LOA Packet ARRIVED!!!



OUR LOA packet arrived today!



OUR Letter of Confirmation from China, matching us with Zhen Sen, "Chet"

Here is the Letter of Confirmation!!!

TODAY, Dec 29, 2010.... Our Letter of Acceptance, China matching us with Zhen Sen, packet is suppose to arrive. So as Gary was working, I was doing stuff around the house but staying near the door so I would not miss the Fedex truck... Sounds crazy!!! 

FINALLY, approx 2pm, it arrives. I almost opened it and then I stopped and said Gary and I need to open this together. So to flee from temptation, I put the packet from Fedex in the car in the garage so I would not see it until Gary got home. The pictures above show Gary and I opening the packet together and reading our Confirmation letter.

NEXT: We sign this letter stating that we agree to adopt Zhen Sen. We go through a few other steps and in about..............

7 WEEKS.... We will receive our travel approval.

Keep a check.... Stay tune for more .... and see what GOD is DOING!!!!

HE IS WORKING!!!!! HE IS MIGHTY...

Thank you Lord, for Your Blessings on me!!!!





In God's Timing.... NOT OURS!!!

At 7:26pm, Gary and I just finished praying, thanking God for the food we were fixing to eat but also we prayed for Chet as we do daily. When we finished praying at 7:26pm, I looked down at my phone and saw a email just come through. It was from Diana, from MAA, congratulating us for receiving our ..........

LOA (Letter of Acceptance or Confirmation) TODAY!!!

The estimated list of time frames states it takes anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months to receive the LOA after being LID. We were LID on 12/03/10... WOW, less than 4 weeks, we are now LOA.

We give God all the PRAISES for the quick time frames, it is definately nothing of us. We are so excited but so undeserving to be used by Him. We are so HUMBLED and SPEECHLESS!!!!!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOR THE GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE!!!!!

LID!

Our dossier was logged in on 12/3/2010, YES! Another step closer......

This Friday, we are praying for Chet's package to arrive to Jenny safely and that she will be able to take it to Chet ASAP. Also in hopes that she can get a video of him opening the package and find out that he is being adopted.

PRAY!

WOW... we are moving right along..... :-)

Chet's Name Characters

By curosity Jenny, the lady from the International School for Orphans who is taking the package to Chet to his orphanage, asked if I could send her Zhen Sen's name characters. So I sent her these two pictures. You can see his name characters pretty good from these pictures. These pictures were taken about 3 years ago. Jenny replied back and said, "Sen the same as Sun Yat-sen, a famous leader. I haven't heard anyone else named that. ;0)."  Interesting..... Just by the way his name characters are written she could tell that our son is named after a famous leader. COOL!

God has plans for this young man, named after a famous leader...... ummmm Is God building up His Warrior Leaders to go back to China to proclaim the name of JESUS CHRIST? Whatever God's plan is, It Is AWESOME and we are excited that God is involving us and allowing us to be a part of it. WOW!

THANK YOU GOD FOR BLESSING US.........

Chet's package is sent..... YES!!!

NO, we are not shipping Taco to China, LOL

December 7th, Tues, Gary and I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a 187 piece art kit full of markers, pencils, paint etc for our 13 yr old who loves to draw. We also purchased sketch paper and watercolor paper, extra artist pencils. This should keep our boy busy until we get to China.

This picture to the left is the package we sent to Chet on December 7th. Under the white lining (we covered his gifts so he will see the letter/album first) the above items from Hobby Lobby; candy and gum for Chet and plenty for him to share with the other children; 2 shirts, 2 yo-yo's, slinky, notebook paper for Chet and plenty for him to share with the other children; placed on the top of the white lining is the photo album telling him about us, and the last photos he will see his friends that he grew up with; the first thing he will see and read is a letter from us stating, HE HAS A FAMILY...... The letter is written in English as well as Chinese so he can read it himself and does not need an interpreter.

