Adoption Tracker

Hi All,
Yesterday I created a tracker at www.lilypie.com and am very excited to show it off to all of you. This will be a count down to milestones in our process and finally travel to China.

Jenny

One of those days!

I know this is a silly question, because I know the answer before I ask. Have you ever had one of those days? From the moment I woke up there was something not right about the day. Let me give you a recap:
I woke up and David, who usually beats me out of bed, stayed in bed because he was not feeling well. This was my first sign.
Then, because of a special event with Mia's school today there was trasportation issues that caused me to be 15 minutes late to work.
I am a helper in Joshua's preschool and things were rough today. Joshua really struggles with objectives like letter and number recognition. Today at a table center, the main teacher was pointing at letters in the alphabet and asking Joshua to tell her what they were. As a mom I saw him getting more and more frustrated, but I had on my teacher hat and felt like I should not interfere. Finally that was over and it was time for Bible time on the rug. During this time Josh was not listening to the story and was being a little disruptive. After two warnings I had to place him in 'time out' which went over like a lead balloon. For the rest of the morning I consolled myself with the thought that David and I were going to see the movie "Fireproof" that evening-a movie that I had been looking forward to for months.
On the way home David called me on my cell and said, "You are not going to believe this, the Topeka theaters are not playing the movie." My response, "WELL THAT'S JUST GREAT!"
When I got home I called the theater to ask why. Of course the manager passed the buck and told me to contact the corporate office. I contacted the corporate office and spoke to a very kind woman who told me that they wanted to run the movie in larger metro areas. To that I said,"OK, thank you" and hung up. Then I got to thinking about what she said and thought, that doesn't sound right. I then got on the Fireproof website and looked up the theaters that it was showing in coast to coast. Then I got on the movie theater website and ran a list of all of their theaters and their locations. After all of this I compared the two. My findings were that of all the 48 theaters that this company owns, only 6 of their theaters ran the movie. Now I definetly felt blown off. So I called the office once more hoping to get the nice lady again, but I didn't. I got some guy named Dave. At first the conversation went well, but after he too was telling me reasons that did not add up I said, "I hope you don't mind, but I think that I will check the information that you are giving me." To that he hit the roof and the conversation took a direct nose dive. To make a long story longer, I never got a real answer to my question, just a lot of misinformation. After telling David all of this, he wonders if there might me some censorship going on. Tomorrow I think we will email AFA (American Family Association) and tell them about my day and get their take on it. If anyone can answer my question they probably could.
So my answer to a day like this? Go on a date with my husband to our favorite Mexican restaurant, have a margarita and forget about the day.
I know the doctor says, "An apple a day...", but sometimes a drink helps, too.

Have a Great Day
Jenny

A More Accurate Time Line

Well, David and I had a very good adoption day. We received the long awaited phone call that Holt(our agency)received our LOA today from China and that we would get it tomorrow. Just to recap, our LOA is a confirmation letter asking us if we for sure want our little Hong Jun Peng. Tomorrow we will sign the letter and send it back to Holt, who will then send it on to China. From there we wait 4-6 weeks until we receive Travel Approval from China. By China giving us travel approval, it is their way of saying, "We have everything we need from you, please come and get your little boy." After we receive TA we will wait about a week and then receive travel dates from Holt. Travel dates are issued by Holt because after TA, Holt organizes an appointment with the US Consulate for us in Guangzhou, and our travel time is based on this meeting. After we receive dates we will wait another 4-6 weeks until travel. So, to answer the question, "When do we travel to China?" We are now estimating early January.
We are expecting our Travel Approval sometime between October 24-November 7.
Soon after we will receive Travel Dates
After Travel Dates we estimate travel 4-6 weeks later.
This will put us around the Christmas Holiday. David and I are thinking that Holt will probably wait until after the holidays to assign travel.

Well I guess that's about it. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are still a little short of funds, but our mantra in all of this has been and is, "God is able."
Have a Great Night
Jenny

Happy "Egg"quinox

Hi All,

It is Sept. 22 and the autumnal equinox. For the past five years I have been meaning to balance an egg on end just to see if I could. Today was the day. We went to Walmart to get many things, and eggs were on my list. The moment we got home we started balancing. I tried several times to balance a full dozen all at once, but just when I got to 11, a large wind would come and blow them all over. Finally I gave up. I think I got to eight which is still very cool.

