Beard Be GONE

Friends, we have the opportunity of a lifetime !!!!!!   Up for banishment, this BEARD!  Drew has agreed to participate (much to our surprise) in a BEARD BE GONE Fundraiser.  If we have 15 people donate $100 by this Sunday 3-30-14, he will SHAVE this dreaded thing off!  Please, let me beg of you, our pleading has previous fallen on deaf ears :(  But, hope is here.  Please friends, please, help us say goodbye to this furry covered face.   I will keep you updated as the donations come in.  Please keep in mind, our final need for Orphage Fees is $1500.  So, by participating in this fundraiser, not only do you help clean up this face, you will be funding the final rearing fees that are due to our agency by early April.  If you donate using the link below (copy and paste to open) you can donate at the top left of the page on the DONATE button and 100% of your donation will go to our adoption and be tax deductible.

http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org/drew-and-aimee-ryan

The Gift of Giving

We had an especially touching gift last week.  Actually, we've received many, but thought this was a fun one to share.  Some friends of ours, who have jumped on our crazy train and been very supportive of our adoptions, decided to use our journey as an opportunity to serve.  At Christmas time, this family made ornaments and sold them to neighbors and friends to raise money to help bring our babies home.  Amazing!  They came last week to hand deliver their gift to us.  We were amazed at their generousity and willingness to help riase funds to bring Elizabeth and Levi home.  They gave financially, reached out to others on our behalf, gave of their time and talents to help build a bridge to Elizabeth and Levi.  We are so grateful for the ways God continues to show us His provision in caring for Elizabeth and Levi.    Thank you friends for serving and giving.  There have been so, so many of you!  We are so blessed!

We are closing the gap on our Orhpanage Fee that is due early April (Yies, next week).  It comes with a price tag of $12,000.00 as a rearing fee for both kids.  Can you believe, that number has dwindled to $1500.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Counting our blessings!  If you would like to partner with us as we strive to quickly pay these Orphanage Fees, you can make a tax deductible gift at this link where we receive 100% of your donation:

http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org/drew-and-aimee-ryan

You have to cut and paste this lnk and there is a Donate button on the top left of the page.

FINAL STEPS.....

Final Steps in our Adoption:
Things get very confusing from here, but there are several last steps required to assure we maintain the Hague standards of Adoption.  Here are a few acronyms and then our timeline/explanation:

• USCIS - United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
• CCCWA - China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption
• Hague Convention - an international agreement to establish safeguards to ensure that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of the child
• NVC - National Visa Center
• TA - Travel Approval - the official invitation from the Chinese government to come to China for the purpose of adopting your child

The process for obtaining approvals from China and the US is actually fairly well laid out - even if the process is arduous at best.  Our Article 5 is being dropped of tomorrow 3-17-14 and should be ready 3-31-14.  Then we enter a 2 week (ish) wait for TA.  

Here's how the US State Department describes the Article 5 process and our remaining steps:

1. After review of the visa application, the consular officer will send the convention country's Central Authority notification or Article 5 letter that states you are suitable adoptive parents and the child is able to enter and live in the United States.
2. Once you have the Article 5 letter you may complete the international adoption of the child.
3. The Convention country will issue an Article 23 Certificate. It may be an adoption or custody decree and may be sent directly to the consular officer at the Embassy or Consulate.
4. The Embassy or Consulate will schedule the final visa interview. The child must appear before the officer if the child did not do so at the initial visa application review. Be prepared to present the valid adoption or custody decree.
5. At this final interview the consular officer issues you a Hague Certificate to certify that the international adoption meets the Convention requirements, as well as final approval of the I-800 petition and will issue your new child a IH-3 or an IH-4 visa.

 
So basically, once we have the Article 5 letter, that will then trigger China's official invitation to us to come over and get custody of our daughter. That invitation, called the travel approval (TA), comes about 10 days to 2 weeks after the Article 5 letter is issue.

We hope this helps explain the last part of this paper chase journey, that is completely out of our hands now.  So, our next announcements will be that Article 5 was picked up and then again when we have Travel Approval and what our "Gotcha Day" dates will be.  Because both kids are in the same Province, we anticipate we will get them both the same day.  You do have to go to the child's city of birth to get their passport.  Levi's birth city is the Capital City of the Henan Province, Zhengzhou.  So we will get his in the city we are already in.  And we anticipate having to travel the next day, just a day trip to and from Elizabeth's birth City: Zhoukou for hers.  

It's amazing to us, that we first started this journey, officially on March 6, 2013 with our accepted application to Adopt with our agency, CCAI.  Here we are a year later and we are ready to bring our babies home.  Yikes! 

