New Pictures!

Our Article 5 letter was picked up Dec. 17 and couriered to the CCCWA in Beijing!  We are now waiting for our travel approval, which typically happens 3-4 weeks from the receipt of our Article 5.  Let's pray for it to move quickly and get us to China before Chinese New Year!  We also received updated photos of our little boy!  We requested photos in the care package we sent in October.  Maybe this means he got it?  He looks healthy and happy in his little winter suit!  Please join us every day as we pray for his continued health and safety!  We're coming for you little buddy!

For those of you new to our blog, feel free to read the older posts, or scroll past these pictures to "Read More" about why we decided to adopt!

Zac, ~18 months

Almost there!

Our theme song for Christmas, "All I Want for Christmas is You!"  No, I can't handle the Mariah Carey version!  We most likely won't travel by Christmas, but it's so close we can taste it.  We would give anything to climb on a plane tomorrow!

Well, we're almost there!  We received our "cable letter" from the National Visa Center on Nov. 29th stating that they had completed processing Zac's visa petition and forwarded it to the U.S. Embassy in Guangzhou, China.  About 2 weeks after this (about Dec. 13-17) we should receive our "Article 5."  This is where the consulate makes sure the visa petition is in order and signs off on it.  Then they send it to the CCAA for travel approval.  We're supposed to receive our travel approval 3 to 4 weeks after this, and that's where it gets hairy.  Chinese New Year is Feb. 10th.  We are praying that we can travel and be back before then.  We've been told that China is rushing somewhat to get families through.  Please pray for us that we can travel as soon as possible.  We can't imagine having to wait until later in February.

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported us through this long process!  We love you all more than words can describe!  It is a bittersweet Christmas, God willing it'll be our last one without Zac here.  In case we don't post again before the Holiday, Merry Christmas everyone!  Let us celebrate the day that Jesus was born, the day that God predestined us all to be adopted as His sons!

Ken and DeAnna

The kids packing a Care Package for Zac 10/15/12
Wonder if it ever got there?

Meet Zac!

Big news!  On Sept. 10, only 7 days after our last post, we received the file for the child who we now know as our son, Zachary Ryder Horton!  Zac is adorable!  He is about 16 months old right now.  According to his file, when he was 14 months old, he was pulling up and walking, finding his toys, clapping his hands when he saw his caregiver, "reading" books, and playing hide-and-seek.  According to his caregivers, he is easy to take care of, smiles a lot, is active, and is interested in learning.  It was his smile in the first picture we saw that melted our hearts.  We always thought we would know our son when we saw him, and we did!  Strangely, it feels like we've always known him, we just had to find him again...  Like his face was written on our hearts, and we recognized him when we saw him.  We submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) with China on Monday, Sept. 17, and received our Pre-Approval (PA) on Thursday, Sept. 20.  The PA says that the China Center of Adoption Affairs agrees to move this application file into the procedure for adoption.  Typically, it's 6 months from the PA to travel, sometimes shorter.  We're told that since our Log In Date was so long ago, our wait may be shorter.  Let's hope!

The photo that stole our hearts!  Zac at 11 months
when Lifeline and the IAC visited his orphanage in April.
Look at those little teefies!

Ken's favorite, Zac somewhere after 11 months.
"The 'Snoopy' outfit"

Zac at 14 months on the playground.
They buzzed his hair, but he's still so cute!

Our newest photo, Zac at 16 months, taken
by Lifeline and the IAC during their current visit,
in Sept. "The 'Angry Birds' outfit"

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

For His steadfast love endures forever;

to Him who alone does great wonders,

for His steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1&4

Log In Date, Partnerships Begin

Well, we've kind of dropped off the radar for a while.  A lot is happening, though, and we wanted to bring everyone up to speed.  Our dossier went off to China on June 7th, and was logged into the CCCWA on June 18th, making that day our "LID" or log-in date.  In the following days and weeks, we struggled with deciding whether to be matched through the shared list or to wait for the Lifeline orphanage partnerships. In the end we decided to wait.  Ultimately, the partnerships were what lead us to Lifeline in the first place, and that was our plan from the beginning.  Right now we have close personal friends in China completing their adoptions.  We are so happy for these families, but it feels bittersweet as we continue to wait patiently.  We read with joy the emails and blogs of their experiences, but our hearts ache for our own little boy.

