Chinese New Year 2012

January 23rd was the "official" Chinese New Year day. We had to celebrate. Anytime there is a reason to celebrate a holiday, I am all over it. : ) So this year our family celebrated by going to a Chinese restaurant in Mankato on Saturday, the 21st. We stuffed ourselves with some excellent food. Did I mention it was buffet style. Oh and did I also mention that this Chinese buffet had one section of American food and yep.....my kids were all over that section of the buffet line. Oh well,  at least there was something for everyone to enjoy. Here is the best part of this day: As we walked into the restaurant I noticed a poster advertising The Mankato Chinese Culture Institute and thought it sounded interesting. There were no more flyers left in the pocket of the poster but there was a website. When we sat down at our table and I waited for my turn at the buffet line, I looked up the website. This little place has a Chinese language school for kids, a cooking class for adults, and Martial Arts classes. That was neat in itself, but as I was looking at the website I noticed a familiar face on one of the pictures. I had to look closer. Sure enough, it was a picture of a doctor I work with on Fridays at the hospital. I found out he and his wife are the directors of this little institute. He and his wife are from Taiwan and they speak Mandarin Chinese and have one daughter that they have taught Mandarin also. They started this language school so that their daughter could have more interaction with other Chinese children and learn the language. How awesome is that! Of course I have had multiple conversations with Dr. Li about China, the history, the current government, things to see over there, the culture, etc. He has been a wealth of knowledge for me as I learn about China and the culture. So very neat how certain people are placed in our lives at certain times.

At the China Buffet eating pizza and onion rings : )

Mmmmm, this was my plate of goodness!

Knowing that this place exists so close to us, it will be nice to be able to bring Lucy there just to be with other kids that she can get to know. The class is only on Saturday mornings for 2 hours. I am not expecting her to be able to pick up the language easily, especially since we do not speak it, nor do I know if I could ever learn such a complicated language, but I think allowing her to know about her culture and where she came from will be important as she grows up. Since we have taken classes on how to handle cultural diversity in a family when adopting internationally, my eyes have been opened to the importance of being honest and open with the child about where she came from and how to answer questions that will come up in the future. This place in Mankato will be a great place to start that with Lucy.

On Monday, January 23rd, our kids woke up in the morning to little red bags (red envelopes) with money in them.  In China, families give the kids red envelopes with money in them with the thinking that it will give them wealth in the New Year.

There are all kinds of customs they do to prepare for the New Year like clean their houses thoroughly, from top to bottom, with the thinking that they are cleaning out all the bad luck from the past year. (Oops, I didn't get to the cleaning part of the celebrating. : )) People get fresh haircuts for the new year. Families travel to the place where they grew up for family gatherings with, what sounds like, a lot of food. There are parades with dragons and lanterns. They shoot off fireworks. There are so many different ways they celebrate and for different reasons. I started thinking, "do the people in China even know why they do some of these traditional activities for the New Year? Or are they just doing what was passed down to them, like we do here?" Why did we ever start watching a ball fall for our New Year? What is with the kiss at the strike of midnight for our New Year? Anyway, a lot of the traditional activities of the Chinese New Year revolves around legends and luck and wealth.

The celebration on Monday did not end with red envelopes. I made Chinese dumplings for Ian and Aiden's class and I read the legend of the Chinese Zodiac Calendar and how each animal came to be a part of calendar. You can read the story I read here. Ian wanted to help with the story, so he drew pictures of each animal. He handed out a circle with a different animal on it to his classmates. As I read the story, the student would bring their picture up. The end product looked like this:

You can see that he colored in the dragon because, he said, this is the year of the dragon so it needed to be in color. : ) After I read the story, Ian and Aiden's teacher asked how they could pray for Lucy and our adoption. I mentioned my requests and a student raised his hand so he could pray. It was such a sweet prayer including a prayer for the people of China to know who Jesus is.

We continued celebrating at home with reading books and eating some more Chinese food. Then we went outside to light our sparklers. Well, it turns out that I bought a whole bunch of "punks" instead of sparklers. That was kind of a bummer. We ended up just going through our stash of leftover fire crackers and the boys had fun blowing up fire crackers. About a week before all this we did light some sparklers outside and I ended up getting some pictures.

