We can't wait for China!!!

A dear friend of mine arrived home from China this week with her precious son!  How exciting!  I loved following her journey via Facebook and seeing her son become a part of her forever family!

We have had some movement on our adoption since I last updated here.  We were DTC (dossier to China) on November 23rd.  We were LID on November 28th.  This means our file has been logged in to China and our dossier is in translation!!!!  This is a big step!  We cannot wait until we are visiting the Great Wall pictured above and bringing our boys home!

We do most of our adoption updates in a secret Facebook group.  If we are friends and you'd like to join it, feel free to comment below or message me on Facebook.

Good News!

So if you've adopted you know that the process is full of a lot of "hurry up and wait".  We've been working to get our dossier documents to our agency.  I am happy to report that they have all of the documents they need from us.  Now we wait for the sealed documents to be sent from the Chinese Consulate to our agency via a courier.  These documents are currently being processed.  At that point, our agency will review our documents and prepare and send our dossier to China!!!  I can't wait until I can share these initials DTC!  That means Dossier to China.  So we've been hurrying and hurrying and now we are in a waiting season.  

During this time, we also held an adoption auction, a LulaRoe fundraiser, and a necklace auction which MANY of you supported!  Through these, God provided the rest of the funds we needed to be able to submit our dossier.  Thank you all for praying for and supporting us! 

We also received word this week from Show Hope that we were approved for a grant from to help with some of our adoption expenses!!!  What a blessing!  I have to share a bit of our story here.  In 2001 while getting ready for work, I was listening to a Focus on the family broadcast featuring Steven Curtis Chapman.  He was discussing his family's first adoption from China.  I listened intently with tears running down my cheeks to their family's precious story!  God made it clear to me in that moment that international adoption would be a part of our family's story.  At the time we were too young to adopt from China.  We began a years long journey of researching adoption, praying about our options, being discouraged by the costs, and asking God what his plan for our family was.  As most of you know, we adopted our son from Taiwan in 2010.  Yet, China has always been in our hearts.  God worked out the details and in March we were matched with Josiah and later in June we were matched with Gideon.  I am humbled when I look back and see how God used this radio broadcast to speak to my heart and is using Steven Curtis Chapman's organization (Show Hope) to help bring our two precious boys home!  He knows how to perfectly weave the tapestry of our lives together.  Today I am standing back in amazement as I look at this beautiful piece of artwork he has created!

The heart of our story: Why we adopt internationally

I have debated about writing this post over and over again.  I want to begin by saying, I LOVE ADOPTION...domestic adoption, foster care adoption and international adoption.  One is not better than the others.  They are all needed and they are ALL God's heart.  Our pastor preached from James on Sunday and there the verse was again...staring me in the face....

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

I can't read that and walk away.  We are asked some variation of this question A LOT..."Why do you adopt from other countries when there are so many kids in America who need families?"

It's a complex question and a personal one, honestly.  The short answer is that we felt God specifically speak to our hearts about international adoption in 2001.  I believe God can specifically lead you where he wants you.    The US has a foster care system.  It's broken, it's not perfect, but kiddos with be with a family at least until they turn 18.   We are adopting from China.  In China, when a child is 14, they are no longer eligible for adoption.  They.Have.No.Options.  I don't know about you, but when I was 14 I was naive an immature and in NO WAY capable of caring for myself on my own.

My friend Judy Wheeler used the same agency we are adopting through.  She just arrived home from adopting a sweet kiddo right before he aged out and shared the following post, which I am sharing with her permission.

"Tears and Heartbreak from Children Who Have "AGED OUT " told to Amy E. of LWB

Tears from Jenny, who broke down on her 14th birthday when she realized that she had aged out of the adoption system without being chosen. The final realization that she would never know what it meant to have a mom or dad of her own caused her to fall into a deep depression. Tears from Lily, a 17-year-old girl whom I had given my jacket after she admired it. When she refused to accept it initially, I put my hand on her shoulder and said, “But of course you have to take it because you are like family to me.” And it was at that one word, “family,” that this normally stoic young lady broke down and sobbed uncontrollably, as it is the one thing that she longed for.

