Come read with me!
I am hosting this month’s book club selection, Little Women
I’m so excited to revisit my favorite March sisters!
*Disclaimer – There is an Amazon affiliate link in this post. All earnings are used solely to prepare for our daughter’s arrival!
Our fingerprinting appointments are done! I’m curious if this will be the final time we are fingerprinted for this adoption but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to do it again.
Both of our appointments were at 11AM. We showed up 10 minutes early, went through security, and started waiting in line. And waited. And waited. We were finally able to check in just after 11 and were given more paperwork to fill out. Thankfully, once we had filled that out, we were able to walk right up to the counter and get registered for the fingerprinting. After some additional waiting, we were fingerprinted and sent on our way. The whole process took about an hour.
It was really interesting to watch everyone as we waited. I had expected a small office but was surprised to find an office even more busy than the DMV. People of all nationalities were there. We even saw a guy from Thailand who, I think, was there for his immigration interview.
Both fingerprinting technicians asked Jeff and I a couple questions about our adoption process. It seems adoption is definitely one of the lessor given reasons to visit USCIS!
I never thought I would be happy to have my fingerprints taken but I am! Today we received notice of our fingerprinting appointments for our I600A application. We’re to appear on Tuesday!
Based on everything we’ve read on various adoption time lines, we weren’t expecting to receive our notice for another two weeks and thought it would be an additional several weeks before we are to appear. Nope! It’s been less than a month since we mailed in our application and we’re already getting fingerprinted. I view this as a Very Good Thing.
Can we go to Taiwan yet?
Lately I’ve been trying to think of fun ways to send letters to my sponsored kids. I try to write to them once a month but have only included a couple pictures to my Compassion kids through the online letter writing tool. Unfortunately, I can only send snail mail letters to my girls in Korea so they have not received any pictures from us. Until today!
On the Compassion forums, some of the sponsors were talking about online photo collage programs. I thought that sounded intriguing so I tested out PicMonkey. It is so easy to use!
I created these two collages and then resized them in Word to fit both on a single sheet of paper. I added numbers next to each photo and then wrote a letter and explained a little bit about each photo. So easy! Today I wrote letters to both of my girls in Korea so now they will have pictures of my trip to Colorado. I didn’t realize it could be so easy to send photos to the kids. Now I’m sure I’ll be sending a lot!
If you sponsor a child, please send them a letter! I know it means a lot to the children to receive letters from their sponsor.
If you don’t sponsor a child, will you consider doing so? It could change their lives and it will definitely bless yours!
This is Do Young, who is 17 years old and whose favorite subject is reading. She’s available to sponsor through Children Incorporated. If you have questions about this particular organization or child sponsorship in general, please email me! It’s such a blessing to know that you have the opportunity to change a life.
This is Z. She’s 10 years old and currently lives in Taiwan. We’re hoping to soon change her permanent address to Seattle, WA.
We’ve earnestly been praying that we would receive orphanage approval and today it arrived! We’re so excited!
I visited my dad in Colorado for five days. When I arrived in Colorado, I promptly got sick with a nasty cold. I flew back home on Monday last week and am still recovering. Yuck.
I hate not being productive. My husband has had to do the dishes, clean the cat boxes, and do all the grocery shopping. These things are normally my job but I have had no energy for any of it. I’m finally starting to feel better but am having to force myself to remain quiet so that I don’t relapse. Maybe I’ll be fully recovered mid-week. I sure hope so!
USCIS has entered our I600A application into their system! Woohoo!
It’s such a tiny little step but at least it’s a tiny little step forward. They emailed us a case file number so that we can check the status of our application online.
The I600A is a preapproval for adopting a foreign born child and bringing them into the United States. We did not specify a child on our application. They look only at us as potential parents to decide if we are allowed to bring a child to the US.
Once the I600A is approved and we receive the appropriate approvals in Taiwan, we submit an I600 form which requests permission to bring a specific child into the US.
Lots of steps! At least now we can constantly refresh the USCIS website to see our current case status.
Current estimated wait time: 2.5 months.
One of my goals for this week is to catch up on reviewing the free books I’ve received.
40 Most Influential Christians . . .
40 Most Influential Christians Who Shaped What We Believe Today, by Daryl Aaron, is my favorite book of this batch. While I do not agree with the theology and beliefs of each of these influential Christians, I can appreciate the contribution that they made to the development of the Christian church.
