Saturday, September 5, 2015: Rest Day

Isaiah 48:17 “This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:  I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”

This verse is meant for me today as I sit here and think about what Gotcha Day will bring tomorrow when we meet the girls.  It is comforting to know the Lord is in charge and directs our path according to His Will! 

Today was a rest day.  It is intended to give us rest from travel before taking custody of the girls tomorrow.  Kyle and I walked the streets and explored.  We found a Walmart, if you can believe it!  We took a nap and met with our Holt guide that will be with us all week translating and getting all of the paperwork completed for the adoption and for our visa issuance in Guangzhou.

We in America have so much to be thankful for!  Yes, our country is not perfect, but it is one made under God and it shows.  I think every U.S. citizen should travel abroad to see the living conditions others live in around the world.  I can speak of China right now.  I am confident it would bring most to their knees and humble everyone into a state of gratitude for how we live in America.

Tomorrow we meet the girls.  I am always dreading the awkwardness of the day we all first meet.  All of a sudden we are family and are complete strangers at the same time.  What we cannot see is the work the Lord has been doing in all our hearts the entire process until this day.  

Photo captions: First one: Hotel room; second one: Guiyang City; third one: Poverty just below hotel room

Friday, September 4, 2015: Arrival in China

FYI-China has blocked all google platforms including my vpn that was supposed to unblock what is blocked.  Therefore, I personally cannot post to the blogspot which is why there have been no postings.  My cousin is graciously helping me post from the U.S.  Thank you for your patience.

We made it after 31 hours of being awake!  Yes, a morning wake up at 4:30 to catch a 13 hour direct flight from Dallas, TX to Beijing, China.  Then a 7 hour lay over in Beijing until we boarded our last flight to province (Guizhou) which was around 3.5 hours.  We finally got to lay horizontal around 1 am local China time.

As we arrive a third time to China to adopt I keep these words from Jeremiah 32:17 in mind, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.  Nothing is too hard for you.”  Thank goodness our Lord, Jesus Christ, is in charge!

1 Sep 2015

The time has arrived!  We travel in two days to China to begin the journey of bringing home our girls. 

One Bible verse has been in my head all day today as we busily prepare for our departure.  It is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

This verse sums up our hope for what is to come.  The Lord has promised not to harm us so we feel a peace of security in our travels, He has great plans for us, and He plans to give us hope!  Wow, what reassurance we have in the Lord, Jesus the Christ!

We will arrive in Beijing on Friday, Sep. 4, and fly direct to province (Guizhou).  On Sunday, Sep. 6 we will meet the girls and be given custoday.  On Sep. 7 we will sign final adoption papers.  We then wait until their passports are complete then we travel to Guangzhou on 11 Sep.  During this week in province we will hopefully be able to visit the orphanage, their foster family, and their two remaining older sisters that are still in the orphanage and have timed out of the system.

Once in Guangzhou we will have their medical exams to ensure they meet immigration standard to receive an American visa.  We then wait for their visas to enter the U.S. and become citizens.  We depart Guangzhou on 18 Sep and fly to Beijing. The girls wanted to do some touring before coming home.  We will depart Beijing on 20 Sep to the U.S.

I will update the blogspot daily if possible.  Thank you for your support, prayers, and taking this journey with us!
In Christ we Love and Hope.
Wendy

August 15, 2015

Hello, Everyone!

I know it has been awhile since my last posting, but I wanted to be sure several challenges that arose were overcome.  Now I can safely say we will soon be going to pick up the Luo sisters!  I am sure God is shaking His head every time I became anxious about the events that have occurred.  After all, He is in charge.  I would remind myself that I am not to lean on my own understanding, but to trust in Him.  God tells us this in His Word.  I do trust His will is perfect and will be done, but sometimes it is hard when you do not know His will in your own timing!

Our biggest challenge this summer since the last posting was that when we applied for the I-800 approvals for the girls, we were then asked to do an update for Spencer who turned 18 before immigration approved our I800A pre-approval of our family.  What should have happened is that we were asked to provide this update when we submitted for the initial approval.  However, instead two months passed by with no word until we applied for the 800s.  Our immigration officer did everything she could to help us, and now we are finally done.  We have approvals and are now waiting on travel approval from China.

