Mission Safari: The Next Chapter(s)

Hi Kate

Tonight as we were winding down the day, Sarah started playing with Amy's toy cellphone.  Amy grabbed the phone and started "talking" to Kate.  Over and over she would say "Hi, Kate."  She would then go from person to person telling us to say "Hi, Kate."  Amy got so animated running around the room.  She started telling Kate which crib was for Kate and which one was for "Mimi" (how she currently says her own name).  

Then, another idea struck Amy.  She wanted Kate to see everyone.  She pointed her cellphone at Ben and said, "Cheese."  She proceeded to take pictures of everyone with her cellphone, presumably to send to Kate so Kate could meet us all.  

  

Finally, Amy must have wanted Kate to see the room that they would be sharing.  She took pictures of both cribs, the paintings on the wall, the mural on the walls, their chairs, and the rocking zebra that she has.  She took even took pictures of the matching dresses she and Kate just received from Nana and Paw Paw Hutchison.  She was so excited to share all these things with Kate.

Tonight just seemed to be the culmination of Amy's growing enthusiasm for Kate joining our family.  Every time she sees her picture she smiles and yells out, "Kate!"  It is very exciting to see the anticipation Amy has for her little sister.  We pray that the days will go by quickly as we too having growing anticipation of meeting Kate.

Kate: What's Next...

I haven't posted anything since Wednesday because I realized that a picture (or 2) was worth a thousand words!  It still seems a bit surreal that we actually received our phone call and referral packet.  We have waited so long.  Both Marti and I just stare at the 2 pictures of Kate and still can't believe that she will be joining our family in just over 2 months.  I am sure the next 60 days will seem longer than the last 40 months.

Besides being asked what we will call our newest daughter, the most common question seems to be, "So when will you go get her?"  Right now we do not know the exact travel dates but most of the time families travel approximately 8 weeks after receiving their referral.  So prayerfully, we will be leaving around September 24th for China.

When our packet arrived, there were several forms that we had to fill out; our acceptance letter, 2 USCIS (the U.S. "immigration" department), and our travel forms.  We filled these out and returned the next day.  In addition, we have submitted a visa request from the U.S. for Kate to be admitted into the U.S. once we have completed the adoption.  Once the USCIS forms and visa approvals return, we will await our Travel Approval from our adoption agency.  That is when we will buy our airline tickets to travel to China.  

So, in the meantime, we will wait (prayerfully with grace and patience).  And go to work.  And take the kids to Shakespeare Camp, football practice, clean the house, buy groceries, and well, you get the picture.

Another Weekend Round-up

This week has definitely been a whirlwind.  It has been long yet unforgettable.  It started with me finishing a stretch of 4 night shifts in a row while Marti tried to recover from the hard work and effort of the (very successful) Vacation Bible School the prior week.  It got exciting Tuesday afternoon when we received our phone call about our referral and crescendoed Wednesday afternoon when we received our packet with all Kate's information.  

Then 2 hours after receiving the packet, Marti drove off with all the kids to attend the Fisher Family Reunion (Marti's mother's family) held in Ohio.  While she and the kids enjoyed a few days up there, I headed back to work for another 3 day stretch.  They returned last night after 12 hours on the road.  And finally today, after church, we celebrated Marti's 43rd birthday with a small party here at the house.  

So, to summarize our week: I worked 6 out of 7 days, Marti and the Kids drove over 24 hours roundtrip for a wonderful family reunion in Ohio, we received our referral for Kate who is half way across the globe, and Marti celebrated her 43rd birthday.  Just another week in the Hutchison household!

Introducing...Kate

45 minutes ago the FedEx arrived at long last. Included in our packet were the following 2 pictures of our daughter, Kate Elizabeth Ling Hutchison.  Share in our joy!

The Phone Call

At 2:49 pm today, we received a phone call from Children's Hope International.  On the other end was the China Program Director announcing that we had been matched with a little 12 month old girl.  Our daughter was born on July 5th, 2008.  Her Chinese name is Ling Cha Lei.  She currently is in an orphanage in Shangrao city in the Jiangxi Province of Central China.  We will receive our referral packet tomorrow by FedEx.  Besides another stack of forms to fill out, the packet will include her biography (what is known of it) and a few pictures.  As you can imagine, we can't wait to see the FedEx driver tomorrow.

