We are leaving on a jet plane...

Wednesday, September 23rd, we received our long awaited phone call with some very important news. We received word and confirmation of our appointment with the Chinese Consulate which made it possible to set an exact travel date for our trip to China.

Our itinerary is...

10/29- Leave Nashville at 6:27 AM

10/30- Arrive in Beijing, China

10/31- See the sites- Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, Olympic Park, and the Great Wall of China

11/1- Travel to Lanzhou, Gansu Province to GET JIN!

11/1-11/6- Get to know Jin, fill out paperwork and see the sites

11/6- Fly to Guangzhou

11/7-11/12- Fill out more paperwork, Jin has medical exams, consulate appointment, take the oath and get his visa

11/12- Fly to Shanghai

11/13- Leave China with our son and return HOME!

11/13- Arrive in Nashville at 10:37 PM

THANK YOU

Our family would like to thank you for reading our blog. In one day we have received such encouraging feedback. Thank you for the sweet words, the encouraging comments and faithful support along this journey. We especially thank our families for their support, concern, love and open arms. Adoption is not easy and the waiting is a killer. Many have asked why adopt? Why wait this long for a child? We hope this blog will give just a glimpse of what is yet to come. The ups and downs are expected, but I don't think we fully realize the love and joy we are about to experience ourselves. We can't wait for you to meet Jin too.
Again, thank you all!

The care package we sent to China

Through another adopting family we learned of a care package company serving families like us. LadybugsnLove allows you to purchase different values of packages to send to your child all via the Internet. What a great idea. This company is run by a lady in China who communicates directly and regularly with a number of orphanages. We were like kids in a candy shop not knowing what to buy, but very excited about the process. Part of this package deal includes a letter written by the sender up to 500 words to your child which she would then translates into Chinese to send along with the other purchased items. As a result Jin received books, candy and nuts (to share with his Nannies), pictures of us with captions, our letter. Then we decided to go all out with a CAKE. We thought this treat would be great since it would be shared with his friends. We also included a disposable camera for some cake eating pictures and hopefully some of his orphanage for us to see and keep for him.

Here is the cake. It is amazing and quite beautiful. The writing on it reads Happy Birthday. Apparently, birthdays are not celebrated in the orphanage so this was a very big treat, for sure. When Jon Campbell saw the pictures he was quite upset and started to cry because he wanted to eat the cake with Jin. Hearing him say that brought tears to my eyes. Jon Campbell is very excited about his brother's arrival. He calls him Brother Jin.

Last piece of paperwork arrived last week!!!!!

Tuesday, September 15th the final piece of paper work from Homeland Security arrived. Clint and I were very excited to say the least. This final document means 2 important things. #1- our adoption agency is now able to schedule our appointment with the Chinese Consulate and #2- we will know our exact travel date within the week. Of course this means we are in the final count down to our departure and meeting our little boy for the 1st time!

We go from a girl to a boy

About Christmas time in 2008 we received a bulk email from our adoption agency to all waiting families urging us to view a list of additional children needing families. With the Christmas holidays in full swing we looked but simply did not make the time to process what we saw. Well, early in 2009 we received the email a second time. Clint decided maybe this time we would study the list more carefully, so he did. All of the children were adorable; our hearts went out to them. Both boys and girls were included in this list. Many of the children had severe medical challenges requiring extensive surgeries. One little boy caught our eye. The adoption agency in Kentucky had named him "Oliver" on the website. He was born without his 5 toes on his right foot.

This is Jin at 2 years old

Our 1st picture of him

After a lot of prayer and many discussions we decided to inquire about Oliver. Inquiring would not take us out of our place in the waiting line for a "healthy girl." After a few months of waiting again we were allowed to actively seek Oliver as our son if we chose. His Chinese name is Jin Li Min and he is 4 years old. His birthday is June 15, 2005. Yes, that is right if you are doing your math... He is one month younger than Jon Campbell. We were 2nd in line to inquire about Jin. We had to wait to see if another family would continue to pursue him or not. Our prayers continued to be, "Lord, if this is the little one we are meant to have please work it out." The other family was a blended family and they ultimately decided they would withdraw which meant We Three in Tennessee would push forward and pursue Jin as our son! This was a huge praise, but also a bigger decision to make. Do we continue to wait in line for a girl or do we seek Jin? Waiting is very hard and we had been doing that since 2007. As a family we truly believe we are meant to be Jin's forever family. Our intention from the beginning was to help a child, boy or girl. We knew China had many orphaned little girls that is reason we chose China. After all this time we know God had a different plan at a different time for us. Well, as you may guess more paper work was involved, our home study had to be revised and approved along with renewing our fingerprints and our pediatrician writing a letter describing the care plan we would provide Jin when he arrives in the States. After our adoption agency matched us to Jin we then had to wait for China to approve and match us to Jin. We received the final approval from China on July 21, 2009. This was a day of great excitement! We both felt a confirmation from the Holy Spirit that this was the right thing to do when both of us on that day, in different places, had feelings that this was to be day!

On the road to adoption

Clint and I began this long journey in the summer of 2006 while attending the North American Christian Convention. It was there in the midst of many booths we stumbled across A Helping Hand Adoption Agency from Lexington, KY. Jon Campbell was 14 months old then and we knew our promise to my childhood committment needed to be soon so Jon Campbell would grow up with a sister. So we dove in; filled out mounds of paper work- Clint did the bulk of it; Clint also saw the inside of many offices to get the proper stamps and approvals and then by the 30th of March 2007 our paperwork had finally made its way to China and we were logged in officially! It was a great feeling to know that part of the journey was behind us... Little did we know the wait would take a very long time.

Reading at a young age- what an impact!

From a young age I, Adele, was encouraged to read, read and read some more. As a preteen biographies caught my attention. A very wise woman encouraged me daily to read, learn and then share that with others. This mentor, encourager, teacher, surrogate Grandmother still loves to soak up knowledge. She desires others to learn and passionately educate themselves. So I tried and I believe today our family is living out what I learned and admired so long ago. I ate up these biographies of great individuals like Andrew Murray, Fanny Crosby, Corrie ten Boom and the list goes on. There were 2 women which made the greatest impact on me as a teen. The life stories of Isobel Kuhn and Amy Carmichael were unbelievable. Each biography was full of adventure, scary situations and riveting decisions. Yet what hit me the most was their committment to saving and loving children as well as sharing the Gospel. I tucked away these examples and committed that someday if I did, Lord willing :), get married we would adopt a child and shower them with love and security.