Large Package going to China!

We got the last item for Luke's care package completed today and we are shipping it off on Tuesday!  We ended up sending a clothing donation for the orphanage as well as a little package of items for Luke.

Orphanage Donation:

• 15 - pink/purple shirts, 2-5T
• 10 - pairs of jeans, 2-5t
• 10 - Black doggy shirts, 2-5T (these dogs looked identical to my sisters dog Scout, it was uncanny!)
• 3 soft carters outfits, 3-9 mos
• 3 gingham orange button down shirts, size 10-14

Care Package for Luke:

• Tie Blanket (made by me and a neighbor girl!)
• Michigan hooded long sleve shirt
• Photo Book with pictures of our family (you can see the book here!).
• Toy Cell Phone
• Toy Camera (that actually takes pictures and has video)
• Disposable Camera

Our hope is that when we pick him up he has a lovie with him. It broke our heart that Emma had nothing with her when she came to us and it took her forever to really learn to cuddle with anything. We hope Luke is able to have the consistency of 1 thing in his life - whether that is the lovie I send or a lovie they give him!

On the paperwork front - our i800 was submitted last week!  That means we are officially 7 weeks ahead of where we were in the calendar year with Emma. We traveled on January 5th with Emma so it is entirely possible that we could travel in December. That said, we still need our supplement 3 to be approved and our I-800 to be approved. Our officer seems to be extremely picky so we will see!!

Praying for Luke and all the kids in the SWI this evening. We are coming for you soon buddy!!

PS if anyone wants to send a donation to Luke's orphanage, you certainly can but it may not the best use of direct funds. We just sent it because we knew we were sending the care package to Luke so threw in some items as well.  ;-) Instead of donating to the orphanage, I would suggest sponsoring a child with Love without Boundaries.  

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/sponsor-child/

It is the best use of the funds and give children a chance to have surgeries that then make them 'adoptable' (i.e. a heart echo to prove to adoptive parents that a child's heart condition is operable can make a child suddenly become very 'adoptable'.).  We LOVE Love Without boundaries and it breaks my heart to see so many kids sitting on their sponsorship list!  

Here is the address for the SWI donations as well!

Social Welfare Institute of Fuzhou City

NO.1688 Wenchang Road 

Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province,China

Post code: 344000

Introducing....{fastest LOA in history}

Introducing...

Lucas Lingao Dennis Lillie (aka Luke)

(he really was wearing split pants in this picture and was not fully covered. So we had to censor it! Seems like our boy may be potty training, yea!!)

We are ecstatic to say that we received our Letter of Approval (LOA) from China this past Friday. It was dated August, 2nd - only one day after our Pre-Approval (PA) from China.  This is the fastest I have ever seen anyone get a LOA and I believe is due to the fact that our paperwork has been in China for so long (we have had it there since March of 2012).  In fact, when I was looking back at my emails, it looks like our Home study was completed 2/22/2012.  Just 6 days before Lingao was born. ;-)

In any case, this expedited LOA means we could be in China in November or December, assuming no other glitches come up.   That said, we did have a recent glitch arise (its international adoption, not a surprise!) with the US government side of the house. For those of you into details, read on....

In July, I submitted an extension for our US paperwork. Per the instructions, I submitted the paperwork to the office in Missouri, where my original paperwork was approved.

Well, apparently those instructions were wrong b/c 2 weeks later, I received the entire paperwork package back at my home with instructions indicating I need to send it to a lock box in Texas.  At this point I know we are in trouble because the paperwork was supposed to be there 6 days earlier! The instructions are clear, however, that if I don't get this extension approved before my original approval expires, I have to start the US part of the paperwork all over again. This includes another $1000 to the US Gov't, 75 days of extra waiting, and re fingerprinting in downtown Detroit (such a nice trip we had).

Anyhow, I have since emailed my case to my officer and asked for an exception.  She replied once and said that, yes, she realizes the instructions say to send it to the approving office in one spot of the .pdf; however, she is quick to point out there is another place on the .pdf that indicates it needs to be sent to Texas. Hmm...I am still like, 'well the instructions are not consistent and I am where am I am. Can you help a girl out?'   No response.  That was 7 days ago, still we have heard nothing. Super frustrating, right?! I hope I didnt bite the hand that feeds me when I mentioned to her that someone ought to update those instructions!!

Given the 1 day LOA, I have to assume God's got something up his sleeve and my extension will be approved in the next few days.  It would be a dumb story to make 1 part of the process that is usually the longest/most unpredictable super fast for us and then make another part of the process (the US side) that is usually extremely predictable, slower, right?!

 I am going with that..Gods got us!

In the meantime, we are glowing in the bask of our new son, Luke. 

Or Luc....

We still have not officially decided on that part, lol.

~Christy

PS - we had to decide on a name today as one of the forms required it now that our LOA is approved. We work better under pressure anyway!!

Paying for Int'l Adoption: how we are doing it {hush hush}

No one likes to talk about money. I think this is because people either 1) want others to think they are made of it or 2) don't want to admit they are, in fact, not made of it. Yet when it comes to International Adoption, we hear about money a lot. Most commonly I hear -  'Oh i would adopt it if I could afford it'. Perhaps that is the case for everyone who has told me but I also feel like adoption is scary enough taking on the unkowns, taking on an unknown with the costs, can seem unmanageable.

The reality is that if you live in the US and pay taxes, you can adopt internationally for less then $10,000 (including a 2 week all inclusive trip to China!). And while $10k is no small chunk of change it is doable for many families. Before I get to that though...let  me back up....

Ever since Alexis joined our family I have been torn on if I want to work outside the home or not.  I enjoy my job a ton (good ppl, interesting work, great flexibility, good money)...but I enjoy my kids as well.  For now, working part time from home is the perfect balance.

