Emily

Meet our daughter Emily! So blessed to have her in our arms after waiting sooooo long. Initial meeting went very  well,  no tears from anyone except me (Jim)! Once we got to our hotel room she cried for awhile and then settled down. We have had her most of the day now and are getting to know one and other. After dinner, and about 5 hours with us Emily is vibrant, happy and very interactive. She now goes to both of us very happily. She has plenty of personality. Emily walks with a very pronounced limp, and we won't know until her initial medical assessment if the limp is from the club foot, spina bifida or both. She and Zach are getting along great!

Reflections on Chongqing

The Chinese character on the license plate is the character for Chongqing (pronounced Chongching). The name means double happiness. If any of you are interested, I can tell you how the city got that name- interesting story going back to the Ching Dynasty. This city has been our host for the last week, and a wonderful host it has been. As I reflect on our time in Chongqing, I am draw to the happiness of the people and the kindness they have show us. We have very much enjoyed our time here.

We have been staying very near to the city center, but it is not at all like the innercities in America. I have not heard one police siren, and have only seen a couple of police officers all week. There are approximately 35 million people in this city and its surrounding area. I have felt very safe and Betty and I have walked about freely where ever we wanted to go. Everywhere we walked, the people smiled and treated us very well. I was taken by surprise by how many people speak English here. Communication was never difficult whether or not we were with our guide. Chongqing and its people have been incredible.

We stayed in the hotel Le Meridian. It is a 5 star hotel and without a doubt the nicest place I have ever stayed. We had a breakfast buffet included with our room cost which included a huge selection each morning of American and Chinese food. The staff was amazing and cared for anything we asked about.

Michael was our adoption guide here in Chongqing. He was the greatest. He had everything lined out for us from the moment he picked us up at the airport. He never tired of answering questions or running us anywhere we needed to go. He is a very special man and we are in his debt for everything related to our adoption of Zach. We are happy to be moving on as our hearts are anxious to be home with Zach and Emily. But... we are very grateful to all we met here. Truly, Chongqing is a city of double happiness.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Hefei and on Monday we will finally hold Emily in our arms.

Visit to Zach's Finding Place and Orphanage

Today we made a very emotional visit to the place that Zach was found and to his orphanage. experience it with us through pictures:

These first three pictures show the entrance to an "underpass" that allows pedestrians to cross a busy street by walking under it.

This is what the underpass looks like during the busy part of the day. Zach was left here very early in the morning when he was two days old.

 

The outside of the orphanage building. Cannot be more truly stated "where there is love there is hope". We found much love for the children inside by all the staff.

Our first picture of Zach was of him sitting on this slide.

Zach's crib.

Zach and his nanny

Harmonious 24 Hours

In China the first 24 hours of your adoption is called the "Harmonious 24 Hours" and it concludes with the finalization of your adoption! At 2 PM China Time Zone and  3 AM US Central Time Zone 15 April 2014, Zachary Chase Porter legally became our son in the eyes of the laws of China and of the United States of America. When our return flight to the United States touches down in San Francisco he will also be officially a citizen of the United States of America. This new little man of mine is ours to steward on behalf of our great God by whose hand this has been made possible.  It is HE who is Zach's true father and tonight we praise Him.

As we approached the building of the Adoption authorities, so many emotions race through me - but mostly the emotion of JOY. The kind of joy that  makes it hard to breath, harder still to look through eyes that fight back tears, and yes harder still not to scream out our thanks to God who is the giver of every perfect gift.

On our arrival we were asked to pose for a picture, then a few moments later we went into another room,  we were asked a few question to promise we would care for, nurture and educate our son. We promised to do so (reminded me very much of a child dedication ceremony at church with different questions!). We signed our acceptance of Zach as our son, placed our finger print over the signature. They added one of Zach's fingerprints, An finally an official proclaimed to us that he was then our son. Just like that, and he is ours. We are so very blessed. We took many picture and returned to our hotel. It was a day that will be etched in my mind and on my heart- FOREVER.

Rejoice with us! Tomorrow we will visit his orphanage and the place where he was abandoned. This will be a hard thing to do.

Warming up!

After we went out for dinner last night and got back to the hotel, Zach warmed up to everyone a lot! We were able to tickle and play and were blessed with smiles and laughter. Here are a couple of pictures after his bath! He is an AMAZING sleeper. We put him to bed at 8 and he tried to climb out of the crib for about 20 minutes, then when he realized escape was not going to happen he laid down, covered himself with his blanket and woke up 11 hours later! His nursery workers taught him to say moma and papa - this morning when we woke up he gave as his first use of these words- melts your heart!

