Hubers Family Adoption Journey: July 2017

Last week we had the opportunity to attend a Family Camp at Cedar Campus in the UP of Michigan. I (Courtney), have fond memories of college experiences at that camp and to go back as a family turned out to be a decision approved by all.

On that Friday, June 30th, before we left, our social worker told us we had received "Soft LOA". This means our paperwork was done processing in China and the hard copy for us to sign was on it's way! That long silence from China ended up being not as long as we expected! Instead of having the paperwork sit in California for a week, while we were at camp, our agency FedEx'd it to us at the camp! I had brought our supporting documents and gotten prepaid shipping labels and we were able to turn around the documents within 24 hours to send down to Texas for the next stage of immigration prep for JiaYun. I got word that it arrived safely there yesterday. The details are falling into place!

Then yesterday we received a special package from the U.S. Government in the mail for Timothy. My mind wasn't working properly and couldn't think of what it could be, until Kevin noted..."it's probably his passport" YAY! Did we tell you we're taking TJ to China!? Needless to say, he's pretty pumped. With a 9 year difference between TJ and Jia Yun, they may not have as many shared memories along the way of their childhood. We figured this was a good opportunity for them to have a pretty significant shared experience. He will enjoy the food, the culture, the experience while the other three seem to actually prefer (for the most part) that they are going to stay home and have some adventures for themselves.

In the next day or so, we hope to get our next phase of paperwork completed which includes applying for our visas to travel. So, it's true...it's all falling into place.

Sometimes we can plan things, like the paperwork for this adoption and sometimes we just see God place blessings in our laps. We experienced both last week as our paperwork kept trucking and we also met a few new friends at Cedar Campus who have adopted from China as well. Just having that shared passion and experience gave us a boost of encouragement. To see each of our unique children grafted into our families reminded me of God's faithfulness. We didn't necessarily seek out that community, but it felt just like a big hug from the Lord as a serendipitous surprise. The not so fun news is that they all live so far away. But we are trusting God will continue to provide us with supportive friends who have either adopted or are truly supportive of God's calling on our hearts to adopt. We can only plan so much. New friends, good friends, supportive friends, we rely completely on God to provide. And he is in the midst of doing so :)

I forgot to mention that we got some updated pictures and videos in June from JiaYun's caretakers. She changes so much even every few months. It makes me happy to see her, and sad we aren't with her to take care of her as she grows. The time is getting closer. No specific dates yet - but likely still October.

I'll leave you with a few pics from our family time at Family Camp last week. Hope you all are embracing the summer as well!