An adoption update :)

It is with great excitement that we share a little update on the newest addition to the Roslevege Family. Since we have received “the call” from Sarah, our amazing social worker, we have been on a crazy roller coaster ride since that night. We know we have already shared with you the experience of seeing our daughter’s picture for the first time on February 18th at 8:22pm  but we thought we would share a little more of our experience and what has happened since then. Because in the world of adoption, there are a lot of approvals and paperwork necessary to move on to the next steps! So here’s a little look at our timeline if you are interested:
Thursday, February 24, 2011 – we submitted our LOI(letter of intent) to China requesting permission for them to review our application
Monday, February 28th – learned that PA (preliminary approval) had been granted for our application to be reviewed by China to adopt our daughter, it was dated February 25th
Monday, April 4th – Received our LSC(letter seeking confirmation) China officially linked us as Wu Jie Yun’s parents, and gave us permission to adopt her! It was dated April 1st!
Friday, April 22nd – granted I-800 provisional approval from the USCIS(our immigration services) to bring our daughter into the country
Monday, May 2nd – all of our paperwork was sent to the United States Consulate in Guangzhou from the National Visa Center



So…….now what??? Our paperwork is being sent to China TODAY to be delivered to the United States Consulate early next week. About 2 weeks later, the Consulate will issue something called an Article 5 and it is then sent back to Beijing for the China Center for Adoption Affairs to issue our TA(travel approval) and as soon as we receive that which usually comes in 2-4 weeks, we can book our travel plans and be on our way to become a family of FOUR within 2-3 weeks!!!

Realistically now, if timelines stay true and on target, we should be traveling to China and be there in early July with quite possibly leaving at the end of June. Everything has seemed to go so smoothly(and quickly) with everything and we certainly don’t want to jinx anything at this point. But, we are simply over the moon excited now that we are this far along, and this close to received permission to come get our beautiful daughter!




We weren’t really permitted to share too much about Hope until we received our LSC, and we have been so busy with everyday life that I never really got a chance to write too much in our blog or email for that matter…so, I’m so glad I have been journaling otherwise because there are too many important things to remember.
Jie Yun Wu is going to be our daughter! “Wu” represents Children’s Welfare Institute of Wuhan City and is her surname. All the babies born in this month have the same middle name “Jie”, and she was named “Yun”, from one hand, the person that found her had Yun in his name and from another hand, “it was the hope for her to be as free, happy and glad as the cloud in the morning.” She was born January 22, 2010 and we plan on naming her Hope Sarah Roslevege when we adopt her. She currently resides in Wuhan City, Hubei Province and has been in foster care receiving what seems to be wonderful care since August 2010 when she was 6 ½ months old.

In Hope’s referral, she was referred to as a happy, active baby who loves her toy keyboard her foster father bought her and playing outside. She loves music and picture books, so that will be fun for her and Matthew to look at books together because he too, loves his books!!! She is a sometimes picky eater and a moderate sleeper. Apparently, she also sucks her fingers when she sleeps and she gets a bottle before going to sleep and when she wakes up. (Yes, we are looking forward to this for bonding with her!) She also “loves watching TV ads” which made us chuckle, and it sounds like she is very well loved and cared for which makes our hearts feel so good. Of course, we know she will be attached to her foster family and that her transition may be difficult, but from what we understand from others that have adopted children from this area, they do share family albums with the children and try to prepare them with pictures of their new family. We hope and pray that this is the case for Hope as well. We sent her a package with a photo album, some pajamas, a soft blanket, a toy, a few other little things, and some treats for her caregivers back in March. Hopefully, she will recognize her Mommy, Daddy, and Matthew from pictures when we meet her!








So, how have we been preparing for her??? Well, we immediately started in an organizing mode at the house getting rid of things we didn’t need, and just re-organizing life things in general. We finished our bedroom which hadn’t been painted in 10 years – and I must say it looks pretty amazing. Chris worked his butt off preparing walls and getting everything just so. My Mom had given us a new comforter set, curtains, and money for paint for Christmas – so it was really fun to now have a special room for us!

