MATCHING GRANT - $5,000!!

Our adoption is moving right along, maybe even slightly faster than we had anticipated. And we're grateful as it does seem that we'll have Conlan home by the end of May! We've been completely blown away by the level of support from family and friends and want to thank everyone who has supported us in prayer and financially.

We have more amazing news! Lifesong for Orphans and Chosen & Dearly Loved have committed an Adoption Matching Grant of $5,000 to help pay our adoption expenses!! We could hardly believe the generosity of this gift!! Will you please prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us meet this matching grant to help bring Conlan home? Our goal date is January 31, 2016, but funds will be accepted towards our adoption until our adoption is complete. You can choose to give via check or online.

Mail-in: Please make checks payable to “Lifesong for Orphans.” In the memo, note “Family Acct Number: 5711 & Family Name: Pugh” to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744.

Online: Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select “Give to an Adoptive Family.” Complete the online form and fill in “Family Account Number: 5711” and “Family Name: Pugh” Fields. (Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee: 2.2% + $.30 USD per transaction. Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee. We totally understand the convenience of this option and aren't concerned about this admin fee.)

Legal stuff Lifesong would like us to share: Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners) and 100% of your donation goes directly to the adoption. In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization and it retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use. Individual donations of $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.

Fingerprinting success!

You guys...today was amazing.

We submitted our I-800A application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on 9/21/15 and were told that it would take 60-90 days to hear back. WELL, we heard back today! In the mail, we received our fingerprint appointment date, scheduled for 10/28/15. I've heard that some people have had success just walking in and shaving off a week or two from the waiting process. Others, however, have been grumbled at and turned away.

After a bit of discussion, Nathan and I decided to give it a go. We drove to downtown SLC, entered the building (which did not have a ramp for Lachlan's wheelchair, so we had to carry his chair up a flight of stairs) and headed to the office. I had butterflies, wondering what would happen. The security guards were intrigued by Lachlan's suction machine and kept Nathan's two pocket knives, but eventually let us through with smiles, directing us to where we needed to go.

Initially, I thought we were setting ourselves up for disaster because there were no less than 50 people in the waiting room. AY! But, my fears were dismissed when the guard explained that there was a citizenship ceremony that day and many families and friends were present to celebrate. Wow! What a beautiful thing to witness!

Thankfully, there was only 1 other person in the fingerprinting office. I started chatting with the receptionist right away as if she would not notice we were 10 days early for our appointment. But it wouldn't have mattered...she just stamped our documents and got us started with the proceedings! I was SHOCKED! She was very friendly (no grumbling as I had feared) and the entire process took no more than 30 minutes for both Nathan and I. AND, Lachlan was very well-behaved!

From here, we can expect to receive email approval in the next week or so and then our hard copy within a few weeks. After that, we'll notarize the approval, get it state authenticated and send it off to our adoption agency which will then send it to the Chinese Consulate in D.C. Right now, we're still on Steps 3 & 4 on our little timeline graphic, but we're getting closer to hopping to the big Step 7!

!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot tell you how encouraged I am by all of this. It means that our expected travel time frame of of May-ish is totally realistic. When we get to December, things get a little harder due to various staffers' holiday breaks, so the more we can get accomplished before then, the better!

We are not promised that this will be an easy journey (quite the opposite, actually), so our biggest prayer is that God will work on our hearts' trust and contentment. However, this went better than expected, so I want to shout gratitude from the rooftops!

We're trying our best, Conlan! We'll be together soon :)

Family isn't complete with out L

Lachlan's Sunday School class talked about family today and how important each family member is. I was helping in class and aided Lachlan's drawing efforts via hand-over-hand as he name off each family member. Want to guess who is favorite family member is??

Doting dad?

Nurturing mama?

Cool Conlan?

Nope...Lachlan is Lachlan's favorite :) LOL! "Lachlan! I love Lachlan!"

Also, this is a sheep. Craft time with 4-year-olds is a hoot!

Dossier Documents: SLC>YVR

We have our Utah & Indiana dossier documents state-authenticated, so Lachlan and I got to spend some time at FedEx/Kinkos making copies and getting them shipped off to our placement agency in Vancouver, WA!

This is a big step, though we're still waiting for one Nevada document (our home study agency is located there and the document was notarized in that state, so it has to be state-authenticated there as well). We're told NV is back-logged several weeks, so it could be up to a month before we receive it.

I'm not totally distraught as we will likely be waiting until early December for the very final dossier document: our United States Citizen and Immigration Services fingerprinting approval. If you check out this little flow chart, you can see that we're on steps 3&4 concurrently. That's sort of wild for me to see as we feel like we've put a ton of work into this process so far and we're only on those steps?!?! But I hear things go really fast after step 8, so here's to being thankful and prayerful along the ride :)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

I sometimes joke that I wish I were Jewish by heritage because I love the cultural emphasis on family and tradition. Though our preparation and education of the Chinese culture, I've recently started to realize that we have the amazing opportunity to bring beautiful Chinese celebrations into our home.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is centered around prayer, friends and family and thanksgiving. The harvest festival is held on the full moon between late September and October and dates back to the Shang Dynasty 16th-10th century BC. Traditionally, the celebration has been centered around moon worship as the waxing and waning of the moon is reminiscent of a woman's monthly cycle and that of pregnancy and birth (full moon = pregnant lady, crescent moon = giving birth).

These days, lanterns and moon cakes are staples of the celebration -- beautiful paper lanterns and yummy desserts?! Count me in!

I'm thankful for my college friend Wei who, nearly 10 years ago, introduced me to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Who knew she'd be a source of inspiration for Nathan and I choosing to adopt from China and a continued resource as we learn more about our little one's culture?! I'm grateful for you, Wei, and look forward to the beautiful moments your family will experience in the coming months.

(photos from 2007)

Welcome, friends!

I think I'm finally braving-up and sharing this thing. Thanks for caring :)

Why is Adoption So Expensive

Our adoption is estimated to cost $40,000. **Cue the record scratch.**

I know, right. It’s a hefty sum. But here’s the deal, China is not trying to extort money from my family and we’re not “buying” our child (please learn to not say this to an adoptive family – it’s not true and it’s an awful, illegal concept).

Each dollar we are spending on this adoption is tied to a specific cost and it basically boils down to (1) Home Study, Fingerprinting & Document Charges, (2) Agency and Legal Fees and (3) Travel and Accommodations. I just read a short-but-thorough blog post about this subject – will you please click that link and read it? And pretty please leave a comment here if you learned anything??

Why is Adoption So Expensive by Meg H Miller

Thanks as always for supporting us in bringing home our little one. If you care to help us financially, we would absolutely love your help as we work toward our $4,000 matching grant goal on our Brittany’s Hope Seedling Gift site.