Had local food last night. Chongqing is known throughout China for its spicy food. I (Jim) love spicy food..... the reputation is well deserved!  It cleared my sinuses to say the least. Hottest Chinese I have ever had, MMMMMM!

Zach's Gotcha Day

What an amazing day. We went with one other family to get our children. As expected Zach was scared and upset initially! He is settling in very well and doesn't want to let go of his mommy! Daddy- welllll he is still warming up to me! They were very sure to tell us that Zach is a VERY active little boy- looks like big brother Isaiah may get a run for his money.

 

 

 

 

Arrived Chongquin

Arrived safely in Chongqing.  12:02 AM here- need sleep and will post much more tomorrow after we meet Zach. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. Visited Great Wall earlier today.

Sights of Beijing

Arrive Beijing safely. Here are a few photos of our sightseeing today. Having connectivity problems that will limit how many photos we can post.

Tiananmen Square

 

 

Rickshaw tour

 

 

Entrance to the Forbidden City

On Our Way

Only three more days until we travel. Soon we will hold Emily and Zach in our arms. We have waited soooooooo long! We will be meeting Zach first and then a week later Emily. Next post will be from CHINA!

Final update

Last week we received our Final Update from China on both Emily and Zach!  FINAL UPDATE. I really like the sound of that! We are currently awaiting our Article 5 back form the US Consulate in China. This will come on 20 March. Once we have that we can set our actual travel date. We are getting VERY excited, but also realizing how much we have left to do before we leave. So grateful to our God that our time to travel is so near. 

Progress

We received our I 800 yesterday!  Praise God.  It is getting close to time to FINALLY go and bring Emily and Zach home.

Zachary

When we were sharing the news about God adding Emily to our lives, someone said "Only one? You never adopt just one at a time." As it turns out they were right! God has now added Zachary to our family. We will become his parents this spring when we travel to China to adopt both Emily and Zach. Rejoice with us!

China Update

Things continue to progress with our adoption of Emily. Thank you for your prayers. We have done everything we need to do prior to our dossier going to China. We are awaiting our I800 from CIS, but we have done everything we need to accomplish for CIS and are just waiting for the document to arrive. THEN, our dossier will go to China! We are very excite and can’t wait to travel. Time seems to be moving soooo slow. God has been gracious and continues to answer our prayers.

We now want to share a new prayer request.  We had our China home study written for two children and so we asked recently for approval from China to adopt two children. We received word this week that China has approved us for two children! We have a fairly narrow window of time now to be matched with a second child. Once this time window ends, we will not be able to adopt two children. There are so many prayer request associated with this new approval. Please pray for:

God’s wisdom to know if we should proceed with the request for the second child.

God’s provisioning for the additional costs.
That God will show us the specific child he intends for us.
That we could be matched with a child in the same orphanage or town where Emily is now.

China Bound

God is good all the time. All the time God is good. I have shared with a very few that since returning home with Angie and Jose, I have had an overwhelming burden on my heart that God intended another daughter for Betty and I. I have been praying and seeking His wisdom and direction. We recently found out that China would be open to our family adopting a special needs child , and we immediately felt God moving us (OK actually it felt more like a big shove) toward the country of China. We began to work with an agency with a strong China program. We began to look at pictures of waiting children with special needs. Adopting a special needs child is so consistent with the call we have had for several years to adopt the children who are not "wanted". In the heart of God and in our hearts, they are sooooo very wanted and loved. Today we received approval from the Government of china to adopt Emily!!! We are not allowed to post her location or her Chinese name, but we can share her picture. She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and we feel so blessed to have the privilege to steward her for our Heavenly Father. She was abandoned as an infant and has been in orphanages since. She is now 4 years old and will be 5 by the time we get to travel sometime this coming spring.

The Rest of the Story

Our blog has been uncharacteristically quiet since two weeks before we left Colombia.

We left Colombia under extraordinary circumstances, and at the time we felt we could not post the details of our last days in Colombia. It has now been a few months since the end of the nationwide judicial  strike. We know many people have followed our adoption and we felt terrible not being able to let all of you know the mighty way that God intervened to bring us home- all of us. The purpose of this blog entry it to bring everyone up to date. We feel like enough time has passed that no one will suffer harm if we share the complete story. In sharing this with all of you we will by intent leave out  names and places so that those who helped us will not be at any risk of retribution.