Happy Autumn,
Jenny

Yours

I know that I just wrote, but I had one of those, "Oh man I have to share" kind of moments. I was cleaning the kitchen, as I wrote before, and listing to the radio. The song Yours came on by Steven Curtis Chapman. I have heard it before, but tonight it really touched me and I want to share why. Most of you probably know about the loss of his daughter last May. Since then, I have seen the family share their story on various TV shows. They present themselves as a hurting family, but also a family that finds their strength in God alone. What touches me about this song is that Steven used this as an outpouring of his heart. In the last verse the lyrics are:

I've walked the valley of death's shadow
So deep and dark that I could barely breathe
I've had to let go of more than I could bear
And questioned everything that I believe
But still even here
In this great darkness
A comfort and hope come breaking through
As I can say in life or death
God we belong to you

This reminds me of what I recently read in John 6: starting at verse 53.
Jesus was speaking to many people, and what He said was difficult for many to hear. In verse 66 it says, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him." Then Jesus asked the Twelve disciples "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Then Simon Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Tonight as I listened to the song the two of these collided and it finally sunk in that God is our only constant in this world. That even in our darkest hour He has believers in the palm of His hand providing unexplained comfort and hope. I am reminded of the many times when life was hard that I did not put my faith in the "Great Ancient of Days" and I tried to fix it. The result, I only made it worse. And by not submitting to God, I missed out on the comfort, peace and hope that He wanted to give.

So, my challenge to you all. I know that in life there will be storms that seem overwhelming and as the song states, makes you feel like you cannot breath, but hang on and cling to God with all you have. If you remain in Him, he promises that joy and blessing will come.

Stay Faithful,
Jenny

Adoption venting!

Allow me a moment to just vent. On August 21 or 22 I email Brian at Holt, our agency, to find out about the status of our progress. I wanted to know if there was anything that David and I need to be working on etc. I also wanted some clarification on our Letter of Confirmation, other families were making reference to LOA (Letter of Acceptance)and I wanted to know if the two were one of the same. His response to me was, "Yes it is and you should expect to receive it in two to four weeks." OK, the four week mark was 9/11 and we are still waiting. I know that waiting is part of the process, but I find it a little frustrating when someone tell you that something will happen in a certain time and it doesn't happen. David said, "He should have just said, 'You will get it when you get it.' that would have been better." I say all of this of course because I am looking into my son's eyes every time I turn on my computer and with each glance I grow more impatient. Maybe I should change my wallpaper. I will change it to something with mountains or a stream. Hey that reminds me,(total subject change)David and I saw a pretty good movie the other day. It was called Catch and Release. It was a love story that takes place in Boulder Colorado where the main characters are typical outdoor guys. The scenery is really beautiful. Watching the movie really got me wanting to start camping again and enjoying the great outdoors. Since marriage I have become more of an indoor girl, but from time to time the nature loving, fishing, camping girl wants to emerge. I see the same characteristics in Amelia and this makes me want to go all the more. So here is my trip. I haven't run this my David yet, but I am sure that he will be OK with it. We are going to buy a pop up camper and drive to Yellow Stone National Park and camp, hike and fish for a week. Now doesn't that sound like fun?
Well I guess I better close. I have a kitchen to clean,laundry to do and a cake to bake.

Here's to Dreaming,

Jenny

Home in a Jiffy to Three-Fifty

Well it is another evening at the Lotspeich household. The kids are asleep and I am sitting at the computer checking email, writing my blog and petting Winston. He was outside for a good part of the day, so I think he needs a little TLC.
Since we received Jonathan's pictures I literally cannot wait to go get him. In his pictures he looks so unhappy. So I need your help. Would you join us in praying for him. We are praying that his caregivers are kind to him and show him affection. We are also praying that God would pour out his blessing on his foster family and that God would protect him in everyway, physical, emotional etc. We always finish our Jonathan prayer with, "Father God, we know that your timing is perfect, but if our Jonathan is unhappy and mistreated in anyway, please speed up the process so we can receive him quickly." It is the unknown that just kills me. Fortunately I have three very good distractions during the day, but in the evening, when I have time to think, it bothers me more and more. Needless to say, God and I have talked extensively about our little Jonathan.

Love to you all,
Jennifer

The Littlest Lotspeich

Tonight David called me from work and said, "You will not believe what I am looking at. I am looking at up to date pictures of our son." Fortunately I was already on, so it didn't take but a couple of clicks and I was looking into those amazing brown eyes. He looks so much bigger and grown up since our last pictures that I started to cry. In looking at my 18 month old baby half a world away I thought of all of the time that I have missed with him. How desperately I wanted to catch the "red eye" and go get him so I wouldn't miss another minute. Do you think they have direct flights from Kansas City to Nanchang China?
With our pictures, Holt also included a written description of some of his favorites, met mile stones and how big he is. So without further adieu here is our Jonathan.





Sept. 4
Weight: 9kg,Height: 77.5cm
He walks very well now and can he is skilled at stepping over door sill. He
can tell toilet need and can do it himself without help. He can say
"Baba""Mama" "Gege" "Yeye" means, dad, mom, brother, granspa. Banana,
grape,watermelon and plum is his favorite, he likes playing ball and
control . He doesn't cry when he falls down and can stand up by himeself.