12 August 2007

The story of our Journey — For Whom the Bell Tolls

Posted by BaBa under: Travel .

The first seed of our adoption journey began a little over a year ago in Wuhan China. It was in the museum at Wuhan we encountered a group of new CCAI parents. Kim and I were in separate sections of the museum and were both talking to different new parents. It was here that we found we could do this and did meet the current requirements.

Kim and I did not speak about the conversations the entire rest of our trip. On the flight home I saw two different agency’s ads in an in flight magazine. When we got home, I got on the Internet and looked at these two agencies. It was then that I asked Kim if she was ready to be a Mom and of course she said yes. This was a dream that we had thought had passed us by. God works in mysterious ways and the older I get the more I think there are signs all around us. Most of the time we just don’t see them or take the time to look back and recognize they were there all the time.

I would be going back to school the following week and it turned out that each agency had an information meeting that week. These meetings are usually quarterly, but each agency had one that week. We attended the CCAI meeting and were scheduled to go to the second on Saturday. That Thursday, I was in the local Wal-Mart when I saw a Mom with a Chinese daughter. I said to myself, if she gets off the phone I will talk to her. I had a 45 minute conversation with her and she had used CCAI.

We went to the second meeting, but had really made the decision to use CCAI (one we have never regretted). We spent the last couple of days before school started for me chasing papers to get our application in and approved. It also turned out that the Chapmans would be hosting the First Friday meeting that week.

Our application was approved the same day as our First First Friday August 4th, 2006. So that evening we attended our First Friday. We felt welcomed and at ease with our decision. I especially felt a connection when I saw the photo from Iona Scotland hanging in their home. Sheridan’s middle name is Colum for the Irish Saint Columba who founded this monastery.

It was at this meeting that we made an important connection and friendship with the Claxtons. Cristy would help guide our paper chase all the way to its completion. Cristy was our mentor and we learned the lessons of how to chase paper and the dossier tricks from her. Later, I would be able to pay the favor forward to others who were in the paper chase phase. As it turned out, one of these people was the sister of the lady I met in Wal-Mart. She is a single parent who was trying to beat the May 1 deadline. She was having fits with getting the magic USCIS approval (I-171H A.K.A. I-797). Yes, she made the deadline.

We are so thankful to have those in the First Friday community to share this journey with us and for us to be able to share in your journeys. The process is longer now, but the results are still spectacular as God works in our lives and in the lives of our children.

To end the story of our beginning journey, one of our group in Nanjing has a friend who is also traveling and adopting from Hubei. I told Belinda the story of the bells and asked her to write Anne Elizabeth to see if she would buy a small set of the bells for us when she did the museum tour in Wuhan. Today the bells arrived and Kim was thrilled and surprised to see them. They are a tangible symbol of the beginning of our faith journey that has culminated with the arrival of Sheridan.

Photos of the Bronze Bells at Wuhan

The most famous treasure of the Wuhan Museum is the Chime Bells, which is the largest bronze musical instrument ever discovered. With a set of bells of different sizes, it can play various tones of the musical scale, and the timbre is quite beautiful. There are about 3,000 ancient Chinese characters on the bells, describing the music and the owner of this instrument. In the Music Hall, musicians wearing ancient clothes play a replica of the Chime Bells from 11:00 to 16:00 every day. You will surely be enchanted by the ancient beautiful music, which has been played overseas on many occasions.

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