Package sent DEC 7th.... by USPS.... package weighted a total of 25lbs, send it by FedEx was going to cost $400. NO WAY! So we had to send it by USPS and it will take 7 days to arrive at the International School in China for Orphans. A gracious lady named, Jenny Kuritar will take it to the Orphanage where Chet lives.

OUR PRAYER.... please pray with us.... (1) pray for the package safe arrival (2) pray that The orphanage will allow Jenny to video this moment for us as well as take pictures. This moment to find out that he has a family when he is thinking no on loves him, will be a moment that CAN NOT be relived. And as he looks through the photo album to see his parents and to see his 2 best friends that he grew up with, WILL be a moment of INDESCRIBABLE. We are praying for a video of this moment.

WAITING FOR 7 days....  for the safe arrival of the package and for Jenny to take the package to the Orphanage. We Thank God for Jenny to use her time to do this for us.

God is AWESOME in EVERY Way

December 4th, Gary and I finished the photo album we made for Zhen Sen, "Chet". Photo album to share with him some about us, what we like to do and to share a short story of our life and family. Under each photo we wrote a short caption telling a little about the picture. We left room under the caption hoping to find someone to write what we wrote in Chinese. That way if Chet wants to read it everyday he can. He does not have to wait for someone to interpret it for him. Well, the first person we thought about who works at a local Chinese restaurant was not working. So God placed on our heart a friend who could refer us to someone. God knows what is best and has everything worked out. We just have to keep our eyes on where He is working. My friend gave us the Chinese womans (Nancy) phone number.... AMAZING. She said, " I will be happy to help you, come to my work after 5." We went to Nancy's Chinese restaurant in Concord expecting to drop the photo album off and pick it up a few days later. As soon as we meet Nancy, we knew there was something special about her. She said, "I can do it now. Normally I do not have extra help but yesterday (Fri) I asked one of the girls to work today so I have extra help. God knew you were coming today and I needed to help you. God had this planned out for us." WOW!!!! God is working behind the scenes, He is working at all times. SIMPLY AMAZING!  We sat there for 5 hours with Nancy, what a TRUE blessing she is. She says, "God has blessed me so much and I want to give back and serve Him."

There were 2 things that Gary and I have been concerned about. (1) "Communication" when we first meet Chet. He knows Chinese Sign Language and not American Sign Language. (2) What does he like to eat? We can't cook Chinese food or any food that he is used to eating. Will he like American food? 

DO YOU KNOW THAT GOD ALREADY HAS THESE TWO CONCERNS OF OURS WORKED OUT......  As we were talking with Nancy, we mentioned that it has to be very uncomfortable for any child being adopted to leave their place they grew up with strangers. She said, "yes but I want to help you to make him feel comfortable. I want to buy you a computer that is a translator. This will make him feel more comfortable with you because you can communicate with him." WOW God. The small hand held computer that can fit in your pocket is amazing. Suppose we want to ask Chet what he wants to eat? Then we would write it on the screen in English and instantly the Chinese symbol appears. How awesome is that. We will have instant communication.  Second concern... Food... In our conversation with Nancy, she offered to teach us to make some Chinese soups and food and when she makes real Chinese food, not American Chinese food, she will make extra for Chet.

GOD IS REAL AND HE STILL WORKS TODAY!!!! If by reading our story of the adoption process through previous blog post you still don't believe God is real..... READ THIS!  Today is the first time we met Nancy. She owns a Chinese restaurant in Concord off 601 near 49 called China Garden. Go eat there, wonderful food. Many of you know we live in China Grove so we do not go to that restaurant to eat because we have many Chinese restaurants near us. God led us to Concord to meet a woman named Nancy. YOU READY..... Nancy communicates with Chet's teachers in China. How many Chinese restaurants are there.... God led us to the lady who is in contact with our son's teachers in China.

........DO YOU BELIEVE?  

When you know God and WHO HE IS, none of this that He has done should amaze us... We stand in AWE of  the fact that He wants to use us. 

