Jenna Elizabeth (aka "JennaBeth") Song Lorenz

Waiting For Our Little One To Come Home From China!

Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

Friday, October 28, 2011

Update for Prayers...

Well, the excitement continues as we move forward in this process. It is definitely thrilling...overwhelming...concerning...and amazing. After all this time, everything is moving very quickly.

I do need to ask for your specific prayers. First, there is a paperwork issue. It was unexpected but is extremely important. So we ask your prayers for that issue to be resolved very soon. God can handle it. It is vital to obtain this document in order to travel. Your prayers are most appreciated.

Second, please continue to pray for little JennaBeth Song. She is about to enter a different season with a new family she has never met, traveling to a country where she has never been and make many more adjustments in her young life. It's difficult for adults to adjust so I can only imagine how she will feel when everything she knows changes. Please pray for her to find peace, comfort and ease as her life changes so quickly.

Please pray for our family. It is a very busy, hectic, overwhelming and yet frustrating time on many levels. We have so much to accomplish in such a small amount of time. So we ask you to pray for God to prepare our hearts, minds, bodies and home as we draw so close to this highly anticipated season. Please pray for Him to provide all the many needs involved. There is so much to put in place in the coming weeks.

We are thankful for all of you who are involved with us on this journey. You are true blessings. What a difference it makes to know that we are NEVER alone as we face a major time of transition, challenges, demands and plans. We truly feel God has placed many of you in our path as He works so beautifully to bring this precious little girl into our Forever Family.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue and know that we are thinking about and praying for you!
Cherishing this exciting journey to our little Song...
Terri & Family

Monday, October 24, 2011

MORE Exciting News!!!

Wow!!! Tim and I are in shock, to say the least! On October 13, we found out we had "Pre-Approval" for little Song. What that means is that China had her "on hold" for our family and they would be reviewing all of our documents before the final approval that everything is in order to adopt this precious child. Our advocate told us that we could expect to wait one to three months before receiving our "Letter of Acceptance" from China...the long-awaited document that confirms total approval. So...we estimated that we would probably hear something around December or January and then travel in January or February.

Today proved God's timetable far exceeds our own! Just a few days past one week after getting the Pre-Approval, our LOA arrived at the adoption agency for the Lorenz family to adopt little Song! What could have taken one to three months was processed in a little over a week! Now we prepare to make travel plans! This could be within six to eight weeks...approximately somewhere in the middle to end of December! We will let you know more as we know more.

Please pray for little Song as she waits for us to arrive in China...to hold her in our arms, to do all the necessary paperwork in China...and to bring her home. Please pray for us as we work VERY quickly to prepare a nursery...and to prepare to fly to China! There is so much that needs to be done! We trust God for His plan in our lives, His provision for all our present and future needs and for His protection for our little daughter in China...and all of our family waiting here for her. Please also pray for all the workers in the USA and PRC who are helping to bring our Forever Family together. From the depths of our hearts, we are very grateful for Song's birthparents who have shared this amazing blessing with us in a way far beyond anything I could ever imagine. They will never be forgotten, will always be in our hearts and forever in our prayers.

Thank You, God, for the gift of Song...and for all You are doing to touch our lives forever...as we learn more and more about Your love. Thank You for all the wonderful family members and friends...and workers all over the world who have helped in this journey of countless blessings! May all we do, say and live reflect Your love, hope, joy, peace and grace. Please hold little Song closely as we plan to travel soon to China to bring her home!

Jenna Elizabeth Song Lorenz..."JennaBeth Song"....it's now a matter of weeks before we will hold you in our arms....and prepare to bring you home! We know God is holding you in His arms...while we hold you in our hearts! Hold on, sweetie! We'll see you soon...and love you forever! Your Daddy, Mommy, Big Sis Rachel and Big Brother Micah love you very much! Welcome to our family...forever!
Cherishing this amazing journey to Song....
Terri & Family

Thursday, October 13, 2011

We Have An Announcement!!!!!! :)

We have the official word from China! Tim, Terri, Rachel and Micah Lorenz would like to announce that China has pre-approved our family to adopt a precious little girl named Song! As soon as I can get to it, I will post the pictures of Jenna Elizabeth "JennaBeth" Song Lorenz. This is the news we have been waiting for over five years! Wow!!!

We may wait another one to three months for the "LOA"...which is the Letter of Acceptance from China that EVERYTHING has been approved. Our agency advocate believes this will happen without any problems since our Dossier has already been reviewed a lonnnnng time ago and there were no issues at that time.

We are a MAJOR step forward now in bringing our little "JennaBeth Song" Lorenz home! Please continue to pray! God is so great and we are so blessed! Thank you for continuing to pray during this entire journey and in the months ahead! We are amazed...and blessed.

I will work on those pics as soon as possible!
Cherishing God's amazing gift of "Song!"
Terri & Family

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Waiting for the Official Word!!!

