introducing Judd...

We had a surprise this weekend. After months of no updates, no news, and frankly no nuthin’, we saw our little boy, Judd, completely by accident. Here’s the story.

Anne recently joined a very helpful Yahoo Group for adoptions from the area where Judd lives. On the Yahoo group, a lady named Rhonda posted about New Day Foster Home that works with special-needs children in the area. Anne clicked on the link to learn more, and there was our boy, one of twenty faces looking back at her. We. Were. Shocked. We’d been praying for an update—news, any news—and heard not one word since November. Then, we accidently find Judd on a website.

We had no idea he was at New Day. We had no idea what New Day was. And we had no idea we’d stumble upon an answer to a prayer. So this finding was huge.

We know it is him. Same name, same city, and same birthday of what we were told. Plus the CCAA paperwork said that he was in foster care, but we weren’t sure which program. Plus, we knew by looking. Same big eyes. Same face. We clicked on his picture, here is what we read:

These seventy-four words and few-thousand pixels are the bulk of what we know about Judd. The first report we got of Judd (just before Thanksgiving) was that he was only 10 pounds yet several months old. We were obviously concerned. In chronically understaffed Chinese orphanages, there are too many needs for the staff to meet. So we’ve been praying that God would take care of him somehow. Well, Praise God, Judd isn’t in an orphanage with a hundred or thousand other kids. He’s in a New Day foster home, with good people who are helping my boy make it. Thank you, God, for New Day.

Finding this page answered our prayers in many ways. We have new information. We have a new picture. But most importantly, we are assured that there are people who are taking care of Judd until we can. We’ve looked all over New Day’s site and love what they do. If you are interested, you can read all about New Day or watch a video about what they do. They also have a blog for their Beijing home with lots of pictures. They are great.

So world, let me introduce you to Judd Longshan. He’s a cute kid and we imagine him to be sweet and fun. He was born in October 2009 and will hopefully be here in April 2011. He’s our boy.

Thank you God for an update. Thank you God for New Day. And thank you God for Judd. Please be with him.

LSC, LOA, $5980, and 3 months

Any day we hope to get our LSC... or is it LOA? It's both I think. Whichever, it's the all-important letter from China saying that we are officially Judd's parents. That means in March/April we'll be going to China to get him. That means we have a busy three months of paperwork, preparation, selling shirts, and raising money.

The LOA (Letter of Acceptance) or LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) is the most important piece of paper to date. When we get it, we'll post a picture of Judd on this blog, be able to send a care package to him, and hopefully get a update on him. After the LSC, we get our travel approval (TA) sometime in February and and then we're off to China for our consulate appointment (CA) in March or April.

Right now we have $5980 we still need to raise. You can help by buying a shirt. (Note the nice-looking shirts on the nicer-looking dudes in the picture.) When you donate $20 or more, you can make a real difference. Instructions to order the shirts are on the right side of our blog. You can pay online or with a check; we can ship them to you if needed. We have adult and kids sizes. Every penny you donate goes to help us bring Judd home. Every penny.

I was reading Matthew 6:26 and a note said that while birds don't worry if God will provide or not, they aren't idle either. Pray for us as we have some work to do in about 3 months.

And buy a shirt. It is one way God is providing for this adoption.