Where to begin....  The last entry of any substance was on 26 October.  At that point we were more than a month into the judicial strike and I (Jim) was scheduled to leave for the US in one more week. As Betty and I prayerfully considered our options we felt that Betty could not come back as scheduled a week later without the strike ending. 

A few more days went by and nothing was resolved with the strike...  By Tuesday, I began to dialog with our agency's in country representative having recognized that we were running out of both time and money to continue to wait on a strike that could continue for weeks to come.  We came to the conclusion that by Friday we would have to return Anyi and Jose to the orphanage and hope that we could return for them after the strike was resolved. Our hearts were breaking. There is no other  way to say it than that. These two children had already become such a part of us that we felt as if we were ripping out our hearts to even consider such a thing. The stark reality of our situation was that we had to do something, and we could not think of any other options. Know that we were on our knees on separate continents pleading with God to bring the strike to an end. As difficult as this was going to be for us,  we knew it was going to be even worse for Anyi and Jose.

Wednesday came and went with no change - and Thursday morning as well. I had placed a call on Wednesday and said we would have to return the kids to the orphanage by 10:00 am on Friday to make my flight on Saturday. By Thursday morning all I could do was watch them through tear filled eyes. This was going to be the hardest thing I would have ever done in my life.  It was clear that God was NOT going to answer our prayer to end the strike. Sometimes God is like that, He answers our prayers with a no.  As when we lost the referral for Carolina and Neydali, I could only answer Lord I will trust you. But still I wept.

I had lunch with Anyi and Jose on Thursday thinking it would be the last lunch we would have together for a long time...  After lunch, we were going to watch a movie together when the phone rang. When I answered, it was our in country representative on the phone. There had been several calls like this with no real results. This was a different call. Lucia said "I have good news." She went on to explain that our lawyer had made arrangements for our adoption to be moved to another city hours away from Cali. In this city a judge had agreed to finalize our adoption even though the strike was still on. In Colombia the term for the final adoption decree is "Sentencia". While you are there you desperately  long to hear this word- Sentencia.  So I told Lucia that this was good news and reluctantly asked her how long it would take to get to Sentencia by moving to a new court (normally, it takes 3 weeks for the court process).  Lucia laughed and said "no, you don't understand, Sentencia is tomorrow morning!" My heart missed several beats as this amazing news sank in. The rest of the call I cried like a baby. Anyi and Jose must have thought I had lost my mind.  Sentencia would be the next morning. I could not fathom how this could be possible. While God chose to answer our prayers to end the strike with a no- He answered the question I should have been asking which was "LORD, what are your plans for us and for our Sentencia".  Lucia gave some more details of how this had been worked out and told me to be ready at 5 am the next morning. I told her I would be ready at 3 am- and I was. I was not able to sleep all night waiting for time to leave.  A short time later our translator called (daughter if the lawyer) to make sure I had the news and to tell me several times "You must be ready to leave at 5am.  I had the impression we would hit this other city kind of like a drive by shooting getting everything signed and blasting right back out of town. Boy was I wrong.

On Friday morning we slipped out the front door of our hotel while the desk clerk slept on the lobby sofa. The rest of our day was to be no less like a spy novel than the way we slipped away unseen from our hotel. We drove through beautiful countryside to a small city in one of the coffee growing regions. I tried to explain to Anyi and Jose that today in the eyes of both the laws of Colombia, the United States and in the eyes of God they would be our children Siempre (forever). As we arrive in the city, we were told to go to a coffee shop and wait. We waited more than an hour before the lawyer called and said she was on her way to get the judge.  In another 20 minutes, we received another call and were told to move to another coffee shop near the court house. Several minutes and many back streets later we arrived at the next coffee shop... and waited.

After a time the lawyer came into the shop and greeted us... Then she point out a man in the doorway with his back to us and whispered  "that is the judge". He was there just a moment and then he was gone and soon our lawyer followed. .. and again we waited.  From where we sat out the doors of the coffee shop we could see the strikers on the steps of the court house. There were  speeches and chants and I understood none of it.  Eventually, they formed a march and headed off into the city leaving only a few picketers on the steps of the courthouse.  Eventually the lawyer returned, but stayed outside the coffee shop waiving  frantically but not coming inside. She called my interpreter and spoke briefly by cell phone. The interpreter leaned over and whispered, " we can't do Sentencia here. The others in the coffee shop are strikers!"  My heart sank and I had knots in my stomach as I watched the lawyer walk away yet again...  and we waited. 

it seemed like an eternity, but finally the lawyer slipped in the shop and leaned across the table pointed her finger at me and said, "YOU, just you come with me". Without hesitation, I stood up and walked away leaving my two children and all of my valuables with the interpreter not having a clue where we were going. In moments like these in your heart and in your mind, it is solidified like no other times, that faith and trust are verbs. But it seemed the waiting was over.

