Almost Done!

 

PuzzleJuly2We are so excited to share that Lucy Joy’s Puzzle Project is almost complete!
Here is what the nearly finished puzzle looks like now…

Lucy's PuzzleAnd here is a peek at the back of all those pieces!
Lucy's PuzzleSo many kind friends, loved ones, and even people we have never met
are represented by the names written on the back of the pieces.

_MG_9438-4What a treasure this will always be to us –
and we cannot wait to share the story behind all of
the pieces of the puzzle with Lucy Joy!

In other news, we heard from our social worker today that
our dossier has been officially reviewed and is now
in the last phase called Match Review.
This phase will probably take a few more weeks.

Each and every step brings us a little closer!

ChinaMap

Prayer and Channeling

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers about our fingerprints. We ended up using a channeler.

Finger PrintIt turns out the FBI allows some private companies to send fingerprints directly to them for background checks. They really call them channelers.

In the old days (before September 2013) the Nebraska State Patrol would run background checks at the state level, and then run background checks against the national FBI database, this process would take about 8 weeks.

I was the guinea pig for our agency using a private channeler and the process took a total of 1 day.

In our last home study this was one of the most time consuming parts, this time it was one of the quickest.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Chinese Food!

 

We are so interested in learning all about China,

it’s always on our mind these days!

 We have found a Chinese documentary about food in China called:

A Bite of China

It is fascinating!

 We cannot recommend this wonderful series enough.

You can watch all 7 episodes here:

 http://english.cntv.cn/special/a_bite_of_china/homepage/index.shtml

Background Checks and Fingerprints (Continued)

Stick with me, this might be confusing to you if you have never adopted.

The state of Nebraska requires finger prints to be taken and background checks to be run  in order for a family to be approved to adopt a child.

Fingerprints are put on a card by law enforcement and sent to the State Patrol in Lincoln.

The State Patrol uses the fingerprints and does a state and FBI criminal check.

There are 3 places you can get your fingerprints put on a paper card (Douglas County Sheriff’s office, State Patrol Office, Omaha Police Department).

Only the State Patrol did free fingerprints so we went to them.State Patrol Fingerprint Sign

But they don’t do fingerprinting for adoption anymore so we went to the Omaha Police Department and paid $40.

We sent the cards with our fingerprints and $64 to the Lincoln State Patrol office and waited several weeks.

Fingerprints

We just received them back today!

No, not our background checks, our fingerprints and check. It turns out the State Patrol has decided to only do background checks for government agencies now.

SO

The state requires background checks, is the only place we can get them, and doesn’t do them anymore. This means that there is no way for anyone to complete or update their home-study in Nebraska right now.

Dead End

We’ll be calling some elected officials tomorrow….

 

Whys

Why? Those who go outside of the mainstream of society hear that question a lot; I thought I would answer some of those whys.

We knew before we started the journey to adopt Michael that adoption would be a lifestyle for our family for a while. We just decided that background checks and homestudies would be our normal for a few years (perhaps til we’re 45?). We recently looked at doing another local adoption, but were compelled by circumstance to look beyond Omaha. The more we looked at international adoption, the more we were drawn to it. Though the red tape and incredible expense were appealing to us, it was actually the reality that there are children in orphanages waiting for families that made this decision for us.

We found a great agency (Lifeline), and chose China, out of perhaps 20 countries that they work with, for many reasons.
We chose “Special Needs” because those are the children who are waiting. They are the children that society says are damaged and broken (just like us before Christ).

News

Dear Friends,

Just a quick note to let you know that Kirstin and I have decided to pursue adopting from China. The child will have some special needs, though we don’t know what that means yet. We have just begun and being matched with specific children comes much later.
There are many factors in a decision like this. In short, we don’t have the money or feel like we have the ability, but we have been given the desire and feel we have also been given God’s grace to do it.

Please join us in prayer as we begin this journey!

Jason and Kirstin Rothfuss