Verners

According to a U.S. State Department report released recently, 6,493 children were adopted from China in 2006.  This represents a decline of 18% from the previous year’s total of 7,906.

That’s a pretty small number considering how many children are guessed to be in Chinese Orphanages.  According to the Herald Tribune a February 2005 report in the Weekend Standard, a Chinese business newspaper, found a ratio of 117 boys per 100 girls under the age of 5 in the 2000 census.  This gender gap could result in as many as 60 million “missing” girls from the population by the end of the decade.

Consider this statement written in the same article referenced above, “…And what happened to these girls? According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation…there are about 7 million abortions in China per year, 70 percent of which are estimated to be of females. That adds up to around 5 million per year, or 50 million by the end of the decade; so where are the other 10 million girls? If even 10 percent end up in orphanages — well, you do the math.”

This is a hard reality as we wait to meet our daughter Faith.  Please pray for more “paper ready” children in the coming months as rumors of even more slows downs and wait times of almost 3 years loom.

Grace and peace,

The Verners

Well we’ve been holding out on a post like this for quite some time hoping that we would have good news to report instead.  However, it is becoming clear that we are going to be waiting longer than originally anticipated.  We are not exceedingly discouraged, though, because God’s timing seems to always be best.

The current wait time is 18-19 months from “log in date”.  Our log in is November, 2006.  So, on the current run rate we would receive a referral for Faith on or around summer of 2008.  The real truth is that if the slow down continues, the wait could (and probably will) increase to 24 months.  No one seems to think the wait will go higher than that at this point.  Under those circumstances, our referral would not come until early 2009.  Crazy huh!!!

Anyway, we would certainly appreciate your prayers.  Please pray that:

1.    God’s will be done in all of this
2.    For a speedup
3.    For financial provision.  (The increased wait times will increase our adoption costs by 2-4 thousand dollars and will require us to redo most of our paperwork at least once.)
4.    Pray that we would not get discouraged when we have to redo all of our paperwork
5.    Continued patience and faith

Thanks you all so much.  Grace and Peace to each of you,

The Verners

We rolled into the recycling center in Vista the other day with a car full of plastic bottles, cans and the like. Here’s a photo collage documenting the experience. We earned $32.

China doll 2, originally uploaded by verners.

We recently found a couple of really cute Asian dolls that Crissy gave away for Christmas before realizing that they are hard to find.

We visited the girls who received them today for a birthday party and enviously photographed them.

Neither can we. This link shows various pictures of the “matching room” in China where Faith will eventually be matched with our family forever!

http://www.wesselsworld.nl/ccaa.htm

As we officially enter the “waiting stage” of our adoption, there has been less to blog about these days. But we continue to be encouraged by the support and prayers of all of you as we spend this year waiting to meet her.

Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser for Faith, originally uploaded by verners.

We had a great time with friends and family at the pancake breakfast last weekend. It was so much fun to see everyone and to catch up with some of you that we’ve missed!!

It was also an encouragement to have so many here with us to share this amazing journey. We feel blessed to have all of you in our lives.

Our first guests (The Zonnefelds) arrived at 7:30 A.M. and the last (The Hickox’s) left around noon! We served over 60 people and raised almost $1400.00 to help bring Faith home.

If you’d like to see pictures go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/coryverner/PancakeBreakfastFundraiserForFaith

The United Nations counts 143 million kids around the world as orphans, 143 million children waiting for love and support.

Recognizing that the severity of today’s orphan crisis is bigger than any one organization, FamilyLife, Focus on the Family and Shaohannah’s Hope joined together to launch a long term, nationwide campaign called Voice of the Orphan. This campaign seeks to raise awareness of the orphan crisis and spur fellow Christians to action.

Visit http://www.voiceoftheorphan.org/ to find out more.

map of china, originally uploaded by verners.

Some have asked us what part of China Faith will come from. The People Republic of China is composed of over 30 regions known as provinces. Of these provinces, America World receives most of its referrals from those located in the southern portion of the country. Some of the names of provinces that AWAA has received referrals from include: Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui

Our 1st ultrasound!, originally uploaded by verners.

We came by this photo on the internet recently and it made us giggle, so we thought we’d share it with you all.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

The Verners

Date: Saturday, December 2nd

Time: come anytime from 7:30-11:30 A.M.

Location:

Our home
623 Concord Pl.
San Marcos, CA 92069
760-798-1616

Cost: donation

Description:
Your donations will be used to help bring Faith Verner home to us from China. As many of you know our adoption paperwork is now in China waiting to be matched with our precious little girl.

The breakfast should be a great time for all. We plan to have a jumper for the kids and opportunities to learn more about China. We’ll do a Chinese craft for the kids, listen to some Chinese music and teach them a few words from a native speaker!

Stay as long as you would like and catch up with us on this amazing journey.

We hope to see you there!