Gethsemane Spaghetti Dinner

- This was written 4/29/12 -

Today we were blessed by our congregational family at Gethsemane Lutheran Church.  What can I say?  The service was so fun!  Our contemporary group played (Dad on the drums, Ron playing harmonica, me with a microphone...Rick, Dennis, Jake, Roger...We have so much fun!).  The choir sang, our organist played an extra piece, and our resident cellist shared his wonderful gift offering special music as well.  After the services, the women of the church prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner which they offered for a free will donation on our behalf to support our travel to Luke.  It was such a wonderful social time and we were so excited to share Luke's information with everyone.  It has been so hard to keep things a secret so long!  We had so many friends there from Gethsemane, as well as some of our travel group from Hope's adoption, and aunts and uncles who traveled across the state just to join us for lunch.  What an awesome afternoon!

Hope went table to table showing off her new brother's picture.  She is a proud sister!  It's AWESOME!

FINALLY - LOA

- This was written on 4/23/12 -

It is with great excitement and happy hearts that we introduce you to our new son and brother Han Le Guang, soon to be Luke LeGuang Heutmaker.  He was born May 5, 2011 in Jiangsu Province, China.  We cannot wait to bring him home sometime this summer (hopefully).  Isn't he just the cutest little guy?!

At 12:38 I had a missed call from Katie at Crossroads.  Well, there was some Devine scheduling of my day today, because I ended up with an unexpected afternoon off, so I was on my phone returning Katie's call at 12:41.  "Congratulations!  We have your LOA!"  Then, she said the funniest thing about how she could Fed-Ex our paperwork so we could sign it and send it back to her.  HAHAHAHA - Ummm...NO Way!  Let me just spin this car around, call Ron and we'll be there this afternoon.  Ron was able to leave a bit early, come meet me so we could ride together, and we were able to head right back to Crossroads to sign that coveted paper and get it on it's way.  Praise God!  Another HUGE step toward our son.


Now for a little explanation about why we didn't share Luke's picture prior to this.  You know from previous posts that we have had Luke's information since our referral on 1/16.  The process is so different this time around doing SN/Waiting Child adoption as opposed to the NSN process we experienced with Hope.  We were able to share her picture right away because once we had that referral in hand it was a "done deal."  Things are different for us now.  The order of the process is a little more involved.  We were carefully advised to keep our referral pictures private until we received this wonderful Letter of Approval because there is a period of time prior to this when things can still change.  The easy comparison is to just think about how most people don't announce a pregnancy until after the first trimester.  There are so many "what ifs" and until the LOA was signed this afternoon, our referral technically wasn't complete.

Thought you might get a kick out of seeing us sign the big paper.  :)

At any rate, we celebrate today, because today it is official that China has approved our referral request to adopt sweet Han Le Guang and we couldn't be more elated.  Prayers are answered in His time on His terms.  We are blessed today.

PA

~ This was written 1/31/12 ~

Guess what came to our in-box today!  PA baby!  :)  (PA = online pre-approval)  It is so hard to wait for these little baby steps now that we have our son's picture.  This process is so different from our first adoption.  After we saw Hope's picture for the first time, we had to wait just a month to have her in our arms.  It will be 4, 5, maybe 6 months before we get to bring our son home.  So, while I'm so so so happy to have his sweet smile to keep me company through a couple of snapshots, I think time is going to seem to pass slowly for a while. Anyway, here is the news:

The CCCWA agrees to "handle and process" our case.  hmmm - I realize this is not the final approval.  We need to have that signed LOA (Letter of Acceptance, a.k.a. Letter Seeking Confirmation from Adopter) in our hands to make all of this official.  However, with each baby step, I can feel the weight lifting.  CR says it could be 4-12 weeks before we see this arrive.

We've also been advised to keep our news somewhat private until the official LOA is signed and returned to China.  Although it seldom happens after the PA has been received, things could still change at this point.  C'mon LOA!  I'm not so great at keeping secrets.

LOI

~ This was written 1/19/12 ~


Had this e-mail exchange today:
~~~~~
Katie,
SEND IT SEND IT SEND IT!!!!
:)
Can I call you this morning?
~~~~~

Hi Beth!

This is great news!  I will upload your information right now and let you know when everything is uploaded successfully! :)
~~~~~

Dear Ron and Beth,

This email is to confirm the successful submission of your documents onto the CCCWA online system!