But, on August 31st Lifeline began receiving the files for the children from the orphanage partnerships!  Lifeline will internally match these children with waiting families.  If a family is being considered to review a file, they will be contacted in the next two weeks.  Children whose files are not internally matched will then be posted for other Lifeline families to consider.  As I've described before, the partnerships allow families to consider a child with much more extensive information at their disposal, and without the time limits of the shared list.  So, it is entirely possible that we could be matched very soon!  We can't believe that we might meet our son any day now!  Please pray for us these next weeks as we trust in God to bring this child into our family!  In early August we passed our one-year mark in the adoption process.  It has been a long journey, and some days it feels like we will never reach the end, but we have learned to be patient, to trust in God, and to never give up.  It's impossible to say if our son is in these first files or not.  All we can do is leave this in God's hands and wait.  We will update you as soon as we have more information!

P.S.- To Zac:  I heard this song, in a Veggie Tales movie of all places, and I thought of you.  One day I will sing it to you, but for now I just want you to know, somehow, over the 10,000 plus miles, that you were meant to be.  Everything about you was for a reason, and I know that one day it will all make sense. -Ken

Meant To Be by Steven Curtis Chapman

Long before you drew your first breath
A dream was coming true

God wanted to give a gift to the world
So he wrapped it up in you

Every step that you’ve taken
Every move that you make
Is part of his plan

You were meant to be touching
The lives that you touch

And meant to be here
Making this world so much more
Than it would be without you in it

You were meant to be bringing
The gifts that you bring
And singing the songs
You’ve been given to sing

You are perfectly, wonderfully,
Beautifully meant to be
You were meant to be

Long before you took your first fall
You stumbled to the ground
God started telling the story of you to the angels around
Every failure and victory
Everything in between
Its all in his hand

You were meant to be touching
The lives that you touch
And meant to be here
Making this world so much more
Than it would be without you in it

You were meant to be bringing
The gifts that you bring

And singing the songs
You’ve been given to sing

You are perfectly, wonderfully,
Beautifully meant to be
You were meant to be (yeah)
Meant to be
You are
You are
You are meant to be
You are
You are
You are meant to be

For every breath that your taking
And every move that you make
It’s a meaningful life you’ve been given
Live it well

You were meant to be touching
The lives that you touch
And meant to be here
Making this world so much more
Than it would be without you in it

You were meant to be bringing
The gifts that you bring
And singing the songs
You’ve been given to sing

You are perfectly, wonderfully,
Beautifully meant to be (yeah)
You were meant to be (yeah)
You were meant to be (yeah)
You were meant to be
To be
You were meant to be

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him."  Psalm 28:7

Dossier off to China!

Well, in the world of international adoption, you could almost say that things are really moving along!  After receiving approval from Immigration, our dossier went off to the Chinese Consulate for legalization on May, 25th.  Zuri turned four on Tuesday (June 5), so we decided to take a quick trip to Ross Bridge to celebrate.  The kids had a great time.  We swam, ate great food, went on a hike, watched TV in the room, and everyone slept like babies at night.  Today we were savoring every minute by the pool, trying to pretend that it wasn't our last day, when we got an e-mail from Mallory.  She had received our dossier back from the consulate, processed all the documents, and sent it out to China!  Our dossier is off to China!  So today is referred to as our "DTC" (Dossier to China).  This is one of the major stepping stones of international adoption, and cause for celebration!  It takes about 3 business days for our dossier to reach China.  We told the kids and shared a little moment of excitement at the news.  It's becoming more real every day!  After about 3-4 weeks we will receive our "LID" (Log In Date).  That's the date our dossier is officially translated and logged into the CCCWA (Chinese Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption).  This will be the point when we can get matched with a child, our next milestone.  We've decided that this is a good time to share a little info... we've decided that our son's name with be Zachary Ryder.  Needless to say, he will be a Z kid.  How could he not?  He will be one of us in every way, including his name!  Zachary means "remembered by God" or "The Lord remembers".  We think this is so appropriate.  This little boy was born in China and abandoned.  The world may see him as forsaken, forgotten.  But God never forgot him.  He had a plan for him from day one.  What a beautiful picture of God's love!  And it seems so perfect that this Z name was just waiting for us!  We plan to call him Zac, for short.  And, no, we can't stop there.  Ryder means "Knight" or "mounted warrior".  It's also the name of a Canadian pro cyclist who just won the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy), Ryder Hesjedal.  So we kind of take a 21st century twist on the name to infer our love of cycling.

