The road map

Many of you have asked us what happens next?  When do we go get Makenna?  The unfortunate answer is that we are again waiting and we don't have a travel date yet - to be honest, we won't have an "official" travel date until about 2 weeks before we leave - hard for our very type-A personalities to handle! 

Right now we are waiting for our Letter of Acceptance - our LOA!  The LOA is the most important paper because it is our approvel from China that they have accepted our Request to adopt Makenna as our daughter - she will be ours!  The exciting part of getting that LOA is that we will be officially able to share her picture with all of you!  We will also be able to send Makenna a care package and let her know that she HAS A FAMILY!!  She will receive pictures of us, treats and a letter that we will write to her.  Hopefully we will get more pictures after she receives our care package, too.

To break down the rest of the process, here's a road map with "expected" time frames - keep in mind, these are all estimates! 

Our Preliminary Approval (PA) was received on 2/7/13

30-90 day wait

Letter of Acceptance arrives

Submit I800 Form to US Immigration & Mail Visa Application to Agency

3-5 week wait

Receive I800 approval from Immigration

1-2 week wait

US Immigration sends approval to US Consulate in Ch*na

2-3 week wait

US Consulate approves Visa (Article 5)

2-4 week wait

Ch*na issues Travel Approval (TA)

Receive Consulate Appointment (CA)

2-4 weeks wait

TRAVEL!!

The biggest wild card is our LOA - some families get this really fast and others wait for over 100 days.  There isn't a lot of rhyme or reason, but the current trend has us hoping and PRAYING for a 30 day LOA!  Since we waited three months for our referrral there is a good chance that our paperwork has been translated already.  Once we receive the LOA the time frames above are pretty standard.  Jason and I are praying that we leave at the end of May - we really want to be home by June 15th for Matthew's birthday AND we feel it would be best for us to travel while the kids are still in school.  We KNOW that the timing is out of our hands, but we are praying for God's favor and trusting that HIS timing is better than our own.

In the mean time... we have been busy and having fun getting our house ready for our little girl!  Her room is painted and waiting for the carpet and furniture.  The clothes are starting to be hung and some toys are starting to show up!  I must admit that it has been really (REALLY) fun starting to shop and buy little girl things again!  I love her room, but I am holding off to share until it is DONE!

Stay tuned for more updates...    





2013.01.24 11:26 PM

Moments in time...
Moments when time stands still... 
Moments when your heart is "date stamped"...

My guess is that some memories just flashed through your mind as you read those statements - we all have memories, happy and sad.  Memories that are personal and those that have impacted your family, church, and our nation.

Some memories are so special that your heart is "date stamped" with a memory that you will never forget, a moment when time stood still and everything else around you disappeared...

Some of the "date stamps" of my mind:

December 27, 1997 at 11:00 AM - I married my best friend on a cold, snowy winter morning

August 11, 2000 at 1:27 AM - we became parents and were blessed with our beautiful Megan Paige, a baby girl beautiful on the inside and outside with a heart like no other

June 15, 2002 at 1:55 PM - another blessing - a little boy, he came into this world quiety and scared us to death, but Matthew Christian has blessed us since the day he was born

and one more date stamp for this Mama's heart...

January 24, 2013 at 11:26 PM - the call!!  The call that woke us out of a sound sleep and introduced us to our third blessing.  The blessing of a beautiful four year old daughter!

Soon after hanging up the phone we received an email and, in a moment, we were in love with our beautiful daughter.  Oh my heart - she is GORGEOUS!!! 

On Sunday, January 27, 2013 we submitted our official Letter of Intent to adopt her as our own. 

We can't wait to share her with you, but we need to wait for our official Letter of Approval (LOA) to post her pictures online.  Believe me - it will be worth the wait!  If you see us out and about - stop us, we always have pictures with us and would be happy to share.

We are hoping to travel to bring her home in May or early June.  In the meantime, if you would like to join us in prayer, please consider praying for these concerns:

• Pray that our paperwork is reviewed and approved and we receive our LOA quickly!
• Pray for Makenna's continued good health and her heart to be prepared for our family.
• Pray for our preparations - more paperwork to be completed, her bedroom preparations and our hearts to be prepared to care for her.

There is much to do - we are about to have a pre-schooler in the house again!  We are so excited and grateful that God has given us the opportunity to call her our daughter.