~~~~~

These messages are referring to our LOI (Letter Of Intent).  This is a letter that is written by prospective adoptive parents of waiting children that states their intention to adopt a specific child.  Whew!!!  The last few days have been a whirlwind!  After Katie called on Monday, we had 72 hours to consult medical professionals, specialists, other AP's (adoptive parents), etc...anybody we thought could offer us sound advice regarding our (I can say "our" now, yes?) little guy's ear condition.  Can I just say that these last few days of scrambling have been so hard to do under the radar.  We are trying to keep things quiet as we make these early decisions.  With so many unknowns, we just feel it is important to work through these early stages without sharing much information.  *SIGH*  I wish I could just have someone tell me what to do, that it's all going to be OK, and that we are strong enough to handle this.  Uncertainty is NOT my friend.


Anyway, we did it!  It is our intent to adopt Han Le Guang from Xuzhou SWI, Jiangsu Province, China.


Flashback to Monday night...there was absolutely nothing we could do after 9:00 in the evening about contacting anybody.  However, Tuesday morning...my dialing fingers got a workout.  Without going into the play by play, within a couple of days I was able to consult with our pediatrician, a specialist at the U of M, an ENT in Maplewood, and an AP who has two daughters with the same ear condition.  We talked for hours and asked endless questions.  The final question I asked each of the doctors was, "Do you see anything in these few pictures that would cause you not to pursue the adoption?"  All of them answered, "no."  That's it.  Let's do it!  :)  Both Ron and I sort of knew it was a done deal already.  However, with all of the questions, discussions, and phone calls, we were able to find out a lot more about what the future may hold for us and our family.


We were able to get our letter written, sent off to our agency to be translated by Tu, and sent to China, all within that short 72 hour window.  Can I sleep now?

LID & More!!!

~ This was written 1/16/12 ~

Oh my gosh! Oh My Gosh!! OH MY GOSH!!! I don't even know where to start.

We'd had instructions during the week to send our photos that CR would submit with a match so we got that together and sent them yesterday (1/15).

TONIGHT at 8:00 pm I got a phone call from Katie at Crossroads saying that she'd matched us with a baby boy! BOY? BABY? Whhhaaaaaat?! I was crazy with questions. Honestly...the information we had was that new children are typically added to the waiting child list on the last Monday of the month. That's two weeks away! And, HEY! We don't have our log-in-date yet. How could you match us. "Oh yeah. We got that today, too!" Can you believe this!

Two minutes later at 8:02 we got an email with this little guy's information. Here's the thing...Ron was at bowling!!! Do I open the email? Do I wait? What harm is a little peek? Well, I waited. Ron got home shortly after 9 and we opened the message together. He's amazing! Wait until you see this sweet boy!

BOY? Yes.

BABY? Yes.

AAAHHHHHHHH!!! My head is spinning!

Chinese New Year 2012

Welcome Year of the Dragon!!! It's going to be an exciting year for the Heut fam! To quote my mom, "Dare I say that next year we'll have another little one at the table?" That's going to be so fun! Wonder if we'll have to serve congee. *GRIN*

We started of this year's celebration with a big family dinner on Sunday afternoon (1/22). We had church commitments that morning. This is Hope in her Sunday best.


After singing our way through the morning we were ready to head home and start the preparations. Part of our tradition the past few years has been inviting Hope's grandparents to join in the celebration.



We pass out the Tsing-Tao and everybody has a hand in the preparations.





We were all business in the kitchen. There were some shenanigans going on in the other room, though.



Dinner is served! YUM! Our menu this year: Pork Dumplings, Cream Cheese Wontons, Steak and Onion Stirfry, Sesame Chicken Skewers, Broccoli and Hazelnut Stirfry, Szechuan Green Beans, and Fried Rice. And, P.S. to my family reading this, your effort in staging this photo to make it look like you all used your chopsticks did not go unnoticed. :)


Dessert


After dinner there was time for some Just Dance for Kids and a couple serious rounds of Uno before we called it a night. Happy New Year!!! I just know our year of the dragon is going to be an exceptional one.

Timely Verses

God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. ~ Isaiah 12:2

"If we believe in God's promises, then we don't need to be afraid." These were words from Hope's evening devotional the other night (1/18). Granted, the story was referring to being afraid of the dark or strange noises, but poignant still? I think so.

And, the Proverbs 31 Ministries daily devotional two days ago was called "Listening to God." Renee Swope wrote, "Like Jesus, we will discover God’s purpose for our lives through dependent hearts that seek to listen to His...."

What is going on? What is this knock upside the head? This happened to me during our first adoption too. I know I wrote several times about how as we walked through the adoption process there were lessons sprinkled all over the place about God's master plan. Well, it's time for another lesson. Time to let go. Time to open my heart and mind, and to remember that God's got this. He knows our future child. He sees our family as He has designed us to be.

Trust Him.

Works every time.

(So God? If we could just speed things up a little that would be great. Thanks, Beth)