Everyone here is excited.  While I was still on the phone, Marti was happily calling our parents.  The kids were looking at a map to figure out where Jiangxi Province is located.  And to celebrate the big day, we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Ichiban.

There are so many thoughts going through my mind right now.  I look forward to trying to make sense of things in the coming days (if it is possible).  Thanks for praying for us.  We praise God for His blessing of another child; we can't wait to meet her and bring her home.

Anxious? Now?

I just got home from working my 4th night shift in a row.  I should be really tired.  But Marti and I are talking excitedly about the possibility of hearing from our adoption agency.  Will we hear today?  We hope so.  We can hardly wait to hear from them about our referral.

It seems weird to be so anxious to hear.  You would think that 48 months after starting the process and nearly 40 months since our LID (log in date), that waiting a few more days wouldn't make a difference.  But just knowing that we could receive official notice of our referral any day is making us giddy with excitement.  

Maybe I should go to bed...it will make the wait not seem so long!

Exciting Update

I only have a few minutes before going out the door to work, but we received an email from our adoption agency today.  They wanted to make sure they had our address correct on file so that they can overnight our referral packet.  They anticipate receiving them in the next 24-48 hours!  

This email means two things.  First, we have been matched and the referral is "in the mail" to our agency.  Second, after 40 months of waiting, we will know who God has chosen for us to adopt.  Pray for us this week.

Book List for 2009

I have added my book list for 2009 to the right of the page.  I have enjoyed reading the variety of books although they seem to be clumped into only a few catagories...11 Hornblower books (Historical Fiction), 3 Classics, 2 Biographies, 2 Mysteries, and 1 book on Adoption.  I have several other books in the queue for the remainder of the year.

Week End Round-up

It has been a pretty busy week since our return from vacation down at Kiawah.  I returned to work Tuesday night and worked 4 in row.  That doesn't sound like much until you consider I work 12 shifts. Although I was sad that vacation was over, it was good to be back at work.  I was reminded that man is made for work.  It is satisfying to put in a hard days work doing what God has called you to do.  

Marti has really been working hard this past week.  Tomorrow Vacation Bible School starts and she has been working diligently to get the final preparations together.  She is very detailed oriented and that comes in handy when planning a VBS (as any of you who have been the Director of VBS well know).  I think her dedication to the job will be a blessing to both the children and the volunteers this week.  Please pray that GOD will use the week to deeply implant the great truths of His word in these young children.

Besides work and preparing for VBS we also had some visitors this week.  My brother Todd had some work in town so he stayed overnight this week.  The same night we had a missionary family from Kenya visit us.  They were friends during our time in Nairobi and we had the pleasure of hosting them for 2 nights this week.  Their youngest son was one of Ben's best friends so Ben enjoyed reconnecting with him.  In addition to these guests, we also had our college student who lived with us this semester come back.  She is in town to help with VBS this week.  

On the adoption front, I finished some required adoption education this week.  We are required to do at least 10 hours of educational sessions before we get our travel approval.  I was able to finish that off this week so we have one less thing to do after we hear from China.  The sessions were pretty good and dealt with issues like adopting a toddler/older child, transracial families, and grief and loss issues adopted kids deal with.  

We look forward to another good week.

New Pics

Take a look at the 2 new photo albums on the right to see how big the kids are growing.

China Update - July 5th 2009

Many of you know that way back in 2005, while we were still in Kenya, Marti and I felt God leading us to adoption.  At that time, Marti had been pregnant 7 times with 3 kids and 4 miscarriages.  Other events and experiences led us to that decision and so we began the arduous paperwork trail.  Finally in March 2006 we had been officially accepted and logged in by the Central Chinese Adoption Agency.  We had hoped to only wait about 9 months before we traveled to China to complete our adoption.

But that was not God's timing.  In January 2007 we sensed God calling us back to the States.  Later that month Marti discovered that she was pregnant.  She delivered Amy in September 2007.  Because of our move and new addition we were on a one year "wait period."  That ended in September 2008.  But it did not delay us because other families with our same log in date were still waiting.  

