Christmas Present from China

On Christmas Eve we received a

special gift from John. 

A sweet family who where adotping a little boy from the same orphanage John is at, recently delivered a package to John from us.  While they where visiting John made this for us and they brought it back to the states and then mailed it to us.  John seems to have amazing artistic talents.

What a SPECIAL gift!

We also received new photos!
 

I LOVE his SMILE!

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the

United States and China

(next year we will be wishing you a Merry Christmas

as one family, living together)

A New Name...no longer an orphan

This picture makes me SMILE everytime I look at.

 

I wonder if John understands the

significance of that bag with his

 new last name on it?

 

Soon he will be known as

JOHN ADEN DODGE

he will no longer be known as

D**g S*nM*ng 

 

Dang has the meaning "communitst party" and is not even considered a real last name.  It is often given to children who are abandanded and means they are "orphaned" and have no family. It means they are being taken care of by the Social Welfare Institue of China.  This is a name that identifies them as unwanted and unworhty to be loved by a family.  If they are not adopted this name sticks with them forever.

 

Dodge

means that he now belongs to our family,

he is loved by us,

he is wanted by us,

and

he is worthy to be called our son.

 

I am so thankful that one day the Lord

called me into His family,

the He loves me

that He wants me to be His child

and

I am worthy to be called His.

 

I am so thankful that He has called us to give S*nM*ng a new name and the opportunity to hear about the Lord. Ultimate opportunity to be adopted into the Lords family and receive a second new name.

 

 

We have our LOA!

LOA: Letter of Acceptance.

Yippee,

Woo-Hoo,

 Woot-Woot,

 Hallalulah,

Praise the Lord,

Thank You Jesus!

After 8 months,

3 days and

hours of paper work

equaling over 6 inches

the Chinese government has given us official

 approval to adopt D**g S*nM*ng.

Steps left before we meet our son:

LID October 23, 2012

LOA (day 49)

I800 Approval, January 3, 2013 (day 20)
NVC cabled, January 10, 2013 (day 7)

Article 5 Drop Off
Article 5 Pick Up (takes exactly 2 weeks) Jan 30, 2013

TA (usually takes 1-3 weeks) Feb 12, 2013

looking at a
Feb 14 or March 1, 2013
travel date

Gifts for Orphanage

This is taken from our homeschool groups web site.
Very proud of how much stuff we collected to send with the Dodge’s to China and I am sure the other group did even more. We had a sweet little time of prayer for him and talked with the kids for a few minutes about how exciting it is to get to have him come here for a new life.

The kids couldn't hold everything but here is some of the stuff we collected to send with the Dodges’ to the orphanage in China when they get to go and meet their new family member.

Here we are praying for the new precious boy the Dodges are adopting from China. We prayed for where he is now and for those caring for him and for him to adjust well to his new home country and family.

 

Harmony House, the orphanage where Johns lives, will certainly be blessed by all the items my sweet friends collected for us to take to them. But sweeter than all the goodies is that picture of our friends praying for John.  I am so thankful to have faithful friends that continue to pray for us and John through this journey we have been called to. Thank you my dear friends! ~ Andrea

 

Room For One More

 

147 Million orphans worldwide

 

88 million orphans in Asia,
Johns homeland

 

Running for John today!

 

November 3, 2012 was an amazing day as we had the opportunity to help and participate in ROOM FOR ONE MORE'S 5K/10K WALK/RUN roomforonemorechild.org to raise funds and support for adoption, orphans and foster care awareness. Over 200 walkers/runs spent their chilly morning to support the cause. We where extremely blessed and blown away by TEAM JOHN and the support we received from over 40 friends and family who ran to help bring John home.

 

 

TEAM JOHN raised $2120!

Room For One More is bumping that up to $3000.

Aaron won first place in the 5K

Mens 15-19 group

Way to run to bring your brother home!

 

Team John

consisted of dear friends, family and even a few strangers who wanted to share in our journey.

The Tyler Family and Mrs. Blanch

 

Run for God-Puxico
Shelia, Linda, Terry and Gary

 

Samual

Hannah and Duke

 

Tamara and Peter



The Schlitt's



Sarah's friends from college, each received a medal

 

The Perkins Family

 

Dr. Branson and Dana

Aaron and Kurt with their medals

Sarah and Ben

 

Rene', Whitney and Bryn

 

WE HAVE OUR L.I.D.

(log in date)

10/23/2012
now our dossier goes to translation

Received an email that said...
Dear Larry and Andrea Dodge,
CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR DOSSIER WAS SHIPPED TO BEIJING TODAY!

(Dossier To China)

October 19, 2012

Now we wait!

