Closer to Our Child

We have finally heard back from our agency and are continuing to move forward in our progress in trying to bring Gideon home.  He is still being labeled as having Class A TB, even though his cultures and smears have come back negative.  He cannot pass the infection to anyone, nor do I ever believe the disease was active-- only latent-- but they are still classifying it as such because of the spot in his lungs which they saw on the chest x-ray. 

So, all that being said, we still need to obtain a waiver through the Health Department and I was in contact with them yesterday to do that.  They will not issue us a waiver until they see that the results of the culture are negative, so our agency emailed them all the reports from the doctor in China yesterday as well.  We hope and pray that I can go pick up that signed waiver from the Health Department today and that there will be no more delays in getting it signed.  It needs to be reviewed by the CDC and they will be at a week-long confrence next week, so it needs to get into them so it can be reviewed and approved by USCIS asap!!  Please pray for us that this waiver will be signed TODAY and that the CDC committee will get it in time to review it before they break for confrence.

We are TRYING to get  you home Gideon, I promise we are!!!!!

In the meantime, as I think of him waiting over there for us, so far away, I continue to think of all the other children who are still waiting.  Not waiting for their family to come back and get them as Gideon is, but rather waiting to find a family in the first place.  God's children.  Waiting. 

Our son was just like them only a few short months ago-- waiting and wondering if a family would ever come for him.  For our Gideon, time was running out and that is true for so many other orphans in this world.  Their time is running out too, either because they are getting older and will soon "age out" of their country's orphanage system thus becoming unadoptable, or because they have health issues which cannot be cared for adequately in their home country and put them at risk of death.

Remember these children, the children of God, as you watch the video below.  It is so heartwarming.  It makes us remember what adoption is truly about.  We are all adopted as sons and daughters into God's family.  He wants us to give these children an earthly family just as He has adopted all of us as one of His.  No matter our faults, our imperfections, our disabilities or the color of our skin, He wants us ALL!

Let us remember His children.  All of them.
(Turn off my sound below to watch the video)



 Happy World Down Syndrome Day!!

March 21st is designated as the day for Down Syndrome recognition because it is 3/21--- celebrating the fact that these individuals were blessed with three copies of the 21st chromosome.  Yes, I did say blessed.  Check out the video below.  Enjoy!!

Update on Gideon! Finally!!

PRAISE GOD!!!  We finally got some news and it is GOOD!!  Our sweet Gideon's TB cultures finally came back and they are NEGATIVE!  Again I say praise God!  We are so thankful for these results.  We have waited over 6 weeks now for them to come back, and what we thought was impossible has now been proven to be true.

We are still waiting to hear what exactly this means for us.  We are assuming that since the culture is negative and he does not have active TB that there will be no reason now for us to have to acquire a waiver to submit to USCIS to bring him home.  If that is the case, then all we need is a consulate appt and we will be on our way back to get our son!!

Please continue to pray that we can get these last details resolved quickly so we can go get him soon!

He will also probably need another chest x-ray to determine more effectively why he had that mass in the bottom of his lung-- bronchial infection perhaps??

We also now have financial concerns as to how we are going to get back there to bring him home.  We never thought we were going to have to travel to China twice, and therefore were financially unprepared for this setback.  Gideon's flight and the remainder of our hotel stay were credited to us because of the situation, but we are now faced with finding the money to buy a round-trip ticket for me to go back to China and get him.  I would love to have my son Evan's company again as well, for it is quite a long trip and I think having him there really eased Gideon's transition.  The two of them get along so well!  But if I have only enough funds to go back alone than I will have to do that.

Please just pray that we will find this additional money quickly and if there is any way that you can help us with this, our chip-in is still open at the top of my blog.

Thanks for everyone's continued prayers, support and concern throughout this whole time.  We have felt such love from everyone during this whole ordeal, and I am so thankful that it will soon be coming to an end!!  Praise God for His blessings and His provision.  We cannot wait to have our son home with us FINALLY!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday Grayson!!!!

Well, his birthday was actually this past Saturday, March 5th so this birthday wish is a little bit belated.  But I don't think he'll mind!  I just cannot believe that my youngest baby is 8 whopping years old already.  And in just two short years he will be in the double digits!! 

To top it off, every birthday he has is a friendly reminder that I too am getting older because, you see, we share a birthday.  Grayson was my 30th birthday present.  So if I ever get too old or senile to remember how old I am, which happens already unfortunately, I can just add 30 years to however old he is at the time.  Very convenient!