One of our new books about the Chinese New Year

It was a fun time of celebrating Lucy's culture and I see such excitement in Ian and Aiden now that they have been studying China in school. I hope this is preparing them for having Lucy in our family.
Here are some other drawings Ian has been working on lately. I was absolutely shocked when I saw that he had copied this from a book we have. It is the numbers 1 - 76 in Chinese. Much better than I could do.

We still have more celebrating to do. This Saturday our family was invited to a Chinese New Year celebration for families that have adopted from China in Sioux Falls, SD. A friend (more like a daughter of a lady I know from church whom we have connected with over email and the phone) invited us to this. I am excited to meet her in person and other families that have been in the same "waiting period" we are currently in and get their perspective on the adoption process, being on the other side of it. It should be a fun time.

Many have asked if we have heard anymore from China. The answer, unfortunately, is no. We just wait.


 

January 19, 2012 - Whew! What a week, and it is only Thursday. : ) There are so many moments that have happened this week that deserves mentioning and making much of my Lord!

First, as I wrote in the last post, our dossier went to China. It was hand delivered to the CCCWA on Monday the 16th. In an email that we received, it stated that it could take up to 3 weeks for us to receive our LID (Log In Date). A LID means that China has acknowleged our dossier and will do what they need to do in order to get us matched with Lucy. A LID is a HUGE, GIANT, MEGA step in this process. Since our process thus far has been slower than we have anticipated, I expected to wait 3 weeks for our LID. On Wednesday the 18th we received our LID. AMAZING!

Another amazing moment happened on Tuesday. I came home from work, checked the mailbox and a letter from Show Hope was in the mail. We had applied for a grant from Show Hope in October and this was the letter we had been waiting for. We were given a grant that will help us tremendously with our adoption costs. Praise the Lord! 

I want to stamp this week in my memory. I need to put up a 'stone of remembrance' to remember what my God has provided so that in those dark days of despair and when those feelings of hopelessness come I can remember what God has done. He does care, even about the little details of life. He shows up when I need Him most and He never leaves me. I look back at some of my blog posts, Complete Devastation and Be Careful What You Pray for..... and I rejoice at what God has done this week. Yes, we still have a long wait (but the long wait is getting shorter : )) and anything could happen at any moment with our finances, but my God has made my heart glad and once again made my jaw drop at what He, and only He, can do! I do not only want to rejoice when things are going as I think they should go, I also want to rejoice when he puts me through trials because I know that He will bring about good in those trials. We have one of those rub on thingys (is that a word??) on our wall in our living room. It says, "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS." Philippians 4:4. This is what I am striving after even in those trials I think I am going through.

So here is what is going on now in our process: We have our LID. We wait for our LOA (Letter of Approval) from China. I have seen this take anywhere from 2 months to 5 months to get after a LID. After that I will know more of what we need to do. (I just kind of take things step by step according to what my agency tells me to do.) After the LOA we wait for TA (travel approval). Then we get our little Lucy. Our agency has said that from LID to Travel approval it takes approximately 4-6 months. We are really praying we can be in China by June for Lucy's 2nd birthday.

Our boys are getting really excited now about bringing Lucy home. I am going in to their classroom on Monday to help with a little Chinese New Year celebration. Ian, my creative one, is helping me with a little presentation on the Chinese Zodiac Calender legend. I am also going to attempt to make my first ever dumplings. We went to an Asian grocery store in town yesterday to look for a few things and the boys loved it. This is helping them get excited. It is so awesome that they are learning about China and the culture in school this year. It is actually helping me learn some things too. : )

I leave with this verse that Ian read in our family devotions the other night:

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be GLORY for ever and ever. Amen."  -Philippians 4:19-20

Soli Deo Gloria!

Dossier Done

January 13, 2012 - Today we received a wonderful email for CCAI:

"CONGRATULATIONS, Jason & Laura,

Here’s the news you’ve long been waiting for—your dossier was sent to China today (1/13/2012)!  "

What does this mean? All the running around, making appointments, printing out papers, getting papers sealed, getting fingerprints, etc. that we have been doing the past 11 months is done! Now, what may be the hardest part of this process, begins. We wait. We wait for CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) to recieve our dossier and acknowledge that it is on their desk and start their end of the process.  

