It has been a couple months since we posted anything - the time has been flying! For a good part of December, our kitchen and dining room became a jar-assembling factory - it got quite hectic around Christmas, but at the same time, it was a huge blessing - selling Meaningful Mixes has been a great fundraiser for us, both through our church and at my (Jen's) work. We greatly appreciate everyone's support.
At the end of December, we drove to Harrisburg to get our remaining documents certified and then sent them to the Chinese Consulate in New York to get authenticated. We hit a little bump in the road at that point because of how I had copied the documents that were sent to New York (it's a long story), so we ended up having to take another trip to Harrisburg to get those documents re-certified. I was not expecting that and it was a very unpleasant surprise to have to do that again, but it didn't set us back much and we got our authenticated documents back a couple week ago. We then sent our dossier to America World, who then sent it to China. When that happened, we were told it could be two to six weeks until we would receive our "log-in date" (LID). It was quite a nice surprise when we received it last week! Our log-in date is February 6, 2013. The log-in date is used by the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCCWA) to track a family's process during the waiting stage. Most referrals require a family to have a log-in date in order to be considered for that referral, so we are now in a position where we could start receiving referrals.
We don't really know what this part of the journey will look like. We don't know exactly when we could receive a referral. If we would decline a referral, we don't know when we would receive the next one. Our goal during this time of waiting is to continue reading the books we are supposed to read as required by America World, as well as continuing to fundraise and do whatever we can to make the time useful. We would really appreciate prayer for patience and for trusting in the Lord's perfect timing. We also would appreciate prayers for unity - we have said that when we receive a referral, we both need to truly feel that the Lord is calling us to adopt that child. If we both don't feel that way, we will decline the referral. It sounds simple now, but I know when we receive that referral, it could be emotional and we need to be strong and trusting that the Lord will show us who our daughter is.
