Author Archives: jason

Travel

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Hello from Xi’an!  Can you believe we are in China!?!?  We had a great trip arriving here at our hotel after 11:00 pm local time.  We did not get much sleep on the way, but that probably helped get us on the right sleep schedule as we were easily ready to go to bed even though it was mid-morning back home.

This morning we took a walk in the rain to look for SIM cards and bottled water.  So fun to see all the people going about their daily life.  We got some great pictures that we hope to be able to share with you soon when we get the computer online.

I am praying for our Lucy… This is her last full day with all that is familiar to her.  Tomorrow we will meet her at the Civil Affairs building after she, the director, and a caregiver make the 2-3 hour drive here.  So excited to have her with us!

More to come later!

Almost Done!

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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

“Coming Home” Puzzle Project

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In many ways, our journey to adopt Lucy Joy has been a puzzle. Are we to adopt again? Where should we adopt from? Is there a particular child for us Lord? Who should share a bedroom? What can we do about those troublesome fingerprints?!?! Many of you reading have also been pieces to this puzzle. You have prayed for us, you have walked with us, you have supported us, you have counseled us, we have learned from you, you have cheered us on. The questions continue… How many of us should travel to China? Who will help those that stay home? Which city should we fly into? How will we fund this whole process?

As you probably already know, all adoptions are a big financial undertaking. Our agency estimates that we will need approximately $30,000 to complete this entire process. Some of the things covered by these funds are background checks, physicals for everyone in the family, the home study, travel expenses and fees to the US, China, and our agency.

So, today we are inviting you to be another piece of this puzzle! In fact, today we are inviting all of you to place some of the actual pieces in the puzzle that is bringing Lucy Joy home!

With the help of our wonderful brother-in-law, Bill Armstrong (who took the photograph below on a recent trip to China), we have had a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle created that we titled:

“Coming Home.”

Coming Home

The village pictured is Xizhou (pronounced she-joe) in Yunnan Province near the city of Dali. Believe it or not, that is a field of garlic in the foreground. Amazing!

For each $10 that is donated, we will write the donor’s name on the back of two puzzle pieces and add them to the puzzle.

PuzzlePic

As the puzzle comes together, we will post updates on our blog.  Completing the puzzle will raise $5,000 of the needed finances. When it is complete, we plan to frame it and display it in our home. We love that this will be a visual reminder that there were so many of our friends and family working with us to
bring Lucy Joy home.

We are already off to a great start! Sixteen pieces have
already been sponsored! 

puzzlephoto 1

If you would like to contribute, we have provided a Paypal button in the side bar to the right. You may also contribute funds in person or through the mail.  

Please feel free to share Lucy Joy’s “Coming Home” Puzzle Project with anyone that you think would like to contribute!

There is something we haven’t told you.

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OK, here’s the deal. We have asked our agency to allow us to adopt 2 children. This is a big deal to them because they have seen families struggle with simultaneous adoption. Not just struggle, struggle and suffer and break apart and fail, so they are VERY cautious about allowing it. This means they spent time talking to us about what adopting 2 children concurrently looks like, and asked us to answer questions about it.

Lots of questions. (Our official response to them was 16 pages long).

And actually, we appreciate that quite a bit. Struggling is no fun and we know they want what is best for us and the children, they have a tremendous amount of experience in this area, and they are seeking the Lord’s will, as are we.

So, please pray with us in the coming days that the leadership at Lifeline would make this huge decision for our family with prayerful and Godly wisdom.

Many Thanks, Jason and Kirstin

Home Study Complete

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checkbox1We just received word that our Home Study was completed and approved. This is a huge milestone! We have been working on our Home Study since August 2013.

Next Step: Apply to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to be deemed suitable to adopt, then wait 2-3 months!

Technically the application form is the I-800a or the “Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Convention Child.”  A “Convention Child” is a child from a Hague Convention country.  A Hague Convention country is one that has signed the The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, but I won’t get started on that right now.

With our Home Study complete we can also apply for grants, and hopefully set up an account to allow people to donate money tax-free if they are so inclined.

More to come, thanks for being on this journey with us.

 

End of the Beginning – In Sight

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We are nearing the end of our Home Study (the first step in our adoption journey). Actually it is a lot of steps. I have attached a list of our Home Study steps below.

Check list:

  • Application
  • Fee Agreement
  • Statement of Understanding
  • Duty to Disclose Agreement
  • Release of Information
  • Client Information Form
  • Consent for Services
  • Self Study Questionnaire
  • Release of Information/Child and Adult Protective Service Requests
  • Fingerprinting/Criminal Checks
  • Criminal History Release for Local Criminal Checks
  • 1040 Tax Return
  • Financial Statement
  • Monthly Budget
  • Mortgage or Rental Letter Confirming Good Standing
  • Verification of Life Insurance
  • Employer Reference Request
  • General Physical Examination Form (each Potential Adoptive Parent)
  • Child’s Health Form (each child)
  • Verification of Health Insurance
  • Marriage License
  • Birth Certificate (each Potential Adoptive Parent and all children in home)
  • Three Personal Reference Requests
  • Firearms and /or Weapons Statement
  • Verification of Training attended
  • Prior Home Study Information
  • Statement of Guardianship

It could be done as soon as next week. As soon as we have that done, we will begin applying for grants. (Just a note for those considering adoption, people survive this process all the time.) More to come, thank you for praying.

Prayer and Channeling

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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.

Background Checks and Fingerprints (Continued)

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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

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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

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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