Let me tell an amazing story, once again,  that happened earlier in the week. On Wednesday I recieved an email from CCAI that said we were missing 3 items needed to complete our dossier. All 3 items had to do with our home study agency. Immediately, I emailed our home study case worker. After sending the email I received one of those "out of office" replies. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! She was not going to be in the office for another week. This was a frustrating day! On Thursday morning I was picking up some groceries after a meeting. Jason called me. He asked if I had looked at the email from CCAI. "No! Why?" Jason replied, "They have everything they need. Our dossier is complete and has moved onto translation and will be sent to China in the next few days." WHAT! How did that happen? It was explained to me that it was an oversight and everything is where it needs to be. They were moving our dossier forward. YAHOOOO!!!! Almost simultaneously, Jason and I said, Praise the Lord! Of course I was a little cautious in my excitement because I needed to know for sure that our dossier was complete before I fully allowed myself to be excited. The email we have recieved today completes my excitement!

We now wait for what is called a LID (Log In Date) from China. This usually takes about 3 weeks. A LID basically means China will work on getting us matched with our little Lucy. They review all our information and there is a lot more involved that I do not fully understand at this time. : ) We are just so excited for finally coming to this milestone. The only bad news is we could encounter some delays because January 23rd is the beginning of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Sometimes this holiday is celebrated for 15 days. Oh don't worry, we will be celebrating here, just maybe not 15 days worth. : )

It is time to get serious about redecorating Isabelle's room. I was holding off on this until we were done with our dossier. While I wait I would like to get her room ready for a roommate. : ) Right now I am in the "I need to bring all my ideas together" phase and then start executing the plan. We will see what the end result will be.

We are getting closer little Lucy!! Hang on, we are coming for you!


Soli Deo Gloria! 

Christmas - Herman Style

December 28, 2011 - After our whirlwind of papers made it to the post office, we grabbed a few hours of shut eye and then headed off on a road trip. Destination: Indiana. We were going to spend 5 days with our Herman side of the family for Christmas. This trip is one of the highlights of our kids' year. I must say they handle the nearly 12 hour drive rather well (thank you Adventures in Odyssey and DVD players). I always look forward to time with my family, but it never seems long enough. My sister comes from Maryland with her family and we all meet in Indiana to spend as much time together as we can. Our time in Indiana usually involves shopping with my mom, my 2 sisters, and my sister-in-law, eating great food, talking, playing games, and keeping all the cousins under control. : )

Unfortunately the stomach bug traveled with us to Indiana. The first night we arrived in Indiana Aiden was up all night getting sick. Not a good way to start our time together. The bug traveled to several in the family throughout the week. My brother, his wife, and their son were out of commission for a few days. Bummer!

It was a wonderful time together! The support that my family has shown me over the years is amazing and they continue to be supportive even from miles away. Here are few pictures of our time together:

All the kids waiting patiently to open gifts

My fun niece, Hannah Banana

a beautiful blanket that my sister made for Lucy

A new ornament for Lucy. A traditional gift that my mom gives to all the grandkids.

This time Aiden read the from Luke 2
  

I think my parents hit a home run with these jackets as gifts! Sorry, that was bad!
My brother in law Jon, my brother Dave, Jason, and my brother in law Brady

My oldest niece Emily. I remember getting the news that I was an aunt! Where has the time gone?




My brother Dave, me, my sister Julie, and my sister Debbie



A goofy moment from our family photo shoot



mi madre y mi padre : )

Happy New Year from the Herman side!

Sealed

"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his SEAL OF APPROVAL."  -John 6:27


December 27, 2011 - Today while I was at work I received a POD (positive of the day) text from Jason: "Our authenticated I-800A is here!!!"
My first reaction: WOOHOO!!! This was the last piece of paper we needed to complete our dossier. Immediately I left work on a mission! I had to print off pictures of our family and some of just me and Jason, make photocopies of our entire dossier, and review everything before going to the post office (before it closed) to send it off to our agency. Oh, did I mention we were leaving for Indiana the next morning to celebrate Christmas with my family, so I still had to pack for that trip. : )

Whoa! Maybe I should backtrack and explain what some of this adoption language is. Believe me, I have never heard of such words until going through this process. I will try my best to explain my limited understanding of it all.