THANK YOU GOD using us, We are nothing but with YOU we can accomplish and do anything.  

ALL Praises and Glory goes to God..... WE ARE DTC!

As of Nov. 23, 2010 we are...Dossier To China, DTC, means all of our paperchasing has left our adoption agency and on the way to China. We have read many peoples post, on yahoo group for adoptive parents, talking about documents taking months to arrive and documents getting lost in mail etc., we feel truly blessed and thankful to God for His GREATNESS! We only experienced minor set backs and it is nothing from us, ALL PRAISES go to God.

Next.... We will wait for Log In Date, LID, this is when China receives our documents.

We will keep you posted....

To God be the Glory for Great things He has done!

We are maybe 3 months from travel..... WOW!

How do you spell "Relief"....

.....Paperchasing is finished!

Today we have sent all of our documents to MAA. After MAA reviews them to make sure everything is accurate, they will send to China. Our prayer is that the documents will make it to China before China adds another requirement.

Alot of work and stress but Chet is worth every bit of it.

Our nieces (Kailie and Kamryn) helped in sending the documents.

Photos of Chet

ZHEN SEN "Chet"

During Madison Adoption Associates (MAA) visit to China

Adding children of the orphanage to their list of children to find homes

Chet at age 13

Pictures taken April 2010

a visit to China by MAA

GOD'S DIVINE PLAN

Pictured (lf to rt): Eddie, Ben, Chet

These 3 Deaf boys were abandoned and grew up together in the same orphanage in Tianjin China. This picture was taken when Ben was being adopted approx 3 yrs ago. Then 2 yrs after Ben was adopted, Nov 2009 Eddie was adopted. As time went by, an acquaintance's of Eddie's family stated she knew of a family who adopted a Deaf boy from China, make she could arrange for the families to meet so they could maybe encourage one another etc. The families agreed and when they meet, the boys (Eddie and Ben) were in awe that they got adopted so close together. From all over the world of anyone being able to adopt these boys, God placed them together. That is AMAZING in itself. The story continues....

When Lisa was introduced to Eddie's dad, Lisa's response was, "No Way." Lisa and Eddie's dad were friends in college and have not been in contact with each other since 1988. God used Eddie's family to tell us about Chet. We committed to pray for Chet and for God to raise up the right family to adopt Chet. Little did we know, we were praying for ourselves. We prayed for a month. In the Experiencing God, a discipleship Bible study, it tells us to find where God is working and join Him in His work. We noticed God working in this area so we committed to join Him and praying, "God if this is not the direction in which You want us to go, close the door tightly; but if this is the direction, open it wide open." God has opened this door WIDE open. On July 13, 2010, China pre-approved us to adopt Chet. We continue to follow Him on each step and trusting Him every step of the way.

Shocked? So are we. OUR plan was not to have children together. We were content with our life. God's plans are not neccessary our plans. His plans sometimes brings us to a place of shock and outside of our comfort zone. It is times such as these that we must fully rely on HIM. That is exactly what we are doing. We were NOT looking to adopt, this is totally a God thing. The story of God revealing His plan continues...

Sit down.... God knows what it takes to get our attention, it takes something amazing... we were dead set that we were not having children together, just us two is great! God revealed this to us when we said Yes to Him. Eddie's mom's name is, Alisa. Ben's mom's name is Lisa and if the door remains open; Chet's mom's name is Lisa. Only God can place these 3 boys close to eachother and give them the same (or almost the same) Mom's name.

Are you WOWed? The God story is awesome, isn't it? God has a sense of humor, doesn't He? When God placed on Lisa's heart back in 2002 to learn sign language and graduated in 2006 from Interpreter Training Program, God had a plan. He reveals His plan a little at a time when He knows we can handle it. 

God is an AWESOME God. He can do whatever He wants and when He wants. He can because..... He is God! 

We are guessing, Chet will be here Feb or March 2011. 

God's Divine Plan for our lives,

Gary and Lisa Fink