An Update on Abram

I have been waiting to make this blog transition ever since we knew we were adopting.  Even before we knew we were adopting we titled our blog, "Seeing the Blessings"-- and that is absolutely what Abram is to us already!  We chose his name because Abram is whom God gave the blessing in Genesis 12:2.  It was fun to update you on our latest adventures in Japan, but this is certainly our biggest adventure!  Life is great in Monterey, but not very blog worthy.  So, this site will now be all about our blessing: Abe (and, of course, the occasional fun trip)!

I wanted to start this blog post off with a huge THANK YOU!  When we posted our big news on Facebook about being matched with Abram your kind words and comments meant so much to us.  Thank you for your excitement, joy, tears, and celebrations.  I know this has seemed like a long process to y'all (believe me it has for us, too).  Getting matched with Abe was certainly exciting, but there is still a lot to be done and still many unknowns.  Nevertheless, we wanted to share with you what exactly is going on.  I have divided this post into four parts: what we know, what we don't know, what we are doing now, and how you can pray for us. Let's jump right in!

1.  What we know:

Abram was born on October 18, 2011.  His given Chinese name is An Ning Yuan.  He was born with a cleft lip and palate.  His records state that he was sent to a foster home and that he loves to smile and listen to music. We also know that he is "quite quiet" and a good sleeper. Here's the pictures we were sent of sweet Abram.

We don't have any record of it, but we can tell by one of his pictures that he has already had one surgery to repair his lip.  We don't know yet if his palate has been repaired.

After his lip surgery

2.  What we don't know:

We don't know when we will travel to bring him home.  Our agency told us (in early February) that we could expect to travel in 7 months, but it could be shorter.  So maybe August or September?  We are still waiting for our home study update and our Letter of Agreement (LOA) from China stating that we can adopt An Ning Yuan. After we receive our letter then we will probably travel within 10-14 weeks. But as soon as we know our travel dates, I promise you will know too!!

3.  What we are doing now:

We are still super busy getting ready for Abe. At the beginning, when we said "yes" to Abe, I was overwhelmed with how to care for a child with a cleft lip and palate (CL/CP).  There is a ton of information on line, but it was making me worried.  I emailed Kim (the family we met in Hong Kong two years ago and who introduced us to our adoption agency) and she recommended that I join a yahoo chat group specifically for parents of CL/CP children.  It has been amazing and from the chat group I have found three amazing blog sights written by Christian women who have adopted CL/CP children from China.  Such a huge answer to prayers!  I have learned so much but mainly I have learned that even though there are a lot of unknowns in our future, God's grace is sufficient for every thing!  He has continued to bless and amaze us so far on this journey and I know He's not going to let us go once we bring Abram home.

We are learning simple Chinese phrases that will help us communicate with Abe and we are reading books on not just parenting, but caring for internationally adopted children.  

We are also shopping and getting our home ready for Abram.  It's so much fun to finally start decorating a nursery with our sweet little boy in mind.  Since many of you have asked, we are even working on a registry on Amazon. Many of you have sent us gifts for Abram already and you have no idea how much it touches our heart!  Every time we open one we just look at each other in amazement that these gifts are for OUR child. His room is actually starting to look like a nursery.  A few weeks ago, we were able to send Abram a care package. Chris and I had so much fun shopping for baby items for our son and it was an amazing experience.  We wanted to put everything in the cart but we could only send a shoe box-sized box.  

The contents of Abram's box

We are also still doing paperwork.  We recently finished our home study update visit and we are still sending in many forms to immigration so we can bring Abram home.

4.  How you can pray for us:

We have three specific ways that you can pray for us right now.

1.  We are praying that God takes care of Abram while he is in the orphanage and that he has a peace, calmness, and joy in his heart.  We pray that somehow he will know that his mom and dad will come to get him soon.  

2.  We are praying that Chris can come with me when it is time to go get Abram.  Because he will be in school, we are praying that his professors will allow him to leave for three weeks.  This is a HUGE request!

3.  Also, please pray that our paper work continues to get finalized and approved and that there aren't any delays when it is time to travel.

Words can't express our gratitude for your prayers, encouraging words, and excitement!  Thank you!  We'll continue to keep you updated as time gets closer to bringing our little boy home!