $28,000 needed for both adoptions, please purchase a shirt at www.christianwarriorwear.com. All profits go towards the adoptions. Thank you.

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"It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Deuteronomy 31:8