Now for some other news... January turned out to be a very exciting month in our house!  Jason received a call right after New Year's about a new career opportunity.  After a few conversations, he was certain that this was a great opportunity for him and our family.  His last day at Landis Supermarket, after 21 years of employment, was on Friday, January 25th.  He is now a Project Manager for Response Electric and is loving his new job!  We are loving his new schedule which means  he is home with us every evening, every Saturday and every Sunday!  The past two weekends have been wonderful having the whole family together to relax (by that I mean work on Makenna's room! and shop for our little girl!) and spend time together. 

Another perk of his new job is that he now has a company car!  We are hoping to put a significant dent in the gap of the funds needed to finalize our adoption by selling his car in the next few weeks.  If you or anyone you know may be interested we will be selling his 2008 Kia Spectra - we want to get it all cleaned up, and put some new tires on it before we post it "For Sale".  The car is in great condition and only has 36,000 miles, it's a 5 speed manual transmission and gets 25-28 miles per gallon of gas.  Asking price is $7000 (just under Kelley Blue Book value).  It a great 2nd car for running around or great for a high school or college student.  Once we have it all spiffed up - pictures will follow!  If you are interested, please feel free to email us or give us a call!

The past three months of waiting have been HARD - so very HARD!  I can honestly tell you that it was worth every minute!  We know we have more waiting ahead of us - we will wait for our Letter of Acceptance - our I800 approval and Travel Approval, but we have seen HER face and we know this is all worth it.  She is going to have a family, she is going to be loved, and sometime in May or June or whenever God plans for us to go get here - there will be ONE LESS orphan in the world.  She will be our beloved daughter!

With a full heart,
Jessica

Stop Whining...

I've said this probably thousands of times and I've been told this a lot of times myself. Generally I'm not a big whiner any more, but as a kid, man I could whine with the best of them. As I find myself in a mode of whining about our wait for Makenna, I have to wonder how tired of hearing my whines God must be. God already sees the end - He already knows our daughter and yet I stand before Him every day and I have an essence of "whine". Ugh - that's dreadful to think!

One of our children was a perpetual whiner as a pre-schooler and it would get VERY frustrating. We kept trying to instill that simply having us ask him/her to do something was reason enough - we didn't need to provide a reason or explanation or beg, plead or bribe. We trained this child that having a grateful heart and doing things when asked was what God wanted us to do. To this day, when we ask this child to do something that is probably not what is at the top of the list of what he/she WANTS to do - the response is "Yes, Mom or Dad, I'd be glad to."

How I wish this was my response "Yes, Father, I'd be glad to".

What seems like forever has been three months since we sent our paperwork, it feels like FOREVER - but in reality, three months is not that long. It's long to us because Makenna is not with us. Even though we have not seen her face yet, our hearts are still broken that our daughter is waiting for us and is without a family TODAY. This is part of God's plan for our family and we are asked to WAIT and TRUST. Yes, Father, I'd be glad to follow YOUR plan.

It's not easy, our hearts break almost daily, and I think our hearts should be broken for the orphan, for the hungry, for the ill, for the lonely. None of this was God's plan for our lives, but we live in world full of sin, we are a broken people. I can't fix the world, but I can continue to stand firm and trust my God by being His vessel with a grateful and joyful heart.

We continue to pray boldly that God would bring the file of our daughter to our agency. We pray that those reviewing her file will know that she is our daughter that she is a member of the Benner family.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8

Will you join us in this prayer in an attitude of gratitude for what we KNOW God is going to do for our family.

This process has made me very in tune with my emotions and what is really important to me. Many days my emotions are caught in my throat and it only takes a song, a movie, a word or a story to make everything bubble over and before I know it - the tears spring forth. Sometimes at just the wrong time, but my heart is being molded and softened to areas that God is calling me to serve.

God has been using music a lot to speak to me - to give me just what I need, to give me a glimpse at the future and to keep me grounded in today. It's creating a playlist of this story. I plan to create a playlist for Jason & I for our plane ride to China - the songs that have carried us through the hard times of this process and those that have helped us rejoice and celebrate the joy of the adoption process. Today, I share another song with you - a song about laying down my will and desires and following God's plan with JOY and not whining.

It will be my JOY to say

Your Will

Your Way

ALWAYS!

 

 

Blessings to you,

Jessica