Packages

Another FB post from Brandy:

June 23
Got our Dossier back this morning!! Now we can send it to CCAI to be translated and then off to China!!! Getting so much closer to being able to hug our sweet Jack! I have heard from other adopted parents who have used CCAI that it takes about 2 weeks to translate the forms and about 6 weeks for China to "approve" the forms. After that there is more waiting. But this time it will be for our travel dates to go to China! Whoop whoop!!  That usually takes a few months. When I see Jack's sweet face my heart fills with joy and I thank God for His faithfulness and undying love. Also for you all that have supported us in some way! This journey has been crazy, good and not so good, def been emotional but all so worth it! Love you all!

Brandy

Care Package

We were also told by our agency that we can start sending care packages to Jack.  They have an information packet with labels for us to attach to a photo album to send to him. They have labels translated in Chinese like "Mom", "Grandmother", "Your Room", "Our Dog", and "Our House".  They also have labels for us to send a gift to his nanny and/or director of orphanage.  There's even Chinese labels for "We Love You!" and "Happy Birthday!".  They told us we could send stuff we could fit in a shoe box.  We can even send a disposable camera for Jack's nanny to take pictures of him and his friends for us!  One suggestion we got was if we send him a toy, to have that same toy here when he gets home.  A sweet friend of ours got us a story book, where we can record our voices reading the story.  My mom and dad said we should send him a Paul Companies shirt, haha.

A little story about God's provision

As you know, one our fund-raising methods has been yard sales.  Last week we went and picked up some items from a friend who is remodeling her house.  She needed to get rid of some things, and she knew about our yard sales so she called us.  She had a bunch of stuff, and as a coincidence, I happened to be pulling a U-Haul trailer the day we went to pick up her donations.  As it turns out, she owns a business where one of her services is organizing and de-cluttering.  The day after we picked up her items, she called to let us know she had MORE items.  She asked her customer, and they said it was okay for her to donate the clutter to us.  Today, we had this conversation:

Little things like this are our every-day miracles that we have seen throughout the adoption process.  I want to make more of a point to share more of these.

Picture This

First, a message from Brandy from her Facebook page:

Just received our PA (pre-approval) from China for our sweet little Jack!!! This is a HUGE step closer to bringing our son home! We get to send him care packages now, and I want to fill that package with everything! LOL T.j. Paul and I are so blessed and we are praising God! Now we are just waiting on our Dossier to get certified from Houston (Chinese Consulate) then we will be off to the next step! — feeling excited.

Okay, so we've been waiting to share this cute little face with the world for a few weeks now since we got his referral.  We had to wait for our pre-approval from China before we could do that.  A pre-approval is pretty much a formality, but our agency asks everyone to wait for that before we share any of his bio or pictures.  I actually had to delay a blog post called "Meet Jack".  You can go back and read that to learn more about his personality, but for now............

ENJOY!

These first pictures are from when he was a little younger.

Brandy just loves those lips!

Look at the flexibility in those toes!

Looking a little shy.

These next photos were taken just for us, only a few days before they sent his file to us for review.  He's three years old, and he turns four on September 25th.

This is the picture I have put on the lock screen on my iPhone.  If you've seen me the last few days, you've seen this picture because I'm showing it to err'body.

There is a video of him, and this shot is from when he had about four or five Chinese people speaking to him and trying to get him to do something.  It's okay, Jack, I would get confused if one person was giving me commands in Chinese.  Really, he looked more like he was just defiant like Butters does when you know she knows what we are saying, but it's just not something she wants to do right this second.  Lord, help us if we spoil this boy the way we spoil Butters.

This is another picture from the video.  There is an American girl to his left.  I think she was there from our agency.  You can see a tape measure, and it looks like he is sitting on a scale.  It looks like she was there measuring him and checking on him.  He's drawing circles with his left hand.  Future owner/manager of HP Graphics?