Dossier:  a collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject (usually a person's record)
In other words, a dossier is our lives spelled out on paper.

completed dossier plus copies

Every one of these documents had to go through a "sealing" process. What does a sealed paper look like? First the paper is notarized by a notary public. That was simple enough. Next, the paper has to be certified by the Secretary of State of the state the document originated from. Well, two of our papers (marriage certificate and my birth certificate) came from Indiana. I am happy to report that Indiana does not charge a cent for these certifications and they were quick in getting our papers back to us. Way to go Hoosier land! : ) Finally, the papers need to be authenticated (to establish as genuine or valid) at the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, for us. The Consulate that authenticates your papers depends on what state you live. Some papers go to Washington, D.C. in which case another step needs to be taken in the sealing process. Whew! So glad we sent ours to Chicago!

Here is what an authenticated seal looks like:

I cannot read Chinese, but when we recieved that last piece of authenticated paperwork, it was a beautiful sight!

I cannot help but think of the verses in which we as believers bear God's seal:

"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his SEAL OF APPROVAL." -John 6:27.

"Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory." -Ephesians 1:13b - 14.

God our Father has placed His seal on us and calls us His own. Instead of stickers and some writing being on us, the Holy Spirit and Jesus' blood is our seal. In Revelation 7 there is a lot of documentation of God placing his seal on his followers. In my bible commentary for Revelation 7:2 it says:

"A seal on a scroll or document identified and protected its contents. God places his own seal on his followers, indentifying them as his own and guaranteeing his protection over their souls. This shows how valuable we are to him. Our physical bodies may be beaten, maimed, or even destroyed, but nothing can harm our souls when we have been sealed by God. " (NIV Life Application Bible)

Remember the definition of authenticate - to establish as genuine or valid. This is the type of seal God places on us as a follower of Him. When we have that seal on us it proves that we are genuine and valid followers of Him and we are protected by Him.

I am constantly blown away at how this entire adoption process teaches me more and more about who I am in Christ and what He has done for me. I am a sealed daughter of the King and He has given me an inheritance that is beyond understanding.

**Our papers arrived at our agency headquarters on Thursday, December 29th. It is going through a critical review process. What they have told us is that no news is good news. After a thorough review our dossier will go through a summary translation and then the entire paperwork is bound like a book. After this is completed it is sent to China and then the 4 - 7 month wait begins. I wanted to share some of the pictures we sent in with all our dossier. I have to laugh because I procrastinated in getting these pictures taken so I asked a few people to just hurry and take some pictures with us. We had to provide 8 pictures of me and Jason with other people in the picture and then some more of just me and Jason. Thank you to those that we asked to take a picture with us. : )

Summer 2010

Christmas card picture 2011

Our good friends, Nathan and Megan and their daughter Jessah!!

Quick Ian! Take a picture of us!

Us with Mom and Dad Penner

Us with Karen and Aaron

Christmas card picture 2010



We look happy enough! Do you think we can impress China with our happy smiles? Let's hope so!

Christmas - Penner Style

December 25, 2011 - Christmas Day!!

We had a unique Christmas morning. Unique and one that I would rather forget. : ( We were all getting ready for breakfast with the Penner family when Ian came up to me and said his stomach was hurting. I told him to go lay down again so maybe he would feel better. He said he was fine and went downstairs. Well, he wasn't so fine. He was getting sick all over our kitchen floor. I am thankful that he chose to be sick on the hardwood floor instead of carpet. : ) That was the beginning of our Christmas excitement.

Here are just a few pictures of Christmas, Penner style:

Ian reading Luke 2 at The Penner Christmas. He was feeling better at this point.

