We got an exciting phone call today from our adoption agency, they received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA)! The original time frame given to us for receiving our LOA was 3-4 months, but things moved along quickly, as it has only been 39 days!
This means that China has accepted our application to adopt Jesse and we can now work on the last leg of our journey. We, of course, have more paperwork that needs to be completed and we do not have travel dates yet. However, the agency speculates that we will travel around November 15th or December 6th. This is many months earlier than we had expected and are caught a bit off guard, but God's timing is perfect. So, bring on the next set of paperwork and let's bring him home!
Thank you all for your prayer support. We are specifically praying for Jesse's heart to soften and be open to accepting us as his new family and for God to comfort him as he grieves all of his losses.
Kopinski Adoption
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Happy Birthday, Jesse!
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. Isaiah 61:10
Today is Jesse's 6th birthday. We are so excited to know that this is the last birthday we will spend apart from each other and the last one he will spend in China. We were able to celebrate with very special friends and sing happy birthday to Jesse and blow out 6 candles in honor of him.
However, this was a day to reflect upon Jesse's mother and her choosing life for Jesse. We are so thankful that she chose to bring him into this world and am sure she is mourning on this day, as she will never see Jesse again. We pray that she can find peace in her decision to choose a better life for Jesse and get him to a safe place. We do not know or understand all that Jesse has been through in his 6 years, but we are counting the days until we can record his life in our family photo albums!
We are still waiting to get our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China, and are hoping to travel in February(ish) of 2014. Thank you for your prayers and support for our little man in China.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Dossier Sent to China
On Friday, July 19th, our dossier was approved by our adoption agency and mailed to China. We should get our 'log in date' in the next 2-4 weeks. The log in date means that the China portion of our agency has received our dossier. It will take time for them to translate the paperwork into Mandarin. The estimate travel date to bring Jesse home is 5-8 months.
God has been so faithful and He has continued to fill our lives with amazing friends and strangers who are prayerfully supporting this adoption. It is so exciting to see the body of Christ move to care for orphans. Our garage sale went well and we are humbled to see the generosity of those close to us and those we do not know who want to do what they can to bring Jesse home. Thank you to all who helped with our garage sale. Here are a couple of pictures from our garage sale:
God has been so faithful and He has continued to fill our lives with amazing friends and strangers who are prayerfully supporting this adoption. It is so exciting to see the body of Christ move to care for orphans. Our garage sale went well and we are humbled to see the generosity of those close to us and those we do not know who want to do what they can to bring Jesse home. Thank you to all who helped with our garage sale. Here are a couple of pictures from our garage sale:
Ethan operated his own lemonade, cookie and brownie stand. He was excited to share with everyone that he was saving this money for his brother in China!
Brianna set up and sold many bracelets and necklaces!
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Dossier Complete
Ethan shared with us yesterday that after we say good night to him each night and close the door he prays that Jesse will be ours. I love his faith and dependence on God. We are now step closer to making sure that Jesse is ours.
Our paperwork returned from the Chinese consulate yesterday with all of the authentication needed! We quickly sent our now completed dossier to our adoption agency. However, due to the US Consulate in China moving and being in a transition stage, our dossier will not get reviewed until closer to August. However, during this transition time, we are now able to think beyond the paper chase and more on transitioning Jesse into our home and our culture.
These are just a few of the amazing ways God has orchestrated this adoption and Jesse's transition so far:
Our paperwork returned from the Chinese consulate yesterday with all of the authentication needed! We quickly sent our now completed dossier to our adoption agency. However, due to the US Consulate in China moving and being in a transition stage, our dossier will not get reviewed until closer to August. However, during this transition time, we are now able to think beyond the paper chase and more on transitioning Jesse into our home and our culture.
These are just a few of the amazing ways God has orchestrated this adoption and Jesse's transition so far:
- God has brought many families into our lives that have adopted 'older' children from foreign countries.
- God has given us neighbors in which one speaks Mandarin (Jesse's native language) and whom is very willing to help with translations (and has already translated videos of Jesse for us).
- God has placed a family in our life that has a child with very similar vision needs.
- God has placed us in a great church with the most amazing support, through its orphan care ministry.
- God has provided a wonderful family that has been instrumental helping us understand the visual needs of Jesse and already providing consultations of what to expect when he comes home.