We hope to travel on 3 Sep and adopt the girls on 6 Sep.  We will keep the blog spot updated so you can join us in our travels.  Please pray for them as they leave the life they have known for almost 9 years and also leave their two older sisters behind in the orphanage as they have timed out of the system.

I want to end with an amazing story of God's work in us.  Shortly after bringing home Lily in 2013, our first adopted child, I went with Spencer to a Newsong concert in Las Vegas.  It was here that the band partnered with Holt International, our adoption agency, to get others involved in the support of the orphans.  The band told us the story about meeting a young girl during one of their visits to China who needed a family.  Her name is Autumn.  She was about to time out of the system and had no one to care for her.  Newsong found her a home and she was actually at the concert!  She spoke on behalf of the orphaned children and how much they need us to help them.  It was at this moment I knew we would eventually go back and bring home an "Autumn."

We received the referral for the Luo sisters just after the new year of 2015, three months after arriving from picking up Noah Enoch, our second adopted child.  With a referral for two came double the fees.  We needed help.  With your generous donations and grants, we were able to get our fee balance to $10,255.  THANK YOU!  We were not sure how we would pay this balance let alone pay for travel which costs between 12-15k.  Well, here is the full circle part of the story!!  I received a call from Beth, director of the China program with Holt, and she told me that Newsong received word of our story and our need.  Their ministry raised the money to pay the balance of our fees!  WOW!  I really did not know what to say because I found myself in awe of the Lord and His work.  Rarely do we get to see His work come in full circle.  Newsong was the initial inspiration to adopt an older child, and in the end they provided the means for it to happen.  Words cannot express the gratitude we feel in our hearts.  Thank you, Newsong Ministries!  If you have never heard the Newsong band, please listen to their music.  It will warm your heart and bring you closer to the Lord.

Now we continue to raise money through Adopt Together to help pay for travel expenses.  I will update the blog spot once I have a final itinerary for our travel.  We will gladly accept all prayers at this time for us and the girls.

The photo above is the latest photo we have received from the girls.  We were able to skype with them about a month ago, and they are so happy and joyful.  We are blessed to be their parents (soon).

God Bless You.

May 22, 2015

Hello, Everyone!  Thank you for following our blog spot as we journey to pick up our daughters in September 2015.

We have some wonderful news to share with you!  We have received our LOA, which is the letter of acceptance from China.  This means we have the green light to make travel arrangements and apply for their immigration approvals.  We plan to travel on 4 Sep 2015.

We are still in need of donations to meet our goal of $3,000 for our matching grant through Brittany's Hope.  We also set up a donation site through Adopt Together to help with outstanding program fees and travel expenses.  The donations to this site are also tax deductible.
https://www.adopttogether.org/neaville

We thank everyone for your support and prayers throughout this process. 
God Bless.

April 25, 2015

Receipt of Brittany's Hope matching grant donation information!

We need to raise $3,000 to receive a matching grant from Brittany's Hope.  All donations are tax deductible and can be done directly through Brittany's Hope.  The link to make your tax deductible donation is: https://www.brittanyshope.org/seedling/neaville/

We humbly ask that you will spread the word about adoption and the money we are trying to raise to bring home the girls.  Once we reach this goal of $3,000 we will continue to raise funds through our gofundme site.

Thank you!

April 7, 2015

Our Father in Heaven has heard my prayers because our immigration approval has arrived!  Praise God!  This is the catalyst to get the adoption approved in China and begin the travel arrangements.  Thank you, Lord!  He is so much bigger than anything we face on earth.  This is God's plan, and we are His willing servants to complete His plan.

I must make a correction on my last posting regarding the gofundme donations being tax deductible.  They are not.  However, I am hoping to receive some tax deductible donations forms from Lifesong within the next few months.  I will be sending these out to help raise money for the girls' fees to bring them home with addresses I have on hand.  If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, please contact me with your address, and I will send you how many you request.

Our next step in the process is to get our dossier papers (those that needed to be updated) to China.  This requires notarization, certification at the state level of the notary, and lastly authentication at the state department and Chinese embassy of the certification.   Once that is completed, China will process their approval called the Letter of Acceptance, LOA.  This is what has to be received to apply for legal immigration for the girls.  This is also what triggers the travel process to begin.

