It has been another day of blessings! What a wonderful journey God continues to provide! We met with our new Family Advocate at the adoption agency today and she is precious! It will be a joy to have her walk us through the rest of the process. So that makes two wonderful family advocates we've had and both have been so sweet! We are so thankful. Our discussion today gave us a great deal to consider. But before we even arrived home, our Family Advocate had emailed us an answer to some of our concerns and that was very helpful! Right now, the estimated wait from Log-In to Referral is around 23 months!! So we were concerned about the age factor. But it turns out it's not a major concern! Yay, God! So meeting our new Family Advocate and finding out that my age is not an issue at this point were great blessings! Of course, we still have paperwork to update in the coming months, but we know God will lead us in that aspect of our journey as well.
We have a few specific prayer requests at this point. First, please pray for everyone involved in the adoption process...the precious children waiting to go home, the wonderful folks in the USA and PRC who are working so hard to bring the children and their families together, and the families who are working, waiting and walking by faith to bring the children home. Waiting for approximately 23 months is very difficult to imagine and endure. But once again, God's master plan and perfect timing will orchestrate bringing everyone together so beautifully! Second, please pray for this waiting time to possibly decrease. Time frames fluctuate often so it is very possible that it will be reduced sometime. Yet our hearts ache for all the children and parents who long to be together as "Forever Families." Third, Tim and I have always been open to both non-Special Needs Children and Special Needs Children options. We are currently in the non-Special Needs process and remain peaceful with this choice. However, we always wish to follow God's leading and we ask your prayers as we continue listening for His direction in this area. He already knows the answer. We simply want to follow His call. Please pray that we will continue to listen wholeheartedly.
What a beautiful day! The emails and posts we have received from precious friends are indeed gifts from God. Thanks to all of you for every word, hug, prayer and kindness you share. May your lives be blessed as richly as He has blessed us through you!
Walking by faith....
Terri & family
Jenna Elizabeth (aka "JennaBeth") Song Lorenz
Waiting For Our Little One To Come Home From China!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Journey...from the beginning
How exciting it has been to see and hear the responses from dear friends already! Thank you for walking beside us in this journey! It's a beautiful Saturday and when I looked around this morning, I realized just how very blessed we already are in our lives. I woke up to a husband who arrived safely home from work. Our dear daughter is home from college this weekend to visit and to work at her wonderful job. Our son is on another exciting band trip today representing his school and enjoying his friends and band staff. It's a busy, busy day with laundry to fold, a house to clean and food to prepare for our family cookout tonight. It just can't get much better than this! Then I am reminded that in the middle of our daily routines, we are one day closer to our sweet little daughter in China and we have friends and family who are loving, praying and encouraging us through this special time in our lives. Wow! We are so thankful for such a normal and yet special time in our lives.
Some have asked how this journey began. Well, to put it quite simply...it began a very long time ago. I came from a family of seven and Tim came from a family of five. When we began dating, we discussed how very important family is to us and how we both wanted several children. So several years later, we welcomed our precious daughter, Rachel, into our lives. What a sweetheart! Three years later, here came our adorable Micah! We knew we were blessed so richly. Yet our hearts always longed for more children. Even our children wanted more children! We both had witnessed the joy of adoption in the lives of family and friends. Eventually we realized that this miracle of adoption would be a part of our lives, as well. So in July of 2006, we turned in our application to the adoption agency. We were later given the "go ahead" and the process began.
The details of our "Paper Trail" were overwhelming, but once again we were so blessed. Our adoption agency family has been incredible. Our friends, physicians, family, Church family, co-workers, school friends, various office workers we dealt with and other adoptive parents have been incredible! The willingness of everyone to encourage and assist in so many ways has made this journey so much more enjoyable. Even when we share that we will be "updating" paperwork in the future, their reactions are so kind and willing to help in any way they can! On March 23, 2007 our Dossier, (that's the collection of all the necessary information and paperwork re: our lives, family, home, etc.), was sent to the People's Republic of China! On April 13, 2007 we were officially "Logged In" to China's system of Adoption Affairs. What a great day! This "LID" (Log-In-Date) is pretty much our "waiting ticket" for our future steps to our little daughter. Right now, the Referrals are being placed with families from late November of '05. So we have quite a wait ahead of us. But as dear friends who recently adopted have told us, it all makes sense when we finally hold our new daughter in our arms. For God's master design is always best!