By far, however, the most emotional moment of my time in China came one night when I was able to meet with a group of older orphaned teens I had watched grow up over a five year period. Every time I would visit their orphanage, I would enjoy getting to know them more. They all seemed so close, such good friends, and they always had smiles for me when I arrived. That night, however, was a night when the kids finally let their guard down. It was a night of real conversation and sharing what it means to grow up as an orphan. Toward the end of the evening we were all in tears. Afterwards, one of the older boys stayed to talk with me privately. I am hesitant to even write of it now as it was such a deeply personal and emotionally raw conversation.I will share, however, that he told me that growing up without a mother or father “hurts more than death.”

 Again, I LOVE my friends and family who have adopted from the foster care system.  They are Jesus to precious kiddos who need a family! And so are we and my friend Judy and my many friends who have adopted internationally.  God leads us each where he needs us.  My heart is with these precious kiddos who if they continue in an orphanage will never know the love of a family.  I hope this helps to give you some insight into our hearts and our decision.

Much love from the Shuberts!

Loving Our Boys Home

You are the missing piece!  Help us bring Josiah and Gideon home!  We need to raise funds for our adoption and we wanted something meaningful for our boys' room so that they will be able to see who helped to "love them home."

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We have purchased an Asian-themed puzzle.  For each $10 donation you make to our adoption fund, we will write your name or the name of your choosing (your mom, dad, child or grandchild’s name) on the back of the puzzle piece. You can buy as many puzzle pieces as you like!  When our boys come home, they will be able to look at the back of the puzzle and see all of the people who gave so they could become a member of our forever family.  I love this so much!  I love that our boys will be able to know that each of you shared a part in bringing them home!

We have $5830 in fees coming up when we file for our visa and submit our dossier.  This puzzle coupled with the t-shirt fundraiser we completed will help us raise those fees.

So, how do you buy a puzzle piece?  Email me at adoptionrocks4@gmail.com or private message me on facebook (Heather Bishop Shubert).  I will reply with our home address, where you can send a check and the name(s) you want written on the back of the puzzle piece(s).  You can also donate through our tax deductible giving site, www.adopttogether.org/shubertfamily Just make sure to let me know what name(s) you want on your pieces.

You can follow our adoption and the progress of this fundraiser here or in our private facebook group. If you wanted added to our facebook group, comment below.

P.S. For those of you who gave in 2013 toward our puzzle fundraiser, this is the same puzzle and you will finally get to see it completed.  (We were planning to adopt from Taiwan and stopped promoting the fundraiser when our agency wasn't able to process adoptions anymore.)

I will update with puzzle progress and you guys can see if you can figure out what the image is!

Love y'all!

Timeline

Many of you have asked questions like "When you you be able to bring your boys home?"  I thought I'd give you a timeline of this adoption to help you know how to pray for us.

We are adopting through a medical needs program from China.

January 19, 2015--Medical checklist received by our agency
March 23, 2016---Referral accepted for Josiah
April 1, 2016------Adoption application accepted
April 2, 2016------Home study began
April 5, 2016------LOI to China for Josiah
May 18, 2016-----Referral accepted for Gideon
June 6, 2016-------LOI to China for Gideon

Currently we have one document we are waiting for our home study provider to receive to complete the home study.  Brian also has to complete some financial info.  I requested the document a second time this week hoping to get things moving.  At the same time, I am assembling our dossier documents so that when our home study is completed, we can move forward ASAP.  Will you pray that we can get this completed in a timely manner?  Thank you all for your support of our adoption!  Here are some pictures of the boys just because that's what you're here to see, ha ha!

 

We just received the above updated picture of Josiah last week.

Zoom in on this picture of Gideon.  He is adorable and this picture is very telling of his personality.  He was uneasy around strangers with cameras, so they had to take this picture from far away.

In other news, we sent care packages to our sweet boys today.  They should receive them in 7-10 business days. I'm so excited!!!!

So where are you in the process?

We've had lots of people ask this question, "So where are you in the process?"  So I thought I'd take a moment to answer that.  :)  Because we were matched with two waiting children, we are completing a couple of steps at the same time.  Our home study is nearly finished and we are beginning to work on our dossier.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the China adoption process, our dossier is a huge binder of documents that we have to submit to China before they will begin on our adoption process from their stand point.  As of now, they have preapproved us to adopt Jing and Guang, but they require the dossier to officially approve us.