Right now our biggest hurdle is raising the money required to pay the fees to bring the girls home and travel to pick them up.  Please feel free to spread our story to everyone you know through social media, email, word of mouth, etc.  We need $500 minimum to be raised with gofundme before it will go public.  That is our first financial goal.  The donation site is: 
http://www.gofundme.com/q5nfvs. 

I attached Our Story below giving more details about The Luo Sisters and this unique process.  By the way our adoption agency said this is the first time this situation has occurred in their decades of existence with two older siblings being up for adoption and one timing out soon.  Never have they seen 4 siblings as you will read below. 

Bringing Home The Luo Sisters!

Hello.  I am going to tell you about a story that is unique and will capture your heart.  The story is about adoption and much loss.  The reason for the story is to raise money to bring two teen orphan girls home.

Our adoption journey began in 2007 when we began the adoption paperwork to bring home our daughter, Lily, from China.  We brought her home in 2013 at 2 years of age after many years of faithful waiting and changing to a new agency that was able to find us the match for our family.  Lily has TOF, multiple congenital heart defects, and will need continual medical care and surgeries throughout her lifetime.  We had many years to save for her adoption fee so we were able to pay the fee without asking for help.  We were also blessed to have available credit on our credit cards to pay for the trip to China to bring her home.  

Less than six months later we were matched with a 2 year old little boy.  We knew we could pay for his fee without asking for financial help due to the tax credit for Lily.  However, we had not been home long enough to pay the credit cards down from the travel expenses of bringing home Lily.  We were able to get a loan to allow us to pay for our travel to bring Noah home in November of 2014.  

After bringing Noah home we were open to adopt an older girl who might be hard to place due to her age.  We would be able to reuse our dossier with half the fee to China and much less paperwork.  Within three months of being home with Noah we were matched with not one but two teen girls who are biological sisters.  The urgency of their match is that the older sister, now 13, will time out on September 26, 2015.  This means she will no longer be able to be adopted.  This also means her younger sister, now 11, will still be eligible for adoption and separated from her older sister if not adopted together before September 26, 2015.  Both girls have vision impairment.  We prayerfully accepted the referral for these two girls.  Once we accepted the referral for the two sisters we began to wonder how in the world we would pay for the fees to adopt not one but two children!  We made it known to our agency that we could not afford the adoption fee for the second child as we had not planned on a referral for two children.  Our agency has assured us that they will assist us in part of the fee for the second child through more fund raising and grants from selfless donors. The adoption fee for the first child we thought we would be able to cover with our tax credit as we did the year prior.  However, this did not happen.  We were not eligible for the tax credit.  

After finding out this news from our accountant we were sick to our stomachs.  As we have only been home for three months after depleting our funds to bring Noah home.  This is when we decided to ask for help.  This is a humbling experience for us as we are usually on the giving side to those in need.  However, we are humbling ourselves to ask for financial donations for the two beautiful human beings in China waiting for a home with a mom, dad, and siblings.  This is what motivates me each and every day to continue to raise the funds we need to bring them home. 

Upon closing I want to share with you that we just recently found out that the two sisters have two more sisters in the orphanage that have already aged out of the system.  Yes, all four sisters were abandoned on the side of a road together.  This means they have two older sisters that are above the age of 14 that will live in the orphanage until age 18.  We cannot adopt them, but we are hopeful we can help them either be trained to work in China or bring them to the U.S. on a visa for school and/or work.  Please pray for these two girls as their future is limited and not promising as an orphan in China once they turn 18 and have to leave the orphanage.  What I have been told is they will have little to no chance to marry. Families marry families in China; therefore, with no family name, marriage is unlikely.  Secondly, trafficking is real.  These girls will have to have some way to feed themselves and live.  The trafficking can take many forms.  Labor, sex, etc.  It is like modern day slavery.  The two younger sisters will not see this fate by being adopted and coming to the U.S. However, their older sisters are already aged out (older than 14) with no possibility of being adopted.  The money raised right now is to bring home the younger sisters that are able to be adopted (younger than 14) until September 26, 2015.  Only God knows how we will help the older sisters in the future.

We thank you for your prayerful consideration to help us financially with our adoption fees to bring home the two Luo sisters.  God bless you.