This was from our agency and explains what happens next:

 

From sending the dossier on Friday the dossier is received by our staff in China (Monday China time, Sunday our time) and logged in at the CCCWA within about two weeks of being sent to China. From there is can take an additional two weeks or so to receive a family’s login date information, as the CCCWA releases this information in batches. Generally we receive a family’s login date information from the CCCWA within two to four weeks of their dossier being sent to China.
After it is logged in it will be sent immediately for translation since your family is matched. Once translated it will be reviewed and then matched up with your little one’s child information and your Letter of Intent. From there, your family will receive your Letter of Acceptance. From a dossier being sent to China it is six months until travel. Most families receive their LOA about three months after their dossier is sent.
Now the 6 months is not exactly what I wanted to hear but it is completely out of our hands

Getting Closer,

Dossier on its way to our ageny!

October 13, 2012



10/11/12

Oh Happy Day!

 

 

All documents where sent back

APPROVED by the

Chinese Consulate in Chicago!

Thank You, Jesus!

This week we recieved a nice size grant from

Kinsman Redeemer. 

We are so very thankful!

When a Broken Heart is a Good Thing

Lord , thank you for breaking my heart for a little boy in China. That breaking of my heart has opened up a whole new understanding of what adoption is. I known people who have adopted and even have sweet precious friends who have adopted. I have watched them go through the process and have seen the changes it has made to their family but I don't think I realized what the Lord is able to do when He breaks your heart for an orphan.

Wow, it is actually indescribable and until you have experienced it I can't even begin to tell you what it feels like other than it is AMAZING!!! I am so humbled that he would call me (and our family) to be the mom (and family) to a child who has experienced so much lose in 9 short years. 

Yesterday I experienced my first "momma bear" feeling over John. All you moms will know exactly what I am talking about, that feeling of fighting for your child when you feel the world is mis-treating him or her.  Long story short the majority of our documents that make up our dossier has to be re-created because of a typo in what we where using as a example of how to notarized adoption documents. I stood in the Secretary of State office yesterday in St Louis and felt that momma bear coming out when I heard the words "your documents are not correct". I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs "but there is a little boy waiting in China"...and each day it takes to re-create document is one day longer he will spend in an orphanage! Larry looks and me and says "breath deep"...that is why I love him so much, he is my rock when things get crazy. I am so thankful the Lord has called us on this journey together.

So hear I stand with a broken heart for a little boy with the name D**g S*nM*ng...and that causes me to start over and re-created our documents and be that momma bear for him!

Form I-797 arrived in the mail yesterday. 

 

This is approval of form I-800A

(which is our official fingerprinting from USCIS).

and the final document that

goes into our dossier

Definition for uscis:

Web definitions:

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a bureau of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS

 

dos·si·er/ˈdôsēˌā/

Noun:

A collection of documents about a particular person, event, or subject

Adoption in Expensive...
But It Is Not Ours Anyways.
We learned very early in our Christian walk that what we have belongs to the Lord and He is only allowing us to use it while we are here on earth, He is such a gracious God! When the Lord called us on this journey of adopting He also impressed on our hearts that He would provide for all our needs. Now that does not mean for us to just set around and expect Him to drop money from heaven although if He wanted to He could do that, after all he is GOD. It means that we need to be busy to help raise the close to $30,000 that it will cost to bring our son home from China.  When you look at that amount through wordly eyes it is easy to become discourage but me MUST keep our eyes on the Lords plan and get busy. Than means that we must work hard at fundraising, which has included:

Selling t-shirts

Selling bracelets

Kindle-Give-A-Way, which raised $495

Thirty-One Party Fundraising, which raised $180

working overtime

making Prayer Books and

Making Modesty Interactive Kits to sell

picking up every penny we seen on the ground (every penny adds up)

and who knows what we will come up with next!

I recenlty read this quote on fund raising and grant writing:

Silver and Gold have I not,
but such as I have, I give unto thee

Trust God to do something bigger
than you can ask or even imagine

He will empower you to raise more than any foundation would grant.



When you have an actual photo in your hand of a child that is going to join your family there becomes a great urgency....almost to the point of desperation to work quickly to get that precious child here with our family.

We have a beautiful tree hanging in our dining room and each time some helps in any way with our adoption we write their name on this tree.



We have learned that this adoption is much bigger than just a Dodge family thing...it has included:

family member

friends

Church members

the kids friends

co-workers

and

total strangers.

Each one sharing and supporting our journey to bring our son home!

Our current fundraising is a

Quilt-Gave-A-Way

the quilt was made by one of my mothers friend

and measures 80X88

$5 donation equals one entry

$10 donation equals 3 entries

please use the Chip-In in the side bar

thank you for sharing in our
incredible journey



Kindle Fire Fundraiser

A sweet family in our church graciously donated a Kindle Fire to be used as a fundraiser to help with our adoption fees.  August 3, 2012 was the drawing and the winner was:

Blanch Breeden

$495 dollars was raised!