In December of 2008, our adoption agency informed us that we had to make a decision one way or another.  Surprisingly we found ourselves at a crossroads.  In 2005 we were praying that God would add to our family another daughter.  He did in 2007.  But were we to press on with the adoption?  Through lots of prayer and conversation, we renewed our commitment in January 2009.  Since that time we have collected more paperwork, participated in another home-study, and received our re-approval.  

The Lord willing, we anticipate to be matched in the next batch of referrals coming from China.  That should take place by the end of the month.  After that we will have to get our travel papers together, buy airline tickets, and go to China approximately 8 weeks after the referral.  We will spend 2 weeks there meeting our daughter, completely necessary paperwork, and travel back.

We are amazed at God's providence in this whole, very long process.  We feel certain that God is in this.  We also feel very scared and humbled at times.  Please pray for us and all the details yet to be worked out in the coming days and weeks.

So What's Up?

Since my last post in October 2008, the following things have occurred in our lives:

1. Ben's football team played in the league Super Bowl and lost by a touchdown.

2. We celebrated Christmas with my family in Gatlinburg.

3. I left the ER in Hopewell to join an ER group in Newport News.  My commute is down from 65 minutes one way to 24 minutes one way.

4. Ben turned 13.  We celebrated by going on a 3 day Father-Son Ski Trip to Snowshoe in West Virginia.

5. Sam turned 8.

6. Sarah celebrated Sweet 16 with Marti down in Disney World.

7. Marti and I recommitted ourselves to finalizing our adoption of a daughter from China (more on that later).  We hope to receive our referral this month and travel in September or October to get her.

8. Marti continued her strong service in the church as Children's Ministry Director.

9. Amy has learned to say "NO" and "Mine" as well as several dozen other words.

10. Marti took Sam to Dallas to see her brother Jon.  Sam rode a mechanical bull and went to the rodeo.

11. Sam played soccer and baseball this spring.

12. Jack, our dog, has almost been potty-trained.

13. My Granddaddy and My Uncle died this spring.

14. We went to Kiawah Island for a 2 week vacation in June.

15. Sarah finished her Sophomore year with strong grades...all A's except for one B (in Algebra).

16. Sam broke his pinky finger playing baseball.

And the list could go on and on.  Hopefully, over the coming weeks and months I will be consistent enough to keep you apprised of what is going on around here.

Why Restart?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been grappling with the task of restarting the blog.  It was both daunting and embarrassing to realize that I haven't added anything to the blog since last October.  SO MUCH has happened (more on that in a subsequent post) since then I felt I couldn't possibly catch up.  And I can't. Because there is so much going on, I would be remiss to not add updates.  But first, I wanted to share a few reasons why I have been absent so long.

First, raising four kids is very time consuming, especially with two teenagers in the house.  The calendar fills fast with homeschooling, dance, soccer, baseball, football, church, and oh yeah, work.  And so I found myself with less and less time.  

Second, I was tired of writing.  With the busyness described above, I found I couldn't do everything.  I wasn't reading enough.  I wasn't thinking enough.  And so my writing was getting stale.  

Third, and probably most influential, I felt I didn't have much to say.  The past year has been challenging for me.  I have been a bit down.  I have struggled to find time for quiet time.  I have felt at times that no one really wanted to read about what a family of six living in America was going through (as though people really wanted to read about an American family of five living in Kenya was some big thrill!).  But you know what I mean...I felt I didn't have much to share.  

The process probably started last month when I saw some old friends who noted that they checked the blog from time to time to see if I had made any new posts.  I made a few excuses but realized that I was missing the chance to share, reflect, and write.  Over the past two weeks while on vacation, I challenged the kids to set some goals for the coming year.  They challenged me to restart the blog.  

And so, after some time off, and further reflection, I have decided to restart the blog.  It doesn't matter if 5 people read it a day, or 50, or 500, I sense that this is an important tool to capture what God is doing in our lives.  And so I hope you will enjoy the new look and the new updates.