As usual, our journey involves many times of demanding deadlines....and then the times of wondering and waiting. This part is no exception. We continue to wait for the official word from China that we are "pre-approved" for the little girl whose Referral we accepted two weeks ago. Our advocate at the agency said this part usually goes through without a problem. Plus, our Dossier was already a long time ago with no concerns. So it seems to be a wait for official word more than anything else.

Are we excited? Absolutely...thrilled beyond words, actually! Is this part of the journey tough to endure now that we have seen this precious little girl's face and read all about her? It's a mixed blessing. We are so excited to know her name, face, information shared from China, age, etc. and are now much more familiar with this precious little sweetheart than ever before. Yet....we know God's perfect timing in bringing her home to us is always best. We have trusted Him in this journey for over five years. We can certainly trust Him in the remaining months before we hold her in our arms for the very first time.

I look so forward to sharing her picture with you as soon as possible. I look forward to letting you know more about her personality, preferences, etc.. But...I truly believe that this time of waiting before we are able to do so...has great purpose. So we wait until official word is received from China and our agency...and we use this time to pray on multiple levels.

For now, I ask you to pray for our little one....for all the people who are working so hard in the PRC and USA to take care of her and prepare for her to come home with us...and for God to be honored through each step of the way. May our hearts, lives, family, preparations, home and every plan ahead be in accordance with His will, design and purpose. Please pray for our family. There is so very much to do here. But may our focus always be on drawing closer to Him and His will for our lives in this amazing journey. He will supply our every need as we draw closer to our trip to China. He will supply our every need as we prepare the nursery. He will supply our every need as we begin preparing to parent another beautiful blessing to call our child, a true gift from God. He will take care of all that lies before us...and all that our little sweetheart in China faces as she begins a new life with her family here. He will also help me prepare to board many airplanes when I have never flown before! :) Thankfully, Tim has flown so I am relieved to know that one of us knows more about that part!

So now...as we wait for yet another portion of our journey of blessings, we thank God for drawing us closer and closer to Him through it all. There have been many lessons learned so far. We thank Him for teaching us about His love for us through adoption. We thank Him for each family member, friend, doctor, nurse, agency worker, office worker and prayer warrior who faithfully choose to be a tremendous part of our journey each day. We thank Him for those of you who care about us in ways that touch our hearts deeply through each step along the way. We thank Him for those of you who never leave us alone on this journey and who shower us with your love so genuinely and consistently. It has been a lonnnnng journey and knowing we could lean on you when we were weary, searching or overwhelmed...has been amazing! We thank Him for working through your hearts, minds, words and lives when we needed you most! Thank you! This journey of blessings is not just about bringing a precious little girl home to be a part of our Forever Family...although that is a wonderful part of it! This journey of blessings is living proof that God cares, directs, works and blesses us in each step of life whether we see the details ahead...or even more likely...when we don't have a clue how it is all going to work out on many levels. But He does...and He is always with us...and He works His plan and purposes out in beautiful, unexpected and incredible ways far beyond anything we ever imagine. We simply need to trust Him...be still...and wait for Him. After all, it's not about our lives or our plans...it's about Him...and what He has brought us into this world and on this journey to do for Him.

Please know that we continue to thank Him for you and we ask that He will bless each journey you experience in life. May you always know that you are never alone and always loved by Him. May your journey be blessed as richly as you continue to bless our journey. I will definitely keep you updated as we learn more.
Cherishing the purpose and plan He has in another season of waiting...
Terri & family

Thursday, October 6, 2011

A Very Special Day....as we celebrate Rachel's 23rd Birthday!

Today is full of memories, love, joy and blessings. It is a day that celebrates the amazing time when our first daughter entered this world...twenty-three years ago! It is so hard to believe that it was that long ago...but it has been an amazing twenty-three years and we are so thankful!

Happy Birthday, Rachel Victoria! We are so proud of you. What a beautiful, amazing, intelligent, funny, talented and tenderhearted young lady you are as you touch this world with so much love! You changed our lives forever and we thank God every day for you.

It's been an amazing journey so far. We have gone through kindergarten, grade school, middle school, concerts, high school, learning to drive, four proms, your first car, relationships, four years at KCU, vacations, Nursing boards, your first full-time job, moving you away from home, (sniff, sniff), and watching you grow, learn, love and live to touch others for your God. What an incredible journey and we can hardly wait to see what God has in store for you next.

Please know that no matter where you live, no matter how old you are, no matter what's going on in your life...you are loved...unconditionally! We are so very proud of you. May you remember that you are never alone and always loved...and always a part of our lives, home, family and hearts.

Happy Birthday, Rachel Victoria Lorenz! You are a tremendous gift from God! There's never a day that I don't thank Him for you, pray for you, love you and wish the very best for you. I love you, Princess! ~Mom
Celebrating our daughter Rachel,
Terri and Family

Monday, October 3, 2011

Wonderful News!!!! And a Beautiful Reason to Pray!