Izzy opening her......of course, pink laptop : )

Aiden in his new bathrobe, which he did not want to take off all week : )

Gotta enjoy a warm Minnesota Christmas Day with a little baseball : )

All the Penner Grandkids!! "Yay!" says Grant and Isabelle



Could be the last Christmas picture with only 3 kids by the tree : )


We celebrated Christmas with the Penner side of the family pretty much all week long. Karen (Jason's sister), Aaron, Grant, and Wesley come from North Carolina. Mark (Jason's brother) comes from South Dakota and we spend time as a family. My favorite part of this family gathering is the "highlights of the year" portion. Let me explain: We go around the room or table and the adults in the family give their spiritual and personal highlight of the year. I enjoy hearing how each member of the family is being challenged, encouraged, and brought closer to our Lord throughout the year. This year my "highlight" has been recognizing how Jesus related to people regardless of their economic status, their physical appearance, or their "loveability". He developed relationships with all kinds of people and He did it in a way that was loving, respectful, sometimes witty, and yet always seemed to know what their need was and fulfill that need. If a person needed to change their ways and be held accountable, Jesus knew what to say and people listened to Him. This past year I seemed to be focusing on relationships and developing those deep, intimate, accountable type relationships. It was time to get real with some people. It was time to ask people to hold me accountable to my thoughts and actions. It was time for me to pray for and encourage other women in the body. It was time for me to step out of my comfort zone and befriend some of those "not so pretty" people according to our society's way of thinking and this has been a highlight of my year!

I write about this not because I am trying to puff myself up and look like I have it all together. I so do not! I still struggle in so many areas (ask any of my accountability friends). I write this because I want Lucy (and all our kids, for that matter) to look back at this and remember what our family is always striving after. We want to be 'real', loving, challenged, growing, and learning each and every year, each and every week, each and every day! This is the family we want our kids to grow up in and pray that they too desire this for their own lives.

 Lucy was not far from our minds during the Penner Christmas celebration. I even opened a present for her from Grandpa and Grandma Penner. Of course, I took a picture:

A perfect pink dress for the summer when she is home with us! : )

Merry Christmas from the Penners! : )

Ian gradually felt better as the day went on. Unfortunately, we passed whatever bug he had to the rest of the family. Gotta love family time....in sickness and in health. : )

Soli Deo Gloria!

Christmas - Party of Five

December 24, 2011 - (Remember I am back tracking through our Christmas celebrations.)

Today our family of 5 had our own little Christmas. We have our own little traditions in our family that includes breakfast at a restaurant (so mama doesn't have to cook or clean : ) ), reading from Luke 2 in the bible, the kids opening 3 presents each, and just spending the day as a family. This year while we were reading the bible story, I couldn't help but think that this is our last Christmas as a family of 5. I wondered if Lucy even has a chance to celebrate Christmas in the orphanage she is staying. I wondered how differently our lives are going to be a year from now, Lord willing. After the Luke 2 reading, we prayed as a family thanking God for all He has blessed us with. I had tears in my eyes while I prayed for Lucy on this day. I was missing her. I was full of anxious thoughts about her safety and her health and if anyone was showing her the love that only a family can show her on this day of celebration in our family.

After our little celebration we went to Christmas Eve church service. Earlier in the week our pastor had asked if we would talk a little during the service about what captures our heart about Christmas this year. We declined talking during the service because we weren't positive that we would be at the service, but I did think about this question. My first thought is how blown away I am at the fact that the God of the universe, the creator of all things, the One who triumphs over all things would so willingly send His Son into this ugly, sin-filled earth to give hope for an eternal future. He did not leave us here as orphans, but calls Himself our Father and it is only by Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection that we too can be adopted into His family.

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." -John 14:18

During this adoption journey, we, as a family, have enjoyed learning about Chinese culture. The boys are learning about China in school this year which is so cool! Anyway, Jason was at an office pizza party and one of the employees sang this song:

The employee gave Jason the music for the song and at the bottom of the music a little commentary says this:

"In 1936 a committee representing six Protestant churches in China produced a Chinese-language hymnal entitled Hymns of Universal Praise. An effort was made to include, among the 550 songs, many Christian hymns of Chinese origin; but in the Christmas section, this is the only one with both words and music composed by Orientals."

The song is called Midnight, Sleeping Bethlehem. The poem words were written by Yang Ching Chin and the tune was composed by Liang Chien Fong. I thought is was a pretty song and interesting information about the song. It may become a song we traditionally play in our house during Christmas. : )

Soli Deo Gloria!