Jian’s Journey Part II

So, our dossier (our file of important papers) was sent to China on August 11, 2010!! The order things were done was very different due to the urgency of this adoption. Once our dossier was accepted by China (meaning they approved that we could adopt Jian), looking at the list of the steps left to complete was very daunting! Then, August 20, we received our letter and picture that we had to sign agreeing to adopt Jian Feng, I hurried to Jon’s office so we could sign, and then we could send in the form to US immigration for Jian to become our son. At this point, we & our agency were more concerned that things would not be completed on time, but were continuing to trust in God’s timing. There were still multiple steps to be completed with each one having a processing time ranging between 2 weeks to 2 months!

Also on August 20, our agency received a package that we had sent to be delivered to Jian Feng! Some of them were going to Jian’s orphanage and delivered this to him. This was the first he heard of us! Since we still did not know if the adoption would take place, we wrote a short letter (that was translated into Chinese) that indicated we were hoping to meet him soon. We also sent family pictures and some signs in ASL (Mom, Dad, brother, deaf, family). He received this a few weeks before we were there. They sent us a video and pictures of the day he received this package. We love reminiscing with him about this, what he remembers and watching the video of him practicing the ASL signs! Here are a few of the pictures from that day!

September 1 we received approval from USCIS (US Immigration) that we were approved to bring Jian in as our son into the US. Our agency sent us an e-mail that this was the biggest hurdle and it may be a record how fast this came through (We loved seeing God’s hand all over this)! On September 3, we put a hold on 3 tickets to China! We also called the NVC (National Visa Center) to see when Jian’s visa could be processed (this must be done before they could do other required processing). We were told it would be a few weeks! My heart sank. After explaining the situation, we received a supervisor’s name and e-mail and I immediately sent a message there. It is now 26 days until Jian’s birthday, and the 6^th is Labor day, so everything will be closed. We also were aware that the Visa process can take weeks to months to process.

September 7 we received an e-mail that the visa was approved and was on it’s way to the US consulate in China! After hanging up the phone, we called the travel agent and purchased 4 tickets – 3 to go to China and 4 to return. At this point we thought everything was complete, until we talked to our agency. We realized there was one more hurdle. We needed to wait for our article 5, official approval to adopt. This comes after our paperwork is delivered to the US Consulate in Guangzhou. This paperwork can only be delivered on a Monday or Thursday and can be picked up exactly 2 weeks after it’s dropped off. We discussed again that we might be taking a family vacation to China, and returning with our family of 3. Thankfully, God’s overwhelming peace continued to cover us and help us remember that He was in complete control!

September 9 we received a call that our Article 5 was completed in one day!!! Another miracle! Now it was official, as long as all flights and everything else went as scheduled, we would be bringing home Jian Feng Lee Bergeron! At this point, we did not have our official travel notice, so, we would possibly need to stay a little longer in China since this was needed to complete his visa, but, that was not a problem since the adoption would be completed.

By September 20, all of the rest of our remaining official paperwork was received. We heard on this day, that we would be meeting Jian on Saturday, September 25^th and his adoption would be complete on September 26^th – 3 days before his 14^th birthday!

We learned from our agency that from the time our dossier was sent to the time we received travel notice was a new record for them.

What a mighty God, who cares about even the smallest details and is able to accomplish His work using many people, agencies and governments! We praise God for all of the people and organizations He used to accomplish the task of bringing a boy from China home to his family in America!