Yay, God!!!! It is my pleasure to share with you some wonderful and exciting news! More than ever before, we ask your prayers for a precious little girl in China...and a family in Kentucky praying to bring her home!

Last Monday evening at 10:10 p.m., the phone rang and I answered, quickly realizing that it was our SN advocate from the adoption agency. Deep within, I thought..."Hmmmm, surely this isn't what I think it might be!" But...indeed it was! Our Special Needs advocate told me that she had a little girl for us that she had "locked in" on China's newly released list! She told me that she would email us this little one's pictures and medical records for us to consider. I was surprised, excited and yes...even peaceful as I realized that this may very well be our new daughter in the very near future.

Tim was at work for the evening. Rachel was working at the hospital. I was home alone...and Micah was in his apartment in Lexington. I immediately called Micah and told him to watch for the email I was sending that might be his future little sister. As I opened the email from the agency, I immediately saw several pictures...and my heart melted with overflowing joy, hope, peace and love. I listened as Micah opened the email...and he immediately said, "Oh, Mom...she's adorable!" :) We discussed each picture of her and then I began reading the records about her personality, behavior, health, etc.. I was so thankful that Micah was walking through this amazing moment with me! I messaged Tim to call home as soon as possible...and I called Rachel at work. Before long we were all "ooooohing and ahhhhhing" at the pictures of this beautiful, smart, adorable, petite little girl who needs a Forever Family....like us. :)

On Tuesday, we had to contact the agency and let them know if we were choosing to pursue the adoption of this little girl. (There is a very limited amount of time to do so or she would be returned to the list for others to consider her for adoption.) That meant we would need to complete more paperwork, consult our doctors to review her health records, and prepare for further steps in the process in order to request for China to "hold" her for us on an extended basis. It was a very special, exciting and yet stressful time, to say the least. But most importantly, it was time to pray for God's obvious and very clear answers as we decided whether or not to pursue this little girl to become our future daughter.

I am thrilled to tell you that all doctors we consulted were in agreement that this little girl should live a normal, healthy life. All the friends whom we confidentially asked to pray for this little one and the decision before us...felt peaceful and positive about the possibility. And each family member here...Dad, Mom, Sister and Brother...has felt that God has brought this specific little girl into our lives for a very obvious purpose.

So...we immediately began working on paperwork, continued to talk with doctors, our social worker, advocate, etc....and it is wonderful to be able to share with you that as of this moment, our paperwork has been sent to China to request their acceptance of our family to become this little girl's Forever family.

I cannot tell you that it is definite yet for we will not hear anything until next week. The CCCWA is closed this week for a holiday and they will not be back in until next week. But as soon as we receive confirmation, I will introduce you to more specific details and pictures of this precious little girl. I can tell you that she is absolutely beautiful and that she even looks like our family! As our children even said, she would fit right in! :) We have been advised to not reveal her name, pictures, etc. until we have definite confirmation. But I assure you that as soon as we have the word, we will share all we can with you about this little sweetheart.

Until then, we wait.....and pray that if it is God's obvious and perfect will, we will bring this little girl home sometime in the next few months...possibly somewhere between mid-December and February. Would you please pray that God will direct us in the way that honors Him the most and allows this little girl the kind of life and care she deserves?

Please remember that NOTHING is definite at this point. What we do have is a Referral which means that we have been given the option of accepting or declining a specific little girl from China. Until we accept and hear China's confirmation to allow us to adopt her, we will not be able to tell you that it is certain. But we are definitely very close to seeing this very long dream become a reality. We have been working over five years in this process and our Dossier was logged in 54 months ago! So it has been a long journey but one that is definitely in His hands!

Please pray for this precious little one as she continues to grow and wait for her Forever Family. Please pray for all those involved in the USA and PRC who work so hard to bring precious children and Forever Families together. Please pray for our family as we seek God's continued direction, protection and provision in this journey. Please pray that above all else, His plan, purpose and praise will be honored as we wait to adopt a precious child to call our own.

I will definitely keep you updated as we learn more. Tim and I went to Cincinnati last Friday to be refingerprinted again. We even received a phone call from Homeland Security this morning as they work to process all of our updating paperwork and latest fingerprinting information. We know that God is working on so many levels to bring about His master design and plan.

Thank you for your prayers. That makes all the difference to us in this long wait...and now as we move closer and closer to bringing this precious little one home with us! What an incredible journey of blessings...and walk of faith...far beyond anything we ever imagined. What an incredible God who knows just the right child for our family...at just the right time...in just the right way...for just the right purposes He has designed in all of our lives...for His glory! Please pray continually and specifically! We are so very grateful for you all!
Cherishing the blessings in the past, present and future!
Terri & Family