Our Timeline

Date: 3/15/2005
Entry: Ron requested information on line from American World Adoption Association. Frank and Barbara Skees had come for dinner and the adoption topic resurfaced.

Date: 4/2/2005
Entry: We received packet from AWAA. Ron and I tearfully read it at Burger King while the kids played in the playland.

Date: 4/9/2005
Entry: One week later, we attended an Adoption Seminar held 15 minutes from our house. (We won for shortest driving distance)

Date: 4/12/2005
Entry: We began our journey by mailing our application to AWAA.

Date: 6/30/2005
Entry: Physicals for the family.

Date: 7/11/2005
Entry: Home Study begins with Kathy Gallup from Lutheran Social Services. (7-11, 8-8, 8-25, and 9-26)

Date: 9/5/2005
Entry: Labor Day Weekend. Dawson in his evening prayers prays for his sister in china.

Date: 9/6/2005
Entry: Gift from friends! Thanks for your perfect timing God.

Date: 9/10/2005
Entry: Adoption Seminar from Lutheran Social Services

Date: 11/4/2005
Entry: Received Police records. . .we have none. . . good thing!

Date: 11/15/2005
Entry: At some time in November we drove as a family to Indianapolis so Ron and I could be fingerprinted.

Date: 12/10/2005
Entry: Friends gave us a gift towards our adoption. Thanks!

Date: 2/8/2006
Entry: We mailed final packet to the Chinese Embassy in Chicago.

Date: 2/22/2006
Entry: John Skees sent our final package to AWAA overnight!
Date: 2/23/2006
Entry: After we faxed our signatures from the Pastor and Pastor’s Wives conference in California, all of our paperwork was in!!

Date: 2/24/2006
Entry: AWAA mailed our paperwork as well as 10 other families to China.

Date: 3/16/2006
Entry: This is our official Log in Date (LID). Our group number is 253.

Date: 4/23/2006
Entry: We met Cheryl, Liu Bo, and Isabella Wilkins; a missionary mom and her daughters from China. She was visiting our church and God planned our meeting. Her website is mothersheartcn@gmail.com

Date: 4/25/2006
Entry: Received grant from Shaohannah’s Hope. This is Steven Curtis Chapman’s Organization.

Date: 5/5/2006
Entry: We had a garage sale. Grandma Skees donated all of her sales to our adoption. (Thanks Mom!)

Date: 5/14/2006
Entry: Mothers Day. We received a gift from a church family. Thank you!

Date: 6/24/2006
Entry: Our family went to the zoo. After talking about the wait to adopt,we met a family who had their 3 year old Chinese daughter with them. The wife challenged us and said, "If God told you to adopt. . ." (Thanks for sending their encouragement to us God.)

Date: 9/10/2006
Entry: Ron and I met Nina and Kirk Falconer at Pathway’s New Comers Lunch. Their adoption agency was AWAA and their caseworker was Anna!! Same as ours! My God is not a god of coincidence! He is intentional!! (Kirk, Nina, and Simon traveled to China 12/06 for Stella!)

Date: 11/1/2006
Entry: Matching Grant from Life International!

Date: 3/5/2007
Entry: We applied for Dawson’s Passport.

Date: 9/11/2007
Entry: We are holding on to the promise that God’s timing is perfect. At this point China is taking up to 24 months for a referral. This puts our family at March 2008 before we get a picture of the little girl God has predetermined for us. Our adoption agency then arranges travel for us and other families. Hopefully around May we will travel to China to pick up our daughter. Thank you for all your prayers for our family and the other families awaiting their referrals.

Date: 3/27/2008
Entry: Well, it is March, 2008. Our adoption agency is telling us that it will be 4 months plus before we get matched up with the little girl God has for us. We are hanging on to Proverbs 16:3 "Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established." We know He has the plan for our lives all in place. We need to trust Him.
Lydia, our 6 year old accepted Jesus into her heart this past Saturday. . .the night before Easter! We are rejoicing with her! God is good!

Date: 12/26/2008
Entry: Christmas was a great day for our family. We opened presents and read the true story of Christ’s birth! American World has informed us we are "on deck" with our adoption. Our log in date is March 16, 2006. The current wait for China adoptions is over 3 years. We are still patiently waiting as God controls our future. Hopefully we will be notified who are daughter is within the next 6 months.

Ii Peter 1:5-7 "Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Date: 1/1/2009
Entry: Sometime during these months, we renewed our home study, did police checks again, all 5 of us were tested for TB, and we all had physicals again! Oh yea, and we did the Hague Training!

Date: 3/4/2009
Entry: Wow! Our daughter is getting closer. China has matched families with their babies up to March 6, 2006. Our date is March 16. 10 days doesn’t seem like very long, but the way it works is China sends referrals out once every 5 weeks or so and 2-7 days are included in these groups. So, we could get our referral in 2-6 months. We are waiting for our home study to be renewed and then on to being fingerprinted again in Indianapolis.

In my bible study by Beth Moore, she says our culture trains us to be impatient. Current technology says ’take out the wait’. My Bible says ’Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.’ Isa.40:31 God is never in-active! ’Balance passion with patience.’

Date: 5/12/2009
Entry: Yesterday, Ron and I enjoyed the day together driving to Indianapolis. We had a 12:00 appointment at the Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. We had our fingerprints taken again. (Our fingerprints and paperwork had expired.)

Close to four years ago we had our fingerprints taken before. Dawson was 5, Lydia 3 and Sophia was 2. How our life has changed! God was good to us then and is still good to us today!

The Chinese government has been concerned about the Swine Flu and has not sent any referral out for awhile. Hopefully we will have some good news soon!

Date: 6/11/2009
Entry: We had a garage sale this past weekend with 10 families from church donating items. The proceeds went into our adoption fund. We are very grateful to have raised $700+!!

As for our referral coming from China. . .we are still waiting. CCAA has matched through 3-14-06. We should be in the next batch! The Swine Flu may still be playing a part with the delays. Hopefully, we will be traveling to China by September. Please continue to pray for our little daughter as we believe she is already born and is waiting for us in China.

Date: 6/19/2009
Entry: Surprise Surprise!!! We received the call! Her name is Yue Mei Le and she is 6 1/2 months old! All I can say is that we are in shock! The wait has been long and now it hardly seems real that God has blessed us with another child!

Date: 6/22/2009
Entry: Received our I800A approval today in the mail! Perfect timing to send in with our acceptance letter of Yue Mei Le.

Date: 9/10/2009 - 9/24/2009 Ron, Laura, and Dawson will travel to China to pick up Isabella Mei Williams.

Date: 9/14/2009 "Gotcha Day!" Today is the day God planned all along to add Isabella Mei to the Williams Family.