One Step Closer...

This has been a week filled with good news! On Tuesday, we received updated pictures...3 of them and a video of Jack Everett playing! What a blessing that was! David & I were so anxious to receive more pictures of our sweet boy. He is just absolutely beautiful & we can't wait to share his pictures with everyone. Today he also turned one month old...Happy 1 month JE....our hearts are overflowing with love for you and we can't wait to have you in our arms!

Today, we received wonderful news...our FBI checks have been cleared and are in the mail to us!!!! This is such joyful news, because as soon as we receive these in our hands, we can send them to our social worker so she can sign off on our homestudy! So, what does all of this mean?? It means, it will then be COMPLETE...we will send it back to Taiwan so the translation can be finished and it will then be sent back to us...in Chinese! We can't wait to see it...our life story.....in Chinese. After we receive it, it will have to be notarized three times. Once in Rankin County, then by the Secretary of State, and then again in Atlanta...what a process! The adoption world is definitely not green, there is TONS of paperwork :) Of course, it is all worth it! Once all of the notary paperwork is done, our homestudy will go back to its final place...Taitung, Taiwan and go before the courts! We are praying that this process will not take too long. 

I have talked to other adoptive parents and have read many blogs, and now understand the feelings they have shared with me about waiting on bringing your child home. When you first begin the adoption process you are consumed with completing paperwork and gathering many documents....this keeps you super busy! After this work is done you begin the wait for referral stage. Once you receive your referral (your child), this is where it really becomes difficult. One of my weaknesses, is that I am not very patient. My mind right now, is only focused on bringing our son home as soon as possible. It is so hard, because we have no control over what happens from this point forward. Our work is done...now we just wait on others to do their work...this is what I find to be the most difficult for me right now. I have NO control. I pray daily for the Lord to take this feeling away from me, as I know that He will bring Jack Everett home according to His time...not mine. Please pray with us, for our son to be home according to God's plan and pray for the staff that is taking such wonderful care of him.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July! Happy Birthday, America!

Blessings,

Sherra 

   

Dinner With Mr. Chen

Well Sherra and I just finished a fantastic dinner at Mr. Chen's Authentic Chinese Cooking.  If you have not tried Mr. Chen's, you must!  It is my new favorite place to eat!  It also has an Oriental Supermarket connected.  The Supermarket has an abundance of authentic Oriental foods (rice, noodles, desserts, fresh seafood...just about everything you could imagine) and other Oriental products.  So back to our meal....tonight we had the Kung Pao shrimp, shredded curry chicken, spring rolls, and crab rangoons.  All of the food was great but we particularly liked the Kung Pao shrimp and I absolutely loved the crab rangoons!  After we finished our meal we walked into the market to look around.  Of course what does Sherra want to look at....the SWEETS!  While we were shopping we met this nice older gentleman who gave us many suggestions on the best sweets to buy!  He said that he was not supposed to eat many sweets, but his shopping cart was FULL!  We ended up buying four different sweets/desserts to try out.  White Chocolate Yogurt Wafers - we noticed after we left that these are made in Taipei, Taiwan.  They are very good and probably my favorite...Grape Gummy candy...Pocky which is Chocolate cream covered biscuit sticks, very good also...and Taiwanese homemade almond cookies, very good too, I think these are Sherra's favorites.  Going to Mr. Chen's and the market makes me feel like I am in Taiwan.  It makes me feel closer to Jack Everett.  I guess because they are both authentic Oriental establishments and we are eating and shopping with Asian families, I tend to feel as if I am a part of the culture.  Needless to say...we are excited about our son!

Getting caught up to speed

Hey guys! David & I have decided to start this blog together, so each of us will be able to share our thoughts and our journey with you. Today, I will start. First, I will catch everyone up on our story. Our adoption journey started years ago. Since I was in college, I have had a passion to one day adopt a child. Lucky for me, the Lord led me to David, who also shared in this passion.  We were married in March of 2003, and of course everyone soon after began asking..when are y'all going to have children?  Since we were only 22 years old at the time we were married, we were absolutley in no hurry to do such a thing!  We both agreed that we wanted to accomplish our educational goals first, so we finished college and last year we both enrolled in graduate school. David will graduate in August with his Master's in Education Administration (way to go Dave!) and I am scheduled to graduate with my Master's as a Family Nurse Practitioner in May 2012.

As each year passed....and they pass much quickly these days, we began talking more and more about our family.  We knew we wanted to adopt and have biological children...we just didn't know what the Lord's plans were for us and how we would have a family....sometimes our plans and HIS plans are so different :) We prayed over this for many years, and knew that He would bless us with children (whether biological or through adoption) according to His plans and at the time He had planned for us. We feel certain, that all along, His plans have been for us to adopt our children and we cannot express the excitement we feel that we have been chosen by Him to do so!!   

David would agree with me, when I call myself somewhat of a "control freak"....I don't mean in a crazy way, but I do like to be in control of things and am very much a planner.  In Sunday school today, we talked about how much we as a society try to control everything and how hard it is to stop the worrying about tomorrow, and just let our Father take care of us.  He knows what we need, before we even ask and He will always take care of us. One of my favorite bible verses, Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  I have a bracelet that I wear daily that has this enscribed, it is my reminder to let go and let God.  

So, about our adoption...I am kind of a rambler, so I will work to keep my thoughts clear for you guys! Ok! After years of not knowing how we would have children, our prayers were answered in January. We were at church one Sunday and were singing the opening hymn, when I felt a strong feeling in my "gut"(an overwhelming sensation went through my body) that it was TIME...I was 100% ready to start this journey! As we sat down after singing, David leaned over and whispered in my ear..."I am ready to adopt"....I wanted to shout with excitement, because little did David know, that the Lord had just spoken to me as well....our God is awesome! I could hardly wait to tell David after church that I too was ready! 

And so, after weeks of praying and asking our Father to lead us to the country of our child, our prayers were answered in February....Taiwan! We received our referral on June 10th for a healthy baby boy. We are honored and overcome with joy as we announce that we have been chosen to be the parents of the most precious boy...Jack Everett Williams!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Where are we now? Right now, we are awaiting our FBI background checks to be completed...it has been 3 weeks and the wait time is estimated to be 7 weeks. I called Friday and have requested them to be expedited, because as soon as we receive these, our homestudy can be finalized and we can hopefully receive our first court date!! If you don't know what a homestudy is, it is your life story (ours is 13 pages!) that is presented to the courts. It is THE document!  The sooner we can have this document finalized, the closer we can be to bringing Jack Everett home! Right now...it is "guestimated" to be Novemeber when we will be able to travel to Taiwan and bring him home.  However, with the adoption world...anything can happen! Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this journey!  

Many Blessings,

Sherra