Our Adoption Journey, Step 5: Love Crosses Oceans (t-shirts!)

Love.  It has been a theme of mine the past few months.  God's boundless love.  Christ's redeeming love.  The love of families.  The love of friends.  The love that I am called to give to others.  Throughout our adoption journey, I have been coming face to face with my need for love.  And my need to show love and grace to others.  Love, real love, is not always easy.  It involves sacrifice, tough choices and sometimes enduring pain.

But that is what adoption is all about.  It is about choosing love.  Making the tough choices, choosing sacrifice and sometimes enduring the pain of separation, loss and grief.  But there is beauty in adoption.  Beauty in the picture of Christ's love for us.  A love that crossed a great divide, one we couldn't cross ourselves.

For that reason, love has become our theme for our adoption.  A love that crosses oceans.  For the next step of our adoption, we are beginning our next fundraiser.  Using our theme, Rob designed t-shirts that incorporate China, and "Love Crosses Oceans".  If you love T-shirts, adoption, or just want to support our journey, please consider purchasing one of our shirts.  They are available in Adult sizes, S-XXL, for $20.  Please include $5 for shipping, if you are ordering from out of state.  Payments are due by Tuesday, January 31.  Feel free to send check or cash to us directly or to our online fundraiser at: https://purecharity.com/bley-family-adoption/.  Shirts will take 2-3 weeks to be printed and delivered.  Please contact Leah via text/email/facebook with your order.

Thank you so much for your love and support throughout our journey.  All of your prayers and kind words have meant so much to us.  We cannot wait to share your love with our little one (hopefully) soon.

Our Adoption Journey, Step 4: Certification

There are still more steps in the paperwork process.  The most complicated part, so far  Authentication.  In international adoptions, every document that is part of the homestudy process has to be authenticated, or "legalized".  For every country/state the procedures can vary.  For us, it meant traveling to three different county courthouses before Christmas.  It also means mailing documents to various Secretaries of State, U.S. Consulates and to the U.S. Department of State. Many of which require couriers and return envelopes with tracking numbers.  As you can imagine, the fees add up.  So far we have spent almost $300 on different fees and I expect to spend quite a bit more before we have finished the process.  

It is scary to know that if certain procedures aren't followed correctly, we might need to do the process over again.  So, I drag in my big, scary binder of papers and documents to the UPS store each time I mail a document.  Yes, I bring a large 3-ring binder to the UPS store.  Where ordinary citizens just want to mail Christmas gifts to their loved ones.  I take 15 minutes to go through each document, get the right envelopes and check the addresses, twice.  I'm sorry to you, busy working gentleman, holding a very large, heavy package and waiting while I open my binder and recheck the addresses, a third time.  I'm sorry.  There isn't even room on the counter for it all.  But the nice UPS man reassures me every time that it will be OK.  And we send off the next paper.  

But, it is just part of the process.  Just like the homestudy. And parent training.  And so many other details.  You can pray for us during this process.  Pray for patience.  And wisdom.  And trust that God will work out the little details.