For now, we have parenting classes ahead, updating paperwork, and....yes, getting a nursery put together once again!! Yay!!!! And with a daughter in college and a son in high school, we're definitely going to remain busy! We often hear how difficult it must be to wait for the time to hold our little one in our arms. We'll agree. It's already very difficult. We already love her so very much. But we firmly believe that the same God who brought Rachel and Micah into our lives at just the right time will bring our little one into our arms in His perfect time and plan. Perhaps she is already born. Perhaps she is yet to be born. Wherever she is, we know she is in His care and He will bring us together at just the right time. Until that moment, we will love her, prepare for her, pray for her and thank God for every step in our journey that takes us closer to her.
Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement, concern and friendship. What a difference it makes to know we are not walking this road alone. We truly appreciate every precious person God has placed in our lives during this time. We thank Him for you..true blessings in our journey! Until next time...
Terri and Family
Some have asked how this journey began. Well, to put it quite simply...it began a very long time ago. I came from a family of seven and Tim came from a family of five. When we began dating, we discussed how very important family is to us and how we both wanted several children. So several years later, we welcomed our precious daughter, Rachel, into our lives. What a sweetheart! Three years later, here came our adorable Micah! We knew we were blessed so richly. Yet our hearts always longed for more children. Even our children wanted more children! We both had witnessed the joy of adoption in the lives of family and friends. Eventually we realized that this miracle of adoption would be a part of our lives, as well. So in July of 2006, we turned in our application to the adoption agency. We were later given the "go ahead" and the process began.
The details of our "Paper Trail" were overwhelming, but once again we were so blessed. Our adoption agency family has been incredible. Our friends, physicians, family, Church family, co-workers, school friends, various office workers we dealt with and other adoptive parents have been incredible! The willingness of everyone to encourage and assist in so many ways has made this journey so much more enjoyable. Even when we share that we will be "updating" paperwork in the future, their reactions are so kind and willing to help in any way they can! On March 23, 2007 our Dossier, (that's the collection of all the necessary information and paperwork re: our lives, family, home, etc.), was sent to the People's Republic of China! On April 13, 2007 we were officially "Logged In" to China's system of Adoption Affairs. What a great day! This "LID" (Log-In-Date) is pretty much our "waiting ticket" for our future steps to our little daughter. Right now, the Referrals are being placed with families from late November of '05. So we have quite a wait ahead of us. But as dear friends who recently adopted have told us, it all makes sense when we finally hold our new daughter in our arms. For God's master design is always best!
For now, we have parenting classes ahead, updating paperwork, and....yes, getting a nursery put together once again!! Yay!!!! And with a daughter in college and a son in high school, we're definitely going to remain busy! We often hear how difficult it must be to wait for the time to hold our little one in our arms. We'll agree. It's already very difficult. We already love her so very much. But we firmly believe that the same God who brought Rachel and Micah into our lives at just the right time will bring our little one into our arms in His perfect time and plan. Perhaps she is already born. Perhaps she is yet to be born. Wherever she is, we know she is in His care and He will bring us together at just the right time. Until that moment, we will love her, prepare for her, pray for her and thank God for every step in our journey that takes us closer to her.
Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement, concern and friendship. What a difference it makes to know we are not walking this road alone. We truly appreciate every precious person God has placed in our lives during this time. We thank Him for you..true blessings in our journey! Until next time...
Terri and Family
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Hello Family & Friends!
Welcome to our new Blog! What an exciting journey we will all travel together. When I began to set up this blog, I kept thinking about the title. Nothing else seemed to fit as the simple but timely message...."Journey of Blessings." We are so blessed to have our precious family. We are blessed to have our extended family and friends. Now we are blessed to travel together in this process of bringing our little daughter home from China. It is certainly a major walk of faith...but there have been so many blessings already...and there is no doubt that we will be blessed in many ways in the days and months ahead. So thank you for your love and prayers as we take each step along the way.
Life is very busy right now in so many ways. Tim works very hard at his job. Our daughter is a freshman in college. Our son is a sophomore in high school. Meanwhile, I'm busy being wife, mom, homemaker, "Mom's taxi" service...and lots of other projects. I'll post as often as I can so please bear with us as we learn, share and journey along this path. Meanwhile, know that we are so very thankful for you and your presence in this, our Journey of Blessings. It's going to be great! Love to all!!!
Life is very busy right now in so many ways. Tim works very hard at his job. Our daughter is a freshman in college. Our son is a sophomore in high school. Meanwhile, I'm busy being wife, mom, homemaker, "Mom's taxi" service...and lots of other projects. I'll post as often as I can so please bear with us as we learn, share and journey along this path. Meanwhile, know that we are so very thankful for you and your presence in this, our Journey of Blessings. It's going to be great! Love to all!!!
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