If the pictures just aren't enough, here are two videos they sent to us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFd2LMPET-g&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV8CbmsCmzU&feature=youtu.be

Withdrawals

Brandy and I are going through withdrawals this week for a couple of reasons.  First, we don't have any more paperwork to do right now.  We have been filling out forms and writing letters for this adoption non-stop since November of last year, and some even before then.  We finally finished our dossier last week, and knocked off a couple of "To-Do Lists" for our agency.  Now, there is nothing to do but wait, and it feels really weird.  We complained about how much paperwork we had to do before, and now we almost miss it.  It's like those dreams you have after graduation that you had homework that you forgot to do.  It's just been such a big part of our life.

Our second withdrawal this week has been from caffeine.  To try to stay healthy, we both gave ourselves a week-long challenge to drink nothing but water or milk.  Monday was ROUGH.  By the time I got home, I didn't feel like doing anything.  Brandy managed to prepare a delicious dinner.  I had hope that food would give me a burst of energy, but the only energy we got was from laughing at two episodes of America's Funniest Videos.  It NEVER fails, the video with the cute kid ALWAYS wins.  It's America's Funniest, not America's Cutest, people!  We were both in bed at 9 o'clock!

I checked with the courier who took our dossier to the Chinese Consulate in Houston.  She said it looked like everything was in order with our dossier, so that was a relief.  She said it would be ready Friday, and I assume that means we will get it back next week.  When we get it back, we will send it to our agency.  Then, they will translate it and send it to China.  Once China receives it, we will have our Log In Date (LID), which is a big deal in the adoption process.

I just want to express some gratitude.  To our readers, you may feel sick of reading our "thank you's", but I just don't think we can say it enough.  We got some big help over the last few weeks.  I'd love to stand on a rooftop and scream your names and praises.  We just want everyone to know that we REALLY appreciate all the emotional and financial support we have received in the last couple of weeks and throughout the whole process.  We still have shirts available.  If anyone wants a Paul Companies shirt, message us on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/pauladoption?ref_type=bookmark .

Babymoon

Our Dossier is no longer in our hands but on its way to be certified by the Chinese Consulate in Houston, TX.  Then, it comes back to us, then on to our agency, and finally it goes to China! But for now, we wait.  The ones that have been through adoption before understand how awesome this feels. It's like the biggest school project anyone has ever done.  It's been the hardest part of the adoption so far.  It feels like now we are waiting for our grade from the teacher, hoping we didn't miss anything or get anything wrong.  

We are still waiting for our pre-approval, so we can share pictures of our boy.  In the meantime, Brandy and I are discussing how we should spend our last few months as a family of three (if you count our dog, Butters).  We have been talking of taking a "babymoon" before we leave for China.  Obviously, we can't spend a bunch of money and fly across the world, but we want to do something that we can't do with a child.  So, if anyone has any suggestions, please share!

Frequently Frustrated

Sending out our Dossier today or tomorrow depending on the carrier!!! So excited that this MAJOR step is past us! I never knew that paperwork could be so stressful! All the emotions and feelings you go through with adoption is something I don't think we will ever forget however I KNOW that meeting my waiting child is going to be one of the best feelings. I am not the best at words so it is hard to describe all that goes through your mind. To describe the helplessness you feel when you are just waiting on someone else to approve something before you can even do the next step. The feeling of impatience when once again you have to redo a form because it has expired because you are still waiting on a form to get approved or isn't worded JUST right. To describe how frustrated you get because you still don't understand what they are asking for after reading the form for 100th times!! LOL (quite embarrassed by that one)  However the feeling you get just knowing that we will be meeting our child (God willing) by next year is priceless!

Brandy

Meet Jack

On Friday, May 23 I received a call at work from our adoption agency about a referral for a potential match for us.  It was a normal Friday like any other.  I was at work just doing my thing, when CCAI popped up on my cell phone.  The lady from the agency went on to tell me all about a child's sex, name, birthday, height, weight, physical development, personality, medical special need, favorite activities, physical abilities, mental development, and so on.  I was in shock because I didn't think we would get any referrals until all our dossier paperwork had been turned in.  Brandy had told me that we could be matched at any time, but neither of us was prepared for this so soon.  As she went on all about the child, I began to fall in love.  After she finished telling me everything, she asked if I was interested and if I wanted her to send an email with all of the info and pictures!  Absolutely!