 Congratulations Mrs Blanch and a big thank you to all who made a donation!



New photo of our little guy!

Mailing a Package

Mailed John his first package from us. We sent bubble gum and chocolate...they say he loves chocolate! We included Chinese to English flashcards, a couple of books, stickers, a Coke T-shirt , a very tiny beanie bear and a sling bag to put all his stuff in. We also included a photo album of lots of pictures of us and his new home. We had to keep it under 4 pounds and we where at 3 pounds 14 oz...we did good! The postage cost way more than the contents, but being able to send something to John is priceless. It felt like Christmas, sending a package to a loved one far away! I hope he can feel our love for him!

China ? Sarah! China ? John!

Today I put my first born on a plane to China for 2 months.  Many months ago when she decided to go and we booked her flight we had no idea that the Lord would call us to adopt, or even yet adopt from China.  But the Lord knew all along.  Sarah said last night "you will soon have 2 of your children in China".  That is just so hard to even wrap my thoughts around!  But yet I can see that the Lord has been working this out from the very first days of Sarah's life and from the beginning of John's life. He knew that Sarah would travel to China this very day and He knew that John would be our son, and He even knows what day that will take place!

I remember Larry and I dedicating Sarah to the Lord at a very tiny age...I can only view today as an extension of that day! She truly is the Lords and is ready for His service! I can only thank Him and stand in awe for the work He has done in her life even if that means she is soon the be on the other side of the world from me.

I am just amazed out how the Lord works things out when we don't even know there is "anything" going on.  I can't wait to see what the future holds with Sarah and John, my China children!

Our Southern Belle Design is Ready!

This is the design for our t-shirts.  They have been designed by Southern Belle for our adoption fundraising efforts.  We are selling them for $15. The t shirt will be orchid with pink and yellow ink. Email me if you would like a shirt and support our efforts to bring John home quickly!

Thanks to Southern Belle www.southernbellestore.com for designing an awesome t-shirt.

Introducing D**g S*nM*ng or John!

We where super blessed to receive a few new pictures.  I love love love his SMILE!

I'm changed because of you, I'm changed because of you...Oh Lord ~ Travis Cottrell.

Today I woke up with this song in my head, wondering if it is there because we sang it Sunday in church or because the Lord was reminding me that we can only be changed by Him. Sunday I spoke with a lady who had been to China and visited with John. She was sharing with me about his personality and I will be honest... a little panic set in my heart. James 1:6 "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind".

I was quickly becoming tossed by the wind by one persons opinion...and I think the song was a reminded that only the Lord can change us. John was described as "full of joy and a fun kid, full of energy, has lots of street smarts, doesn't seem to notice his disability, charming, draws people in, and always wanting to have fun", ....BUT he was also described s a "rascal, undisciplined, makes really bad grades, has never had anyone to tell him no"...but then she says "he is happy to make people happy and can be redirected". I thought to my self "undisciplined" that is so not our family. Then after talking to Larry and the kids, I realized that we may look like that now, but we didn't always look that way (and sometimes we still don't look that way)! I was undisciplined before I new the Lord and I was a rascal...Gods word is very clear as to what we are before we come to know Him....and actually His description is a lot worse than the one I received about John. I am so thankful that the Lord was willing to take a undisciplined rascal like me and adopted me into His family, teaching me and telling me no. I am no different than John and I am only changed because of HIM. I am thankful that the Lord has called us to John and that we can adopt him into our family and tell him about the only ONE who can change him.

Our Journey to China

The last few weeks has been a whirlwind of activity in the Dodge household!

We are adopting!

There are so many details and we can really just sum it all up to "IT IS A GOD SIZED EVENT" that is happening to our family. We officially started the adoption process on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012. On Sunday April 15, 2012 we submitted of "letter of intent" to be the parents of D**g Sa*M*ng (John). We feel like we are in a race with a crazy amount of paper work and a crazy amount of money needed to bring John home to Jackson, Missouri. We can not wait to love on him and to show him the love of Jesus! On February 17, 2003 a biological mother placed John in a vegetable market in a town in China. I believe she placed him with love in a place where she knew he would be found. He was found by police, they assumed he was one month old and gave him the birth date of January 17, 2003. He was placed with a foster family where he lived till March 22, 2011 when his foster mom was no longer able to take care of him due to health issues. He was then placed in Harmony House which is an orphanage ran by Harmony Outreach.

He is considered 'special needs' by the Chinese government because he is missing 4 fingers on his left hand. We think he is perfectly created by a loving God. We are claiming James 1:6 "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind". We are confident that since the Lord has called us to this incredible journey He will provide all we need. We don't now how that is going to look but we are waiting with excitement. Clearly this is going to be a God sized event from start to finish.