Then we began tackling the spare bedroom – which accumulated lots of STUFF over the past 10 years! And it needed work to become a little girl's room!!! The furniture in there was my grandmother’s old furniture and it was very bulky and the room was full of very ugly wallpaper. Chris in his amazing handy-man skills got the wallpaper off, and we were then into a painting mode again! Amazing how much different a room can look 1) when it’s empty and 2) without wallpaper!!!

It has been SO exciting shopping for bedding and making decisions about decorating Hope’s Room. Her room is going to have a pink and brown theme with butterflies and flowers and we’ve painted the bottom of the walls pink with a cream colored top of the wall and a chair rail in the middle. We got the bedding in the mail last week (LOVE online shopping!) and I cannot wait to get it into her room! The room is pretty much done now and Chris is going to shampoo the carpet tonight, hang the curtain rods and curtains and then I can start decorating the room! Oh, and I guess we have to put the crib and dresser together too, huh? I got a really neat wall decal quote that I will share once I can post pictures of her room. It’s so perfect.


So….what’s Matthew up to over the past few months??? Well, we have been working hard to keep him involved in everything that we are doing in Hope’s room. He has helped us paint, sand wood, use the drill and screwdriver, and is the best little helper. He ADORES helping Chris and hates when we tell him no, Daddy doesn’t need you right now! We also have his and Hope’s picture together all in visual sight for him, and we often try to point to her and sign her name and try to get him understand that he will have a new sister even though it’s really tricky. We also got a really cool book from my cousin that has great pictures of the whole adoption process and traveling to get the little boy’s baby sister – and he loves looking at that so we hope that helps.

As far as his medical situation, he has had ups and downs over the past few weeks. OK – it’s been an emotional, frustrating journey as no one can seen to diagnose him and the more tired we got, the more upset we got! We had noticed some changes in him and an increase in his movements, and he really was having a hard time sleeping. (Like maybe 6 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period, and they weren’t consecutive hours!) So, we tried a new medication that was HORRIBLE, saw neurology, and have an appt. to see the eye doctor in June. He was also doing really well with his speech imitation and working so hard to get sounds out, but for some reason, that has declined recently and we need to figure that out. He continues to go to the IU deaf and hard of hearing preschool 4 mornings a week and then speech twice a week, and OT once a week at Hershey. We will always continue to work hard and never lose hope that he will be able to talk and communicate with us with ease. We also have an amazing story about a new assistive communication device that was given to us…….will have to write more about that later, but it still stirs huge emotions within Chris and I, and we are blessed beyond words with this gift for Matthew and for us. We think it’s going to open up a whole new world for him and for us right at our fingertips…technology is an amazing thing! More on that later…. 

Since we have him OFF the new medication, we finally have him back to his baseline which is a HUGE blessing. We still don’t know WHY or how to treat these movements/issues that occur, but Chris and I have finally become at peace with things again and know we just need to be trusting and know that we aren’t in charge of the big plan that God has for Matthew. What we do know is that there is no one in the world we have met that has a more beaming smile than Matthew does, and he just melts our hearts! We cannot wait for him to be a big brother – he is so caring with other children and he loves being around people so he is going to be excited to have a sister in the house. (Well, eventually we hope he will like it  I think his world will be turned upside down at first, as one can understand!)

So….there you have it, a brief update of what’s been happening in our world. If you have read this far, you must really be interested :) I want to go back and really TELL you all Hope’s story and show you how God has had His hands all over this journey in detail. But, I really did need to tell a little more about our precious daughter, especially now that we could be receiving our travel approval in 4-6 weeks and be on our way to China to bring her home VERY SHORTLY!!! To all of my praying friends, please continue to pray for us as we prepare for becoming a family of 4, work to get everything done that we need to in a timely manner, work with Matthew on helping him understand what is happening, for our precious daughter that she is loved and cared for, and that she is being prepared somewhat for us to come get her, and for us just to be able to love every moment of these journey and to be able to capture and remember, as well as appreciate every step of this journey!
Now….I have some things to think about like car seats, double strollers, bottles, baby items, packing lists…….ahhhhh!!! The time is coming and I am going to be the Mommy of a little GIRL AND a little BOY! I am so blessed, and so happy! Much more later…..I am sure of it!