Be Still and Know That I Am God

Why is waiting so hard? There is no pain involved, no hard work...yet it seems like I should be doing something...instead of just waiting. But for those of us who have experienced adoption, we know it is just part of the process. The verses "Be still and know that I am God" and "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" have reminded me that waiting is part of God's plan.

Currently we are waiting on I800A approval from the USCIS. Once we receive that we will soon be able to proceed with sending our dossier copy to China. Part of what makes this time of waiting hard is our expectations. We had expected everything to move much more quickly since we are reusing our dossier, but the reality is that it really has not sped things up much at all.

Eating Tia's pancake!

(more: here)

During this time of waiting, we have been very busy. Summer is always packed full of projects, outings, and fun family times. Kian was thrilled to experience his first camping trip in June. The first part of July, we enjoyed time with my brother Jeridan and his family from Washington. We have been swimming...hiking...and Kian even learned to ride bike without training wheels.

Now it is back to school time. Each morning Kian can't wait to begin. I hope his excitement lasts from kindergarten...all the way to grade 12!!! In addition to Kian, I have Preston in 6th grade, Jadrian in 8th, and Chantel in 11th. Adding school back into our schedule helps keep little boys busy.

Spring cowboys.

Mama & Kian.

Kian's first camping trip.

Woodsmen back from their mission.

Birthday fun!

When Ashlyn and Kian made communion bread together, he was thrilled to mix it with his hands!

Fun times with cousins....!

Riding without training wheels.

So proud of himself.

Two weeks ago, we spent Saturday hiking at Turkey Run.

Kindergarten time

S-I-X at Last!!!

For weeks Kian has been counting down the days until his birthday! It has been terribly hard for him that everyone in the family (except Mama) has had a birthday ahead of him. But finally July 14 really did arrive, and Kian was up bright and early to begin celebrating. Little did he know that because he was up so early, that meant he would have to take a nap!! He began his special day with rice for breakfast....still a favorite. It was a very long day for him! He thought evening would never come when we would celebrate with balloons, cupcakes and presents! Our family tradition is that the birthday boy/girl gets to choose their birthday meal. Weeks ago Kian had us make a list of the foods he wanted. He continued to add to and change it as the weeks passed. At last he settled on grilled chicken (in place of the chicken feet he really wanted), yummy rice, veggies and dip, pineapple and strawberry shortcake. However, we replaced the strawberry shortcake with surprise panda cupcakes! He was delighted!

                                       

A VERY excited birthday boy!!

 

 Kian was thrilled with the Panda theme!

Birthday meal

Chantel made panda cupcakes

Among his gifts was a top made by Jadrian...

a basketball from Pompo and Nana...

and his very own guitar!!

We missed out on Kian's first five birthdays, but we plan to enjoy each new year with him to the fullest! We are so blessed by this dear treasure!!

It's a Girl!!!

We prayed "Lord use us" and left our hearts and lives open to whatever His will was....and once again, He is calling us to bring an orphan home and become her family.

In the early stages of Kian's adoption process, we became more and more aware of the staggering number of orphans and saw face after face of real live children that had no one to call their own. Our hearts softened and we became open to more children if the Lord led us to that. Even though our home study was approved for two children, the doors did not open for that to happen. When we went to China, it was to bring home only Kian; however, our adoption agency told us that if we adopted again within a year from Kian's adoption date, we could reuse our dossier...which means less paper work and therefore hopefully a somewhat quicker process.

On May 7, we saw for the first time the picture of the little girl who would someday be our daughter. We had 72 hours to make a decision before she would become available to other families. We poured over her pictures and file, and knew that we did not need 72 hours to decide. In our hearts, we knew that this 2 1/2 year old little girl was to be part of our family. So, we submitted the initial paperwork to lock her file with our family and received pre-approval from China on May 26.

From the first day of meeting this little girl, our children have been bugging us about what her name would be. They thought it took us forever to come up with a name for Kian...and it did!!!  We told them that we would have a name to announce when we got pre-approval. But one evening we were eating supper and they were again asking what her name would be. They had all kinds of reasons why they needed to know right then!! It must have been a weak moment for us because Craig and I looked at each other. He grabbed a pancake (which was what we were eating that evening) and began carving her name.

Tia QingQiao Oyler

was introduced to our children. Tia means godly or joy. QingQiao is her Chinese name which we are using for her middle name.

We would love to share a picture of this darling little girl, but for the protection of children, our agency has asked us not to share pictures on social media until we receive final approval in a few months. We would very much appreciate your prayers on our behalf as we once again embark on this journey of faith!

Kian is very excited about being a big brother! He just wishes we could bring home "all the people"(orphans)! He prays daily for Tia and all the orphans "who don't have a Baba and Mama!"

"God setteth the solitary in families..." Psalm 68:6

Six Months Later....

For those of you who followed along with us on our pre-adoption journey, and then our trip to China to bring our son home from half way around the world, I apologize for it taking so long for this update to happen. Your prayers and support are what have brought us to where we are today!! Thank you so much to all who have continued to hold us up in prayer! Let's just say that we have been having so much fun enjoying Kian that we haven't had time to blog!! He is doing so well and we can't imagine our family without him!!

In March, we took Kian to Shriner's Hospital in Chicago where a team of doctors, dentists, speech therapists, orthodontists and oral surgeons who specialize in children with cleft lip and/or palate each met with us. Then in the afternoon they met in a conference together and compiled a report of what they recommend long term for Kian's cleft situation. We are so thankful that all they are recommending for now is some speech therapy.  In a few years we may be looking at a bone grafting surgery and some orthodontics, but nothing major for now! Today Kian had his first half hour session with his speech teacher and worked on the "L" sound.

Seeing Kian go from communicating by pointing, grunting, and miming....to a few words....to phrases.....to sentences in just six months has been so exciting!! His speech is hard for most people to understand because of his palate repair, thus the need for therapy, but he understands most everything we say. And if he doesn't understand something, he is quick to ask....very inquisitive!! "What's that?" is often heard at our house these days. 

Spring and warmer weather has opened up a whole new world for Kian...riding bike, swinging, hitting a ball, playing fort with his brothers!! What most American five year olds take for granted, he is experiencing for the first time! Each day is exciting and new and he goes to bed at night exhausted!!

We feel so blessed that the Father has chosen us to be Kian's family! He is truly a treasure and gift from God!!