For Emma's adoption, we used my part time income as our 'adoption fund'. We had plenty of time to save due to the time required for the process. This time around,  given the unexpected speed of Lingao's adoption, we are less prepared. I have been on unpaid leave for 3+ months and spent most of our disposable income prior to that on our new home that we built. ;-(

In our defense....we honestly were not thinking we would accept a referral until the fall...after I had been back to work for a while and saved some more towards our adoption fund. Then we saw Lingao's file and that plan went out the window.

What does International Adoption cost in China? Here is my quick rundown:

Now...back to my original point. There is a tax credit (better than a deduction this is a refund!) in the United States for $13,000 of adoption related costs. In the past it has been refundable but not sure on that aspect. In any case, this means that..

You can adopt internationally for ~ $10,000. Including a 2 week trip to China!!

The day we accepted Lingao's referral, I went into Dave Ramsey 'gazelle' mode looking for these funds.  And then God showed up in a big way.

Here is the net:

• We sold our second car. Note: We sold it for roughly the same amount we paid for it 18 mos ago. Very little if any money was invested in it over the time we owned it (thank you handy hubby!).  We do still need to buy a replacement second car but plan to spend $2,250 less than what our old car brought in. NET - $2250.
• Returned some furniture I had recently purchased (instead we are using my Craigs list find table that I already had). NET = $885
• Cancelled our gym/pool membership for the remainder of the year (at least) - $200/mo. NET = $800
• Our builder agreed to give us $500 back for under cabinet lighting I had previously paid for that has yet to be installed. NET = $500
• Matt went to a friends house to play poker 2 days after we said yes and won $65.  note - Matt had never played poker before and had to receive a lesson before they started!!. NET = $65
• Here is the big one...our agency contacted us and told us we received a grant for $3000 from a wealthy family that donated the $$ to them.  Note - we did not apply for this nor did I know this was available. We found out we got the grant the day after we sold the car! NET = $3,000

Total $$ found in 6 days = $7,500

Doing the math on our sub-totals..

• Our employer contribution towards adoption costs -  $8,000
• US tax credit -  $13,000.
• Previously mentioned $$ raised in 6 days. $7500

Total $$ available to Lillie Family for Lingao's adoption: $28,500. We are fully funded!! 
  
Are you  interested in International Adoption but think you can't afford it? Contact me and let me help you creatively think of a way to fund that last $10,000 and cash flow the US Governments $13k.  I bet you will be amazed at how quickly you can do it!!  Gym memberships, car payments, vacations, selling extra things (bikes, playsets, blackberries, iphones, laptops, etc), renting out your house (this is a great one in Ann Arbor!). There are also tons of grants out there!!I have seen online fundraisers, garage sales, and other 'gazelle' activities raise this kind of $$ in weeks!! ;-)

*** One note - We are not fundraising for this adoption and this post is in no way requesting funds (Trying to avoid the awkward conversations by being up front here!). Yes, we could have 'borrowed' the $$ from ourselves (from our savings / emergency fund) but there is something to be said for sacrifice and depending on God.  Just another reassurance that He has our back!

2015 update -- here is a link to my recent post on picking an agency!! Do your homework and save yourself a lot of $$!!

http://lilliefamily.blogspot.com/2015/01/china-adoption-agency-comparisson.html?m=1

Big News...

We will soon be one more!

I will post more details on the last few weeks in a later post. 

For now, we are excited to share his cute little face with everyone!!

 Potty training is split pants

And now we are 5!

It has been way to long since I blogged. Suffice it to say if you follow my blog but have not yet friended me on facebook, you better friend me now!  With 3 kids and no adoption on the horizon, I don't have much to say that can't be done on FB. :-)

In any case, here are pictures of our new little on (Jacob Patrick) and our growing family.

For those of you that are wondering how Emma is doing  -- with 3 moves the year she came home, it was really hard for her to adjust in terms of sleeping. We made so many mistakes trying to parent her the same way as we parented Lexie.  Every child is different!  We are now on the right track and starting to see improvement.    It is easier for us now as well..when a child is screaming her head off in the middle night you don't feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You feel warm and fuzzy when the child says 'mama and dada love Emma' before they fall asleep. :-)

Gotcha Day - 1 year ago today!

One year ago today we got Emma!   It is amazing how fast it has gone… Matt was just saying to me how Emma is so part of our family and how we can't imagine life before her!

Quick update... the girls started to share a room on Tuesday night.  Then last night Matt heard Alexis call down and this is how it went:

Alexis - “Daddy….Daddy”.

Me – (walk up stairs) What is it Lexie…

Alexis - “Well it took a while but I got Emma to sleep”.

Me - I thought oh man I hope she didn’t smother her to get her to go to sleep.   I asked “how did you get her to sleep, what did you do?”

Alexis – “I just sang a song to her and she went to bed while we cuddled”

Sure enough Emma had fallen to sleep in Lexie’s bed.  It made me smile.

Me – “Well why don’t you sleep in her bed then?”

Alexis climbed in to her bed and pulled up the covers.  Then she rolls over.

Alexis – This blanket is uncomfortable… it is no wonder she couldn’t fall asleep.


We are happily expecting #3 in mid February - a baby boy for Matt to do boy things with.  As life has it, the new house is also supposed to be done around the same time.  Nothing like God's perfect timing!!

On a final note - congrats to our travel partners Tracy and Patrick from Linguine and Lo Mein who are adopting again!! We are so excited to watch them bring little R home!

Quick Picture of the family from a local Chinese restaurant on Christmas eve (the girls were super excited it was snowing)!