The email only made me fall in love even more.  As I read all of the documents, I thought, "This feels like the perfect child for us."  We were told that we could take all of the info and consult a pediatrician, but they needed an answer within a week or so.  Brandy and I have been on such a whirlwind of emotions over the last week, but excitement tops them all.  God has been so good to us throughout this whole process.  He has taken all of our fears and anxieties, and shown us a picture of His love in the form of this little child.

For legal purposes at this time, we can't disclose too much information, so no photos that we can share just yet.

Meet Jack

Edited to show what we are allowed to show

Jackson "Jack" James Paul was born September 25, 2010 (estimated), was abandoned on September 28, 2010, outside the Zhengzhou City University.  That same day, he was brought to the Zhengzhou City Children’s Welfare Institute.

After entering the institute, Jack has continuously lived inside the institute.  Below is his most recent development report.

Motor development and adaptability: Jack's thumbs and forefingers are nimble and his fingers can accomplish some meticulous tasks.  His left and right hands can play with toys simultaneously and he can take toys out of the toy box; After he’s finished playing, he will put the toys in the toy box.  His motor movement is normal and the child can sit, crawl, stand steadily and walk freely.  The child can also go up and down stairs.  The child can grab a pen and draw lines and he can imitate drawing circles and straight lines.  He can flip through a book on his own.

Language and social abilities: The child adapts to strange environments very quickly and if he’s interested in something, he will reach out his hands to touch it.  He understands what the nannies say and he listens to what they say.  If the nannies don’t want him doing something, he won’t do it.  The child can use simple words to answer a few questions and he can say 3-5 word sentences.  He can also count from 1-10.  When he hears his given Chinese name called, he will turn his head to look for the origin of the sound.  He can distinguish between strangers and acquaintances and when he sees someone he’s familiar with, he smiles.  He’s not afraid of strangers and he likes to communicate with them.

Personality characteristics: Jack is a lively and active child.  His personality is very extroverted and he really likes to smile.  If someone plays with him, he will smile.  If he’s curious about something, he will go pick it up and research it.  He really likes to play with toys and he’s not picky about the toys he plays with.  He responds quite quickly and when he sees the TV or hears music he will become very happy.  He likes to play in places where there are lots of people and when he sees other little children, he becomes very happy.

Jack is an extremely active and cute child and we all really like him.  We hope that he can quickly find a loving home with a mother and father that will give him a happy childhood as well as a beautiful future.  We are confident that he will bring bundles of joy and good fortune to your home.

By now you must be asking a few questions.  

How long till you can go get him? Unfortunately, it will be eight to nine months before we can bring baby Jack home. There is still a lot of paperwork and rigmarole that must be gone through before we can travel to China. In the meantime, we can request updates and send care packages to him.

We are sorry we can't share more information and pictures of Jack, but this is all we can say for now. We should have authority to do that very soon, though. Brandy and I got all of the paperwork done to officially lock baby Jack for us last night. CCAI is going to translate it and let us know when we can share pictures soon. Maybe you guys can even see the videos of him!

May Yard Sale/Meeting of Grandmother and Chinese Granddaughter

Sorry that I am late posting this update about the yard sale: Yard sale was a huge success thanks to God, people that donated and people that came out to buy/support us. There is one of many stories I would like to share about the yard sale that was such a blessing to me and I KNOW God was part of because I so needed it. The last couple of weeks I have felt defeated and stressed due to getting the paper work finish and having to redo some of it. A Grandmother came with her 6 year old granddaughter that was adopted from China. I got to talk with them both and listen to their story. The Grandmother gave me words of encouragement and the little girl was so happy! I really feel like God sent them to our yard sale just so He could tell me to calm down (Haha) and everything was going to be fine. Because no matter how long it takes or emotions I feel, the end result will be the same. I one day will be able to hold my baby in my arms in God's time and God's time is always perfect!

Brandy