If you'd like you can pray for us as we complete this mound of paperwork.  Brian has some training to complete and another document that he has to complete in order for our home study to be signed off on by our home study agency.  Then, it has to be examined and approved by our adoption agency. After that, we can begin our application with USCIS.  We are already working on our dossier and compiling documents.  Please pray for understanding on my part as this is a bit overwhelming.  It is much more complicated than Nathanael's adoption was.

We also have some big fees coming up, so please pray that God provides.  If you feel led to help, there are a couple of ways you can do so.  We have a site where you can give and it's tax deductible.  www.adopttogether.org/shubertfamily  We love this ministry's heart for adoptive families.

We have t-shirts for sale until June 30th.  The story behind them is that God is calling us to be brave in stepping out to adopt our precious boys.  2 Timothy 1:7 is one of my favorite verses for putting my eyes on Jesus and not the situation.  "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind."  2 Timothy 1:7  You can find our shirts here if you're interested,  https://teespring.com/stores/shubert-adoption

Thank you so much for your support and your prayers!  We appreciate you all so much!

Adoption Surprises

I am sitting here reflecting on our journey with infertility and adoption.  We were married almost 10 years before we brought Nathanael home.  We started the process to adopt again in 2012 only to wait for 3 years to be matched.  Unfortunately, the program we were hoping to adopt from in Taiwan has never opened again.  We really hope it does someday soon.  But in January 2015, we filled out a medical checklist to adopt through the China special needs program. This was the first of many surprises for our family.  We had not been open to special needs adoption in the past, but God was opening our hearts and widening our horizons.  In April 2016, we got a call and received the file of the sweetest little 18 month old.  We accepted his referral and began our paper chase, home study and the whole journey.

We had selected that we were open to adopting two kiddos at the same time.  However, we were told that it rarely works out to be matched to two kiddos that can come home at the same time.  God was about to surprise us again.  In May 2016, we received a second call to be matched with a precious 3 1/2 year old.  They live in separate cities in the same province.  We were able to be matched with them before submitting our dossier, which means we will be able to bring them home on the same trip.  God is so good to us!  All this waiting...all my impatience..but GOD knew what he was doing.

We are so blessed and so thankful!  If you'd like to help us bring these sweet boys home, we have t-shirts we are selling right now.  You can order here...  Currently our shirts will be available through June 30th.  I'd love to tell you the story behind them.  2 Timothy 1:7 is one of my all-time favorite verses.  Agreeing to bring home two precious boys at once was definitely a step of faith.  God is reminding me to be brave and trust HIM to help bring these boys home.

We love you all and thank you for following our journey!  And just because these boys are precious, here's our version of a family photo ;)

Big News!

Our family has an announcement!!!  After 3 years of waiting to adopt from Taiwan and 1 year of waiting to adopt from China, we are matched with a precious boy in China!  We are so excited to introduce Jing Tian to you our friends and family.

So we have been asked several questions by you, our sweet friends and family, and I thought I'd resurrect our blog and address them here....

1.  Have we chosen a name?

We will keep Jing Tian as his middle name and have not yet settled on a first name.  A name's meaning is really important to us and we can't quite land on one, yet.

2.  How long before we can bring him home?

9-12 months

3.  How old is he?

18 months old

4.  Will we be traveling to China?

Yes! And I can't wait to hold this sweet little love in my arms!

5.  How does Nathanael feel about us adopting again?

He is SOOOO excited!!!  He tells everyone multiple times that he is going to get a "new brudder".

6.  How can you help or support our family?

• Pray for the process, paperwork, and for us to have favor with the governments and agencies.
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• Support our fundraisers that will begin soon.
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• Give (and it's even tax deductible) here.  www.adopttogether.com/shubertfamily Adoption is expensive, y'all.  I wish it wasn't.  I'd have a houseful of little loves if I could!  Giving to an adoptive family is a great way to live out James 1:27 "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."  NLT

Thank y'all for joining our journey and keep following along.  We love you all!