Please join us in celebrating our "DTC day" and pray for that little boy, almost 12,000 miles away, who since the day he was born God intended to be our son, Zac.  Let's thank God for remembering him, as He remembers every one of us.

Almost past Immigration!

I know many of you are beginning to realize how slow this process can feel.  I've had a few people ask, "Are you still adopting?"  As if to say, "We haven't heard anything for quite a while... did you change your mind?"  Well, of course, we are still hard at work!  I can't believe our last post was in January.  So, here's the latest:  Having completed our home study, we sent our info off to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS" or, more commonly "CIS" or even just "Immigration").  Then we received our appointment for biometrics with CIS.  If you miss your appointment, you get to submit the application all over again!  We realized that making our appointment was going to take a lot of rearranging, so we gambled and went a day early.  We begged and pleaded for them to fit us in, and amazingly, it worked!  Less than a half-hour later we were fingerprinted and on our way!  According to our social worker, it should only be about a month before we get our approval from CIS.  This will mean that we are approved to bring a child into the US as our son.  At that point we will send our dossier off to China.  So.... hopefully sometime around July we will be ready to get matched to a child.  Now, what is truly amazing about that timeline is regarding a new development at Lifeline, our adoption agency.  Here's an except from their announcement:

"Lifeline Children’s Services’s China Team is very excited to announce our partnership with three new orphanages in China beginning June 2012. Our medical teams will be visiting the Chong Qing Orphanage of Chong Qing City, Sui Xi Orphanage of Guangdong Province, and Zhu Hai Orphanage of Guangdong Province during the month of April. While at the orphanages, pediatricians and therapists associated with the International Adoption Clinic of Birmingham, Alabama as well as other doctors and medical professionals will be evaluating the children and providing reports for their referral files. Many of our staff will also be on the ground with the teams to photograph and video each child to provide potential adoptive families with glimpses into the lives and faces of these children."


This is great news, and the timing is truly amazing.  The doctors and therapists from the IAC here in Birmingham will be evaluating the children personally, and the partnership with these orphanages will begin just as we are ready to be matched.  It makes us realize that although we try so hard to control things, this is all really in God's hands.  It is His timing that actually matters.  Even though we have felt "behind" through so much of this process, it may be that we are right on time after all!  We are so excited as the IAC specialists travel to meet the children!  In the next few months this process should finally begin to reveal who our little boy is!


As we celebrate Easter, let us pray for Lifeline's China team.  Let us put our trust in God as we walk with them on the journey to meet our son!  


"The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9


Joyfully,

Zander & Zoe riding "Daisy", Birmingham Zoo

Zuri and Ken riding "Big Joe"

Hurry up and wait (some more)...

Our hopes to tie up the home study with a pretty Christmas bow and send it off for good were somewhat disappointed this month.  We couldn't quite get our medicals done in time, the letter from my supervisor turned out to be missing some details, and DeAnna's fingerprints were deemed "unreadable".  I'm pretty sure she had her fingerprints removed when the government recruited her to track aliens here on Earth... or was that Men in Black?  Anyway, for the first couple of weeks in January we have had to put our heads back down and forge ahead.  We spent a day getting DeAnna's fingerprints re-done and mailed off (third time's a charm!), and another day renewing our passports (no, you can't show your teeth!).  We completed some more discussion questions (our favorite!), got the medicals sent in, and had my boss add some more describing words (really, really, really excellent...).  Everything is in except for the final word on DeAnna's fingerprints.  So today we get to relax and breathe while we pray for everything to process swiftly.  My consolation is that God is sovereign in all this.  I know that the timing is all part of His plan.  To me it seems like a delay, but to our son it may be perfect timing!  One day it will all make sense.  Let's all hope that day is sooner rather than later!

Love you all,

Ken