We feel like this journey has been blessed and we have seen God's hand in providing for Elizabeth and Levi in many ways.  We are so thankful for those who have joined our journey through support, encouragment, financial contributions, hand me downs of may varieties (remember, we had nothing and here we are starting over again!)  Our closets are full and most basic physical needs are nearly met, for both babies (ok, they are not babies, they are almost 3 and near 2 years old.... but they are babies :)  )   

HOME STRETCH And Both Hands

We are in the Home Stretch and have a goal of "15 by 4/15"
We are hoping to fully fund both Adoptions by raising $15,000.00 by April 15th.
Would you consider being part of our "15 by 4/15 team"?

Our Both Hands Project is complete and we are accepting donations at (click and paste in another widow to open)   http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org/drew-and-aimee-ryan   until we come home from China.

We are so excited to share a video of our Both Hands Project.  It was completed 2-22-14.  This project compliments serving a widow with raising funds to bring orphans home.  We served a widow this date by completely cleaning out and cleaning up a home that needs to be put on the market.  There were MANY, MANY years of things accumulated that were either able to be thrown away or donated.  There were 5 van/truck loads of things taken for donation.  And there was a complete dumpster filled.  By the end of the day, the house was completely empty and sparkling clean!  Ready to be put up for sale.  We had some AMAZING volunteers.  Please watch this video......

 There is a DONATE button at the top left hand part of the page listed above.  Would you consider helping us raise the remaining $15,000.00 to completely fund our adoptions of Elizabeth and Levi?  We are working towards a complete date of April 15th.  We anticipate leaving for China April/May. We continue to hold to Philippeans 4:19 "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."  God has provided as He has called us.  Each step in faith, we walk closer to Him.  His glory is that Jesus is revealed in this story.  A redemption story.  We are grateful for the support of those coming along side us.  You have prayed for us, you have encouraged us and you have given financially to help give Elizabeth and Levi a forever family.  

Blessins,
Drew and Aimee

The Gift of QUILTS

We're blessed by the gift of Quilts!

Our friends Mike and Cindy Kleier have supported us in this crazy journey as we have shared our vision and desire.  They have so graciously come along side us in many ways.  But today, I HAVE to share the most special quilts Cindy peronally made and gifted us with.........

Thank you Cindy for the love and amazing work you put into these special quilts.  We will treasure them and can't wait to wrap Elizabeth and Levi up in them!!!!!!  We are so blessed!!!!!!

UPDATE ON ELIZABETH

We received Elizabeth's Update this afternoon!  So exciting.  We have some new pictures and info.

2/19/2014 Update

Medical/Development:

Her current health is good.

She likes music, playing with other children.

She can say 3-4 word phrases.

She is potty trained, but still uses diaper at night.

She knows some colors.

She can drink from a cup.

Personality:

They call her Xiao Feng or Xin Feng.

She is active and smiles easily.

She is attached a specific nanny.

She likes musical toys and toy blocks.

There is no special way to calm her down when she’s upset or ready to go to sleep. She can go to sleep easily.

General:

She is in the orphanage.  There are 12 children and 4 nannies in her room. (I think that's amazing!) Since entering the institute, Sun Xin Feng has continuously lived her and has become accustomed to the life.  Her daily life is one of routine and she has set meals.  She eats 3 main meals and 2 supplementary meals and she eats very well.  Her sleeping is also great and she doesn’t fuss at night.  Her daily life is one of routine and she has not had any abnormal things happen.  At present, she likes to communicate with others, she’s not afraid of strangers, she loves to say words, loves to smile and can even say 4-6 characters.  She can also make sounds such as, “ma ma” and “nai nai (grandma)” etc.  She also will call out other simple phrases like, “don’t go, don’t want” etc.  She can understand the instructions such as, “grab that, throw it in the trash” etc.  She has a strong ability to imitate and she can express her needs.  She recognizes 2-3 types of fruit and can stack up 10 blocks.  With help, she can go up and down flights of stairs.

            Currently, she is 88 cm tall, weighs 11.5 kg, has a head circumference of 46 cm, a chest circumference of 48 cm, a foot length of 14 cm and 20 teeth.

Feeling blessed for this updated information.  Trying to prepare the house and ourselves still.  Please continue to pray with us for Elizabeth's health, her transition to our fmaily, continued finances toward her adoption and travel.  We are beyond excited!!!!!

UPDATE ON LEVI

We received a brief update on Levi this week with a new picture.

2/12/2014 Update

Medical/Development:

His current health is good.

He can run,

He can say mama, baba and can understand what is said to him.

He is not potty trained.

  

Personality:

They call him Xi Yi.

He is introverted and has stranger anxiety.

  

General:

Sleeping time: 10:30pm-6:00am

Eating time: 7:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 6:00pm

He drinks formula.

He is in the orphanage.

We anticipating one more update before we travel, we get to submit 5 questions for our agency to ask the orphanage about the kids.  It will also include medical and developmental updates.   Or, so we hope :)  As well as pictures :)