The book covers 40 chapters, each chapter devoted to one Christian who influenced church theology or growth. The book is not exhaustive, instead providing a short overview on some influential Christians. Each chapter includes a section on the context of the Christian’s life, the contribution he made to Christian history, and a short conclusion about the influences he still has on current Christian thought. This is a great starting point for any person who is interested in learning more about the history of the Christian church.
I’ve become rather picky about my Christian historical fiction, as I feel most of the books are not literature quality. However, I snapped up a copy of A Home for My Heart, by Anne Mateer, because it’s the story of an assistant matron at an orphanage. Sadie suddenly finds herself offered the head matron position and she has to learn how to balance her new duties with her desire to get married (matrons are not allowed to wed).
I really, really wanted to like this book. My heart is all about adoption these days as we navigate the adoption process to adopt our own daughter. I thought that this book would resonate with me but it fell flat. The main character kept insisting that she cares more about the children than her coworkers do, but she never really displays that love in her actions. I had hoped that the book would address her life in an orphanage but it could have been written about any type of administrative position. If you’re wanting an ok beach read, this is it. If you’re looking for something deep and memorable, keep looking.
Jesus Pure and Simple, by Wayne Cordeiro, was an interesting but not deep book. It read more like a series of blog posts, rather than having a common thread running through the entire book. Cordeiro talks about how to tell if you need to get back to Jesus, who Jesus is, how to focus on Him, and how to serve. The book itself is rather pure and simple, some basic thoughts on various topics, bullet points that provide a basic to-do list, and group discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
For an example of the simplicity of this book, here are the focus points on the chapter titled “One Thing.” The chapter starts off with the verse Luke 10:41-42, which reads, “you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary.” What is the one thing that is necessary? Spending time with Jesus. How do we do that?
-Read the Bible daily
-Regularly take time for solitude
-Immerse yourself in gratefulness
-Regularly take time for reflection
As I said, it’s an interesting book but not deep. It’s a good refresher on basic Christian living but doesn’t offer much Biblical meat to chew on.
Much thanks to Bethany House for all three review copies in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions are completely my own.
*Note – Jeff and I promised ourselves we would not ask anyone for money to help fund our adoption. However, if you would like to help us without additional cost to you, feel free to do your normal shopping through my Amazon affiliate links in the above post. Thanks!
Today is a very special day for us. Not only is it our anniversary…
…it is also my husband’s birthday.
We have now been married for eight years and I love him more now that I did the day we said “I do.”
Happy birthday, darling!
Happy anniversary!
I can’t wait to celebrate the next fifty years with you.
So my flight to Colorado leaves on Thursday morning. Why did I choose a six A.M. flight? Oh, yes. So that I could spend as much time as possible with my dad instead of spending the day traveling. I will try to remember that when my alarm goes off at four on Thursday morning…
This week I have a couple of goals.
1 – I want to catch up on my language reviews. I have been doing fairly well keeping up with my Japanese reviews but Chinese has been dismal. Truth be told, I’m not extremely motivated to learn Chinese after reading (from multiple sources) that the vast majority of adopted children come to the U.S. and promptly reject their first language. Some children want to remain fluent in their first language but most kids just want to be American. I have no idea which category my daughter will fall under, but the odds are that she will only want to speak English. Thinking of that, I lose most of my motivation to learn her language. I love the Japanese language and eventually want to become fluent. Learning Japanese is for me; learning Chinese is for her. I need to find my motivation again so that she knows I cared enough about her before we met to learn a bit of her language, even if she chooses not to speak it after becoming part of our family.
2 – Book reviews! I have several books in progress that I would like to finish and review on Goodreads before leaving town. This includes several review copies. Finishing these books will allow me to come home to a clean slate and have fun picking out new books from the library. Today I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray and need to gather my thoughts on it. Then I can complete the other books that are in progress.
3 – Finish writing letters to my sponsored kids. I recently printed some fall stationary and need to finish writing the last several letters. That way all of my kids have letters coming. I hope to visit the Compassion International headquarters while in Colorado but am not sure I will be able to convince my dad that it will be worth taking the time to visit. His wedding comes first; I’m just hoping we have some extra time to drive the half hour to Compassion and tour the mail room. I am eager to see how they manage all of the thousands of letters that pass through their office before making their way to the children around the world.
I think these three things will keep me busy until Wednesday. Tomorrow is our eighth anniversary and my husband’s birthday. He requested homemade pizza and pumpkin pie for our dinner. Sounds good to me!