We walked several streets away to yet another "very" backstreet coffee shop with 3 tables. It looked like the sort of place we see in action adventure movies when somebody eventually is going to start shooting!  My lawyer had me sit down across the table from a man who started passing me papers to sign. I asked no questions... I just kept signing everything that was put in front of me. Faith and trust- they are verbs. As I signed, I noticed the papers were already signed by the judge and the man across from me was signing as the Secretary of the Court. Everything was said in a whisper with everyone constantly looking over their shoulder. These people were worried about being caught.  And I wondered, why are your risking all this for me a gringo from thousands of mile away who you have never met and will never meet again. Why? Once we were finished signing the papers, the lawyer left and I sat across the table from the Secretary of the Court. For 15 minutes he just looked at me with an expressionless face, and never said a single word to me. I looked around, there was an empty table next to me- so close I could touch it. At the only other table in the shop sat two men quietly talking. One of them eventually turned to me and said "muy Spanish" - just like that one word in English and one word in Spanish. I said "no, yo hablo un pocito de Espanol, no mas, no mas (no, I speak only a little Spanish , no more, no more). He sort of shrugged and turned back to the other man and continued his conversation. The man at my table continued to stare with the same expressionless face. After a time, the lawyer returned with another man, she gave him a wad of my cash (a wad of Colombian pesos is not really very much). The man, my cash, and my lawyer all dashed back out again. And the man with me just stared. After another 5 minutes, the man stood up, said nothing turned and walked away. I remember thinking, this could be the place that I die, but Lord, you brought me here and I will trust you.  My heart sank when the man from the other table got up and came to the table next to me and sat.

This man began to talk to me in broken Spanish and English. We began to have a bit of a conversation, and much to my relief, this was a really nice man and we had a pleasant conversation- as best we could as two men knowing very little of each other's language.  But I was sure I was safe. Eventually, my lawyer returned and came to the table smiled at me and said, " I see you have met the judge".  All along I had been with the judge but didn't know it. Apparently, our lawyer must have told him about the evidences she had seen of our faith in God, because the first thing the judge asked her to ask me was. What type of Christian was I?  I assumed he meant denomination so I answered "Yo soy Baptista." The judge smiled and said "yo soy Christiano". Inside of me a light went on and everything made sense. God's plan was revealed.

I took the judge by the arm and said to him, "Mi hermano en Jesus Christo, muy bien, muy bien." Which means - my brother in Jesus Christ, very good, very good. This brother whom I had never me smiled at me from ear to ear, raised his hand into the air and said "Jesus Christo es el senior"!!!  This is a common praise expression which literally means, Jesus Christ is the man. I don't remember  what else we talked about, but I remember my brother several more time raising his hand towards heaven and saying, "Jesus Christo es el senior." The man who had been given the cash returned as did the secretary of the court and all the documents were now signed and had required seals on them. Copies were passed around to the right people, and quickly hidden from sight. The whispers stopped and you could see the relief on everyone's face... it was done, we had gotten away with it. And so God used these 4 men, brothers in the faith, to accomplish His plan so that we could be a family, in a back street coffee shop, thousands of miles from my home. One man was a judge, one the court Secretary, one a legal assistant, and one the social work or advocate for the children. These four men, my brothers in Christ risked so much to help us to be a forever family for Anyi and Jose. We called for the children. They came and we took pictures with the judge- that I promised would never be posted on line. We enjoyed the brief moment of celebration together- and it was over. I shook hands all around (and hugged!), spoke many thank-yous in English and Spanish. Then we turned and started to walk away back to the car. As I walked and was overwhelmed with the emotions of the day- I wept.  As I slowly walked away choking back the tears, I heard the now familiar voice call out "Jesus Christo es el senior" I could not look back, I know that if I had, I would have seen the judge standing with his hand pointing to heaven, and a bright smile that was broader that any I have ever know.

The next day, we left for Bogota and met up with Betty. She was to take care of the remaining steps to finally GO HOME. I left on Sunday and have stories to share with my grandchildren and great grandchildren of how mighty is our God and how able He is to answer prayers and changes live, anytime and anywhere that He chooses.