- God has surrounded our family with prayer warriors in support of this adoption. For that we are forever blessed.
Now, we get to work on putting together a small birthday package to send to Jesse, complete with a photo album. :)
Updated picture of Jesse
Documents for dossier
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
God's timing is perfect .. and a little annoying...
Our well laid out plans to have our dossier completed and mailed to China by July 5th (before the US Consulate in China moved to a new office and couldn't take any more paperwork for 3 weeks!), didn't work out! The kids and I traveled to Chicago on Sunday and met with the Chinese Consulate on Monday to get our dossier authenticated and overnight to our adoption agency. One document did not meet their specifications, therefore setting us back about another month. But, God has reassured us all along that this plan is His plan, not ours, and we need to rely more on Him! So, even though we are slightly annoyed at this delay, we know that Jesse is still waiting for us and God has special plans for Him in our family.
On a brighter note, my awesome daughter, Brianna, and her friend Hannah, are donating a portion of their business proceeds to help fund our adoption. The girls started a business last summer and have been quite successful in making and selling paracord necklaces, bracelets, anklets, key chains, and other items. Please check out their blog at http://paracordandco.blogspot.com
They do special orders as well! You can choose the colors and let them create it! They have sold many items through our local swim team and have taken orders for a travel softball team too! The heart of these girls is all to glorify God!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Immigration Fingerprints Complete & Special Surprise
Thursday, we made a trip to Naperville, IL to complete our immigration process. We found the illusive fingerprinting office (a big thank you to those who offered directions and photos!!), and within 20 minutes, were done. Now we wait to get our '797' approval form from immigration before we send all our documents to the Chinese Consulate for authentication.
So, we decided to make the most of the trip and have some quality family time and enjoy some fun Chicago area attractions. All the boys spent Thursday afternoon at Legoland, and had the best time! They got to build and design lego models. They were able to go on a couple of rides and check out all of the lego created sculptures. They saw the mini Star Wars scene, the Chicago skyline scene, a jungle, Harry Potter, etc. They are looking forward to going back again soon. Meanwhile, Brianna and I were able to enjoy some girl-time shopping at nearby Woodfield Mall!
All Ethan wanted for his birthday was a trip to Medieval Times, and were were able to enjoy that on Thursday night. The dinner and show were great and all the kids were cheering for their knight and were excited for all the jousting and dueling. It was a great time to end our year study of the Medieval times at school too!
Friday we visited with sweet family and then went to IKEA. While at IKEA, we got an e-mail from our adoption agency with updated pictures, videos and information on Fulian! I saw the updated pictures and had to sit down in the bunk bed section of IKEA and just cried. He is so beautiful (my boys would tell me I have to say handsome, and he is that too .. but he is also very beautiful)! We read through the information and understand his vision needs a little better. Of course, my phone could not open the videos, so I immediately went to work finding an internet cafe nearby. The kids thought I should be patient and wait until we got home, but if there was a video of my son at my fingerprints and I needed to wait 6 hours to see it, well, I would find another way.
So, our other super surprise was to take the kids to Xtreme Trampoline. I found a library next to Xtreme Trampoline and used their computer lab to review the 2 minutes of videos. So glad we did! He is so sweet, has a great disposition, sense of humor, and it seems his care givers are sweet too. We couldn't understand anything they were saying, but they were gentle with him, laughing, and allowing us to see how he writes his Chinese characters (of which Ethan has now copied all of them, just like Fulian). After the video excitement, we made it to Extreme Trampoline where there were several trampoline pits, including a dodgeball pit, a foam pit, and other pits with trampolines on the floor and the walls. We were all tired and sweaty after that.
The drive home reminded us how grateful we are to not live in Chicago with their lovely traffic congestion. But, it also gave Chris and I time to reflect on the prognosis of Fulian's vision needs. We know that God is sovereign over our adoption process and we are lifting this up to Him for wisdom on how to proceed. We do appreciate your prayers for Fulian, his care, his health, his care takers, and his heart - to be open to feeling the love of a family, with siblings, and the love of our almighty God. We ask for prayers for discernment for Chris and I, and for us to follow God completely and wholly!