We had a fun weekend together with the family celebrating our special day.  I actually really love sharing a birthday with one of my babies.  It makes it all the more fun and the celebrations get to go on for days! :)  This year, he got to do whatever he wanted all day Friday, and I got to celebrate Saturday night.  He chose a movie out-- we saw Rango-- and pizza at CiCi's, which is where the picture above was taken.  Him in all his pizza glory.  On Saturday morning when he woke up, he got to go on a treasure hunt complete with clues and hidden money.  Fun!

Saturday I started my morning with a lovely cup of coffee and then drove to Zumba class-- so much fun!!  But no, not too much rest for me that day.  Went grocery shopping, which I actually like, and ran two boys to soccer practices in the rain.  But later that evening Tim and I got to go out alone and share a lovely dinner together which was wonderful.

So this weekend was a fun time of celebration, thanking God for the life He has given me and the children He has entrusted to me.  Happy Birthday G-Man!!  We love you so very much and think you are one of the most special, fun and cutest people on this planet!!!!

Small Bit of News and I'm NOT Happy

Well, I went again to speak with the people at our local health department who need to sign the waiver before we can work on getting Gideon home.  The lady there is very kind, and has been extremely helpful.  However, the people in Raleigh, being that they have almost never had to deal with this before, are being terribly difficult.

I understand that they want to make sure Gideon is TB free before he travels, so do we.  And he has been on meds now since the beginning of February.  He had a negative sputum smear even in the beginning, so all this time we have just been waiting for the results of the culture to come back.  It will be 6 weeks on March 7th and they can look then to see if anything has grown.  If it was in fact TB something will more than likely show up by then, if it wasn't and nothing shows, they wait 2 more weeks until the full 8 weeks has passed and look at the culture again, just to make sure any of the slower growing TB bacteria hasn't cultured anything.  If still nothing, then he is clear, and no problem.  However if something did grow at some point during all that time, THEN they want to see yet ANOTHER culture be done and come back negative so that they can be sure that the meds they have him on are fighting off the bacteria and that his body is responding.

Now trust me, I understand the reasons for all this. but for goodness sakes, if it is TB and he is on the meds, in all likelihood he is not contagious anymore.  I know they have to be sure it isn't one of the resistant strains, but if he has to have yet another culture that means it is 6-8 weeks more then to read the results of that one too!!

I don't know quite what to pray for here any more.  I suppose the best thing would be for it to come back negative in the first place but I don't know that this is likely.  We have a infectious disease specialist here is Charlotte who is working with us on this, and she is trying to see if there is any way of getting the CDC to grant us some sort of appeal if we submit one, so we can go get him faster too, but I don't know the likelihood of that either.

All I can ask now is that you please pray for our family and for Gideon.  Pray that we can find a way to bring him home soon and not have to wait yet another 6-8 weeks for another culture.  Just pray.  Thanks.

Children

Here is the latest poem we are studying and memorizing called Children by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  I love the illustrations he uses to depict and describe children-- you can sense that he loves them and admires their innocence, imagination and connections with nature. He is basically telling us that children are truly the breaths of fresh air to our lives and our existence would be mundane and incomplete without them. I couldn't agree more.

So here is a poem for all of you parents, teachers, grandparents, babysitters, and especially to those of you still paperchasing to bring a new child into your heart and home.  Let us revere them and look upon them with the wonder that Longfellow does.  Jesus loves the little children, and so should we.

Children

Come to me, O ye children!

For I hear you at your play,

And the questions that perplexed me

Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,

That look towards the sun,

Where thoughts are singing swallows

And the brooks of morning run.

In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,

In your thoughts the brooklet's flow,

But in mine is the wind of Autumn

And the first fall of the snow.

Ah! what would the world be to us

If the children were no more?

We should dread the desert behind us

Worse than the dark before.

What the leaves are to the forest,

With light and air for food,

Ere their sweet and tender juices

Have been hardened into wood, --

That to the world are children;

Through them it feels the glow

Of a brighter and sunnier climate

Than reaches the trunks below.

Come to me, O ye children!

And whisper in my ear

What the birds and the winds are singing

In your sunny atmosphere.

For what are all our contrivings,

And the wisdom of our books,

When compared with your caresses,

And the gladness of your looks?

Ye are better than all the ballads

That ever were sung or said;

For ye are living poems,

And all the rest are dead.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow