November 2010 Update

November 16, 2010

 

   Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  A lot has happened since our last post on 9/28 and events are picking up speed for our return to China.

          Such a small world.  Our original intensive drive to adopt Hai Yan back in January, contacting so many people and agencies in an attempt to claim her before she reached the "shared list", has come full circle unexpectedly.  

A couple with a large adoptive family is now in China adopting Hai Yan's foster brother, Nathan.  Their blog ( http://www.nineisenough.blogspot.com ) reveals that Hai Yan's foster family did not succeed in adopting her and she has been moved to another foster family.  She was with this family for six of her seven years.  She must be devestated right now.  Please pray for her angel to be with her and look out for her.   Her file has been sent to the CCAA.  She will be available for international adoption after all.   We would like to advocate for her to finally be rewarded with a family of her own.  She advocates for herself to anyone who comes to Zhuzhou SWI and she deserves for this journey to end.

One more amazing fact.  Nathan, the boy the family above is now adopting, we also considered, after we were told Hai Yan's foster family would adopt her.  This mission field is so rewarding when you form bonds across the country trying to do what you are called to do. 

We were sad to miss Hai Feng's birthday on Nov. 11th, but we'll have her for the big 11/11/11 birthday next year!  These pictures are from the birthday party a few days ago, which we ordered through a gifts to China service.  

We passed two more paperwork milestones recently!  Our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) arrived dated October 22,2010. This is the letter in which the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) gave us final approval to adopt Hai Feng.  Then just yesterday, November 15th, we received our approved I-800 from U.S.C.I.S., (US Immigration) which approves Hai Feng specifically to come to America.  

We are now waiting on two more interim steps prior to Travel Approval from the CCAA in Beijing; the US National Visa Center will "cable" the approved I-800 to the US Consulate in Guangzhou (in about 1 week) and the Article 5 (US govt certifies Hai Feng meets the Hague convention criteria (in about 2 weeks).  These two steps will give us our US Consulate appointment around which we plan our time in China.  

Please pray for the family adopting Nathan, Hai Feng's adjustments that are ahead of her, and all the older kids in Chinese orphanages who need adopting before they "age out" at 14.  In addition to the profound need for a family, an orphan who ages out and "graduates" from the orphanage has a very difficult time finding a job, because of a prejudice against orphans in the Chinese culture.  They are considered "bad luck" to a company's profit potential. 

 

All About Hai Feng

All about Feng

Sept. 28, 2010

“Hai Feng, when you feel the sunshine on your face, know that mom and dad are thinking of you. When you see water, know our love for you flows like water. When you run, know that we will run to each other soon.”

Our beautiful Hai Feng is 12 years old. Her birthday is Nov. 11^th, just nine days after Zoe’s. She is shy, helpful, and loves hamburgers and, like Zoe, barbies. She is very hard working and knows that her forever family will travel to China to bring her home this winter. We wrote her a letter and wished her a “Happy Moon Festival” on Sep. 22^nd .

TODAY, we got a short letter back from her. She like the colors pink and yellow. She eats lots of snacks, such as bubble gum, potato chips, seaweed and lots of fish. Zhuhai is on the Pearl River delta, so the love of fish is no surprise. She likes to run, play badminton, skip rope and ride bikes. She speaks Mandarin and Cantonese. She is in the 5^th Grade this year. Last week she was in military training to develop fitness and learn life skills. She came back to school feeling “grown up”.

When Zoe first saw Feng’s picture, she said, “She needs a panda bear”. So Zoe sent her a panda bear with the Moon Festival snacks and our “picture pillow”.

And we have more great news!! We just found out that our "Log In Date" is September 7th !

We proudly introduce you to our Daughter Hai Feng

Welcome to our Journey to Hai Feng

Thursday, September 9, 2010

“Happy Birthday Michael! Don’t you know you’re too old to being doing this? You’re supposed to be taking cruises to the Bahamas! Maybe… but this is better still.”

HI! We are Michael and Julie Parnell. Our 4 yr old daughter Zoe and older daughter Jen are pictured in the family photo. At this moment we are finally able to sit back and wait for our dossier to arrive in Beijing at the China Center of Adoption Affairs. Xiaoqing Cai, our wonderful agency coordinator, at Bay Area Adoption Services near San Francisco, mailed our dossier off to China on Monday, August 30, 2010. The dossier is the complete package of paperwork you must submit to CCAA.

Since late March we have been “chasing the mechanical rabbit”. We always felt we were running behind even though we were doing our best.

It all began in January, when a woman visited Zhuzhou Social Welfare Institute , our Zoe’s orphanage. In our Zhuzhou yahoo group, she talked about a little girl names “Hai Yan”, a 6 year old girl with a glass eye. They were attending a Christmas program at Zhuzhou as part of a heritage tour for their daughter from Zhuzhou. Hai Yan repeatedly came up to them and sat with them through the Christmas program. The woman concluded her email by advocating for Hai Yan.

For the next three weeks we tried to find ways to claim her through unorthodox methods and do the paperwork afterwards. We contacted several agencies, some telling us they would reserve her for us if she came up on their list. Finally, we found out the foster family wanted to adopt her and she was very attached to them. It was a letdown but we knew it was for the best. Hai Yan had been with them for six years.

During February and early March, we pursued an Ethiopian adoption. We initially claimed a boy named Miskir, only to find out later that he had a cousin at the orphanage named Hawi. We went through much soul searching because we didn’t feel we were ready for two more older kids, yet didn’t want them adopted separately. We eventually released them both, praying that God would keep them together and so it was—they were adopted by the same family! We had only the best of intentions. God took care of the rest. When I think of Ethiopia now, I think only of beautiful kids and a beautiful people.

As March “marched” on toward April we returned to searching through the special needs children of China. We wanted Zoe to have a sister of her people. Xiaoqing and BAAS was highly recommended by a friend. We signed up with BAAS and Xiaoqing gave us access to their list. We wrote down about 10 boys and girls on the lists to check into further. But Feng - we couldn’t resist that face and the thought of her “aging out” of the orphanage. We asked Xiaoqing if we could claim her. We discovered that only people who already had their dossier logged in at CCAA could “lock” her file, but if she was on the shared list over 30 days, we could then “lock” her file.

We had to wait about three of those four weeks, nervous the entire time, that someone might claim her before the 30 days was reached. About three days before the month was up, we asked Xiaoqing to lock her file on the 30^th day. She did so graciously on April 19^th. On April 28^th, the CCAA gave us “Pre-Approval” to adopt Zhu Hai Feng. From then until now we worked feverishly to complete our homestudy and dossier. In spite of our best efforts, the CCAA’s initial deadline of July 28^th passed, but Xiaoqing got us an extension and now we come full circle back to the present.

As we wait for our Log In Date, there will be additional steps, added when China signed the Hague Convention, between our Log In Date and when we receive our TA (Travel Authorization). Looking forward to that Log In Date! It’s a relief to finally get everything in Beijing to comply with the CCAA’s requirements.