So, we decided to make the most of the trip and have some quality family time and enjoy some fun Chicago area attractions. All the boys spent Thursday afternoon at Legoland, and had the best time! They got to build and design lego models. They were able to go on a couple of rides and check out all of the lego created sculptures. They saw the mini Star Wars scene, the Chicago skyline scene, a jungle, Harry Potter, etc. They are looking forward to going back again soon. Meanwhile, Brianna and I were able to enjoy some girl-time shopping at nearby Woodfield Mall!
All Ethan wanted for his birthday was a trip to Medieval Times, and were were able to enjoy that on Thursday night. The dinner and show were great and all the kids were cheering for their knight and were excited for all the jousting and dueling. It was a great time to end our year study of the Medieval times at school too!
Friday we visited with sweet family and then went to IKEA. While at IKEA, we got an e-mail from our adoption agency with updated pictures, videos and information on Fulian! I saw the updated pictures and had to sit down in the bunk bed section of IKEA and just cried. He is so beautiful (my boys would tell me I have to say handsome, and he is that too .. but he is also very beautiful)! We read through the information and understand his vision needs a little better. Of course, my phone could not open the videos, so I immediately went to work finding an internet cafe nearby. The kids thought I should be patient and wait until we got home, but if there was a video of my son at my fingerprints and I needed to wait 6 hours to see it, well, I would find another way.
So, our other super surprise was to take the kids to Xtreme Trampoline. I found a library next to Xtreme Trampoline and used their computer lab to review the 2 minutes of videos. So glad we did! He is so sweet, has a great disposition, sense of humor, and it seems his care givers are sweet too. We couldn't understand anything they were saying, but they were gentle with him, laughing, and allowing us to see how he writes his Chinese characters (of which Ethan has now copied all of them, just like Fulian). After the video excitement, we made it to Extreme Trampoline where there were several trampoline pits, including a dodgeball pit, a foam pit, and other pits with trampolines on the floor and the walls. We were all tired and sweaty after that.
The drive home reminded us how grateful we are to not live in Chicago with their lovely traffic congestion. But, it also gave Chris and I time to reflect on the prognosis of Fulian's vision needs. We know that God is sovereign over our adoption process and we are lifting this up to Him for wisdom on how to proceed. We do appreciate your prayers for Fulian, his care, his health, his care takers, and his heart - to be open to feeling the love of a family, with siblings, and the love of our almighty God. We ask for prayers for discernment for Chris and I, and for us to follow God completely and wholly!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Certification Complete
The kiddos and I spent yesterday in Springfield, IL. Our purpose for going was to visit the Secretary of State's office to get our dossier documents certified. Last week, we found out from our adoption agency that all of our documents were notarized incorrectly. We were frustrated with this but quickly set to contacting all the notaries and asking them to re-notarized each document with the proper specifications. Each and every notary was very kind and prompt (and very understanding, thankfully!).
Saying many prayers on our way to the Secretary of State's office, we were greeted with some questions and were not sure all the documents would be approved. But, God is good and saw us through this little step in the big adoption process. But, as we were waiting for our documents to be certified, we received exciting news from our friends, who are also adopting. Their wonderful news helped us see the big picture of this process a little closer. We know that God is sovereign and His timing is best, no matter what obstacles we need to go through (or how long we need to wait).
God was patient with us and our journey to come to know Him and be adopted by Him. It took us a long time, but He didn't give up on us. That gives us encouragement to keep our eyes focused on His plan, not give up, even with the obstacles that come our way, and complete each tiny step along this journey to get our son home with us. We are thrilled to be serving a great God!
Saying many prayers on our way to the Secretary of State's office, we were greeted with some questions and were not sure all the documents would be approved. But, God is good and saw us through this little step in the big adoption process. But, as we were waiting for our documents to be certified, we received exciting news from our friends, who are also adopting. Their wonderful news helped us see the big picture of this process a little closer. We know that God is sovereign and His timing is best, no matter what obstacles we need to go through (or how long we need to wait).
God was patient with us and our journey to come to know Him and be adopted by Him. It took us a long time, but He didn't give up on us. That gives us encouragement to keep our eyes focused on His plan, not give up, even with the obstacles that come our way, and complete each tiny step along this journey to get our son home with us. We are thrilled to be serving a great God!
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