Off Again On Again

I got a new camera and am still experimenting with it these are a few pics though I thought were fun.

The past few weeks have been a roller coaster on the adoption front. We have gone through so many emotions it is hard to know where to begin. In our e-mail to friends and family towards the end of October we told you all how Ma Fang Zhou was no longer available for adoption because

“They have found he has numerous and severe intellectual and physical delays and want to continue to observe him and care for him at the orphanage.”

Our family coordinator at our agency was preparing to send Ma Fang Zhou’s file back to the China Center for Adoption Affairs when she decided to double check one more time that that is what they wanted her to do. Her contact in China told her to go ahead then apparently after the contact said that decided to double check her self. They then found out that there was new information received from the orphanage and that what they thought were intellectual delays was actually an inability to understand the caretakers at the orphanage. You see Ma Fang Zhou had been living in foster care for about 4 years, they had recently brought him back to the orphanage but didn’t know that at his foster home a different dialect/language was spoken. That coupled with the fact that Ma Fang Zhou is “tongue-tied”(not the medical term but means his tongue is too connected to the bottom of his mouth) and is impeded in his speech made him seem “slow”. They said he was still a good candidate for adoption.

When our family coordinator called to tell us that I hope you can understand how confused I was…It had been less than a week since we had thought we were not going to be able to adopt this little boy but I am not one to dwell on things and the Lord had provided much grace to “move on” so at first I wasn’t sure how to feel.

So I asked a bunch of questions, especially about the physical delays they had reported. Our agency relay our questions and reported back that he was doing much better, he seemed weaker on one side and had trouble going down stairs, apparently runs slower than normal. Things like that. It’s hard to tell what all that means but the orphanage volunteered to make a video for us, which is highly unusual.

By this time we were back on board, and Wayne was reciting his mantra “All he needs is a family, lets bring him home!”. The promise of video was very exciting to us! Our agency asked us to wait to view the video to send in our Letter of Intent so we were eagerly awaiting the video.

In China I believe they have a different way of communicating and relating and I think many things get lost in the translation of the language and the culture. Also our agency is getting everything second hand. It was just a couple more days that we received the report that it was the orphanage staff that had promised a video without going through the director of the orphanage. The director was very hesitant to do this out of the ordinary thing and basically said no they would not be doing that. He (I am assuming it was a he) didn’t want to do anything behind the CCAA’s back. We received that report and I was on the verge of becoming very frustrated and asked “What do they want us to do then???!!!” We were convinced by now that this little boy is the one we are to add to our family but no one else seemed to be convinced. We have been ready to send our LOI since early October.

Our agency decided to get a final answer from the CCAA before saying we could send our initial paperwork. I was hoping we could go ahead and send it this week. When she called she could have either said that forget it he’s not available or yes go ahead and send the paperwork. I wasn’t counting on the 3^rd possibility. It turns out that the orphanage checked with the CCAA about doing a video and they said it would be ok!! A video has been made; it is on its way to Beijing (where the CCAA is) and will then be sent to our agency. It will probably take 2 weeks to get that.

So many things are still uncertain, but we hang on to what is certain. God’s love for us! His complete sovereignty over ever detail of this adoption, His faithfulness to do what is good for us and best for HIS glory.

It does seem certain that we will be receiving a video which is an exciting prospect. I will let you all know about that. In the mean time I covet all your prayers for this adoption. We are trying to live life as usual, stick to a routine, and keep Ruth from killing herself. She ripped down the curtains in her bedroom yesterday and needs to be under constant supervision. We are working hard to train her to obey us.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures.