Adoption Paperwork Update!

After a quiet and frustrating few weeks we finally have lots of positive movement regarding our adoption paperwork.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 we received Ruth's immigration approval in the mail! We filed for this on January 10 and since I missed a signature on one of the documents we had to wait longer to receive this approval. It felt like a VERY long 6 weeks.

After we received immigration approval we were told it would take about 1-2 weeks for the National Visa Center to send us a letter confirming they have notified the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou that our I-800 (immigration) was issued. We were AMAZED and grateful that this was sent via email the very next day (Wednesday, February 22, 2017).

Since we had the letter from NVC we could file for DS-260 (which is for Ruth's visa to come to the U.S.) We filed for this on Thursday, Feb. 23. Also on Thursday, Trent and my visas to get into China arrived in the mail! So as you can see, last week was extremely exciting for our family. It felt like so many pieces were finally coming together.

So now what? We are actually done filing paperwork! Now we just wait for the wheels to turn. The Consulate will issue an Article 5 notice to request our travel approval. This can take 3-4 weeks. Once travel approval is issued that can take another 2-3 weeks. After we receive travel approval we plan our trip to China 3-5 weeks later! We were told sometimes these things come through more quickly, but those are the average estimates.

Our agency plans two trip to China per month based on the provinces, so the province Ruth is from would come up for a trip once per month. We were told there could be a possibility to travel in April. However, based on Trent's work schedule and the kids' school schedule, even if that trip is possible we have decided it will be best for our family to travel in May.

The tentative dates are May 12-26, give or take a couple days. Trent and I will be traveling alone. My oldest niece, Zoey, is going to be staying at our home taking care of the girls with help from grandparents. This arrangement is another tremendous benefit of waiting until May to travel. Zoey will finish her semester at Temple University earlier in the week before we travel, and our girls will finish their homeschool year at the same time. We are so grateful that our girls will have the consistency and stability of sleeping in their own beds and being in their home for 2 weeks and enjoying these two weeks of summer vacation with their cousin. As much as they would love to be with their grandparents and Mema the back and forth is very exhausting for them.

While we are so very eager to bring our darling poppet home, we know that this is going to be a hard transition. Ruth has two foster sisters who are extremely devoted to her. They have been her sisters for nearly a year. Would you pray for them? We know the pain associated with letting go of a foster child you love dearly, and our hope is for these girls and their parents to understand just how important their role in Ruth's life is. Ruth joined their family as a very, very weak and frail child. With their tender care she gained strength to stand, walk and now even run! She gained enough weight to have her lip surgically repaired. They cared for her after her surgery. They are the ones doing the hard work of loving and letting go. Pray for them, especially the girls, who are four and seven years old.

Thanks for following along on our adoption journey. The best is yet to come.

Standing Still

The past couple of weeks have been extremely difficult. We have been waiting for weeks to receive our immigration approval. We were told to expect three to four weeks. After four weeks we received in the mail an envelope from USCIS. Unfortunately the paper was pink, which immediately caused me to worry. The letter informed us that they could not process our immigration at that time because one of our papers was unsigned.

I had built up in my mind that we could potentially be traveling in April. As soon as I received that letter I knew there wouldn't be a way (barring a miracle) that the rest of our paperwork would come together for an April trip to China.

We signed the paper and sent it back to immigration and are STILL waiting to hear back from them (they received it a full week ago). We have filed for our visas and should hear back from them in a week or two.

Right now I feel as if we are standing still. There are no other documents that we can file until we hear back from immigration, and now I have no idea how long that will be.

I hesitated even to say anything publicly for multiple reasons. First, I feel like I let myself down; I let my family down, I let Ruth down, and I let everyone who financially contributed to our adoption down. And second, I felt very guilty. It was my responsibility to make sure all the papers were in order and all signed in the proper places. But I missed one and because of my mistake it will delay our travel.

I have been very grateful for the women in my Bible study and my best friend for helping me through this. I started feeling rather depressed. While I'm generally an optimistic person I was having a hard time pulling through this dip in the road.

Thinking from a place of emotion is not the most healthy way to make decisions. I released the timing of the adoption back to God. You see, I realized that I had depended on God the entire way through the adoption. And all of a sudden I was taking everything into my own hands and almost telling God, "It's okay. I've got this now. I don't need your help." Ha! Actually, I do need Him. Very much so.

It was quite easy to come up with a lot of reasons why a May travel date would actually work better for our family. My main hold up was quite simply that I miss my baby. We are blessed to have a steady stream of photos and videos of her in addition to weekly FaceTime. I feel so connected to her already that in my mind, any possible way I could rush ahead and get her in my arms is best.

Here are a few reasons I came up with to remind me of why May is better.
1. Our older girls will be finished with the school year. *which really is HUGE* It means I don't have any more teaching to do with them until the fall and we can all just focus on helping Ruthie adjust and take her to medical appointments and prepare her for surgery.
2. There's a very good chance my niece will be able to stay with the girls the full two weeks instead of having them flip flop houses every few days.
3. We won't miss Abbey's birthday (but we WILL miss Ruth's birthday in April)
4. The weather should be lovely for traveling

I know in my head that everything will work out and it will be wonderful. That's hard to tell my Mama-heart. If you think of it, would you pray for us? Pray that the remainder of the paperwork will come together and we can trust that all these pieces will come together.

Xoxo,
Mama Hess

Entryway Make Over

It's been awhile since I've done a home project. I love to freshen things up with paint. We painted nearly the entire house when we bought it almost four years ago. The one thing we did not paint were the doors and trim (although we bought trim paint and it's been in the basement ever since!).

I got it in my head that I really should paint our entry way door. Why? I have no idea. This, obviously, is more a project for me as I'm the one who will see it.

BEFORE

The project started out because Anne really wanted me to paint a sign that said, "East or West, Home is Best." We had read it in one of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I can't remember which one, but I'm sure Annie could tell you.) Pa had just gotten home after being away for months as there was no work for him nearby. He got home and said this, "East or West, home is best." Apparently this had been a common saying back in that time as I've since found some really old stitched samplers that say "travel east, travel west, after all home is best."

The sign I made for above the door is 6 feet long. I have had that particular board in my garage for about a year and a half. The back of the wood has many cracks running all the way through it. I knew if I ever cut the board it would split all to pieces and be useless. I wasn't sure what I would ever do with it until the inspiration struck! It ended up being the perfect piece for my home, and I don't have to worry that it would sometime crack in a customer's house.

After scouring Pinterest for ideas, I finally struck upon wanting a really dark front door as our trim paint we already had is a very very bright white.

Once I had the door painted a friend stopped by. Vanessa suggested painting those inserts the same color as the door. I knew it would be added work, but I loved her idea!

DURING

Since I love paint, I've been really eager to try Magnolia Home's new line of paint. My dad gave me a gift card for Christmas so I went for it, as this was a special treat for me! After much debating I went with the color Blackboard with a Matte finish. I am SO happy with the result. The paint is a very thick paint. Even so, it did take two coats to cover the white that the door was before.

This is when I was half regretting Vanessa's suggestion! Lots of work to get those little trim pieces. They still aren't perfect, but good enough for me!

The wreath was a great find at Home Goods

AFTER

Like I said, I'm really pleased with the result. Looking at it makes me feel so happy!