As promised

I said we would post pictures of our little man's room.  Ta da!  Room is done!   We didn't repaint, or buy any furniture.   Ok, I did buy the little panda chair.  Couldn't resist that.  This is truly a room filled with history and love.  

I have to share the crib story.  This crib was handcrafted by my better half.   13 years ago.  Each of my children have had sweet dreams in this crib.   2 of my nieces have also placed their little heads down to sleep in this crib.  My heart smiles at the fact that Michael will sleep in this same crib.    We wish for you many sweet dreams little one.

The twin bed is there for us.  We know there could be some rough nights ahead.  Chris and Rach have already asked if they can be the ones to stay with him when he cries.  Not their job,  but so incredible to see that they are equally excited to bring their little brother home.    

The wall hanging was given to us by Aunt Barb and Uncle Scott.  Some of the most thoughtful people we know and we are blessed to call them family.    The quilt on the rocking chair was a true labor of love.   My grandma, not enough words to express my love for this woman, taught me to hand quilt.  We picked out the fabric together, laughed and loved, as we worked on this blanket for Michael.    The quilt is waiting on the rocking chair that my mom would use to rock me to sleep.  I'm forever grateful to be able to rock another little one to sleep in this very chair. 

The toys and clothes,  oh my word! Thanks to Grandma Junge for helping me organize toys and clothes for an entire day.    And many thanks to everyone who has shared their hand me down toys and clothes with Michael.  We are so grateful!

 

 The Chinese lettering was a gift from my sister who has been an incredible support through this entire process.    "Blessings".  Appropriate. 

 

 

Status

I had great intentions for the blog.  I truly did.  But, I'm slightly behind in updating everyone on our adoption status.  So much has happened.  We are close, very close, to travel. 

On Friday, December 21st, our Article 5 was picked up from the US consulate in China.  This is immigration visa paperwork for Michael.   All approvals are complete and visas are done.  Next step, Travel Approval or TA in adoption world.  Once we receive our TA, we will hopefully be able to travel within 2 weeks.  Things happen very fast at this point. 

China is taking around 2-3 weeks to issue TA after the article 5 is picked up.  Here's where your prayers come in.  We are hoping to travel and be back home before Chinese New Year.  This would mean we would need to leave by the 23rd or 24th of January.  If we don't leave by then, we are delayed by approximately 3 weeks as China shuts down adoption proceedings to celebrate the holiday.   For those of you that know me well, I'm a planner.  And, dare I say it, I like to have a little control over certain situations.  I have none with this.  This is completely in God's hands and I know with all that I have, that His plan is perfect.  I will trust in this.  So, we pray for a quick TA and leave it at that.  Michael will be here one way or the other, but this family is ready for that sweet boy to be HOME!

Christmas wishes

Slightly overdue.

Our kids love technology and Andrew decided to do a time-lapse of us decorating our home for Christmas.    We thought we would share this with you and call it our Christmas card this year.

 Our family wishes all of  you a blessed 2013.  Words cannot express how thankful we are for every person that has walked with us this year.  We are constantly in awe of God's goodness.    May the new year bring you peace, rest,  and laughter. 

From our family to yours,
The Junges
Adam, Kerri, Andrew, Rachel, Christopher

Man cave

Our oldest son, our firstborn, has made the migration to the basement.  To what he is calling....his "Man Cave".    I don't know where the time has gone.  It seems like not that long ago I was looking at this sweet face.

Now, I'm watching my son grow up faster than I ever thought possible.  He's approaching 13, yikes, 13.  I love my son.  I'm proud of my son.  I'm thankful, even in the challenging times, that God has trusted me with this spectacular, baseball loving, God following, young man, Andrew. 


We thought we'd share a few pictures of his new space.  No man cave could be complete with the chocolate lab, of course.

Future blog posts will include the newest pics of our "little man's cave".  Michael's room is almost complete.   Now we just need Michael home. 

Picture Post

Here is a post to get some pictures of Michael up on the blog. We got these pictures either with the initial match information, or from one of the updates we have received.

One of our referral pics of Michael.  He is in the orphanage in Henan.  We particularly love his "so pretty" bib.  :-) 

Another one from the orphanage.  You can tell that it was easy to fall  in love with this sweet face. 

Another one from match day.  

This is from one of the updates we got.  We still have no clue what was happening with the hair, but he's rockin it.   I love seeing a smile on his face.   

This picture makes us want to just go and get him.  He looks like he is ready for a family.

Here is the most recent picture we have.  We got it at the beginning of November, so we are assuming it was taken after his one year birthday (9/19)  He looks happy and healthy. 

We are hopeful that we will receive another update before we leave for China.   We will keep you posted!

Waiting

So it's the Christmas season.  My favorite holiday of the year.  I absolutely love the family time, the cozy fires, the Christmas lights and the joy.   BUT....For some reason, this year has been different.  I've been a little melancholy about the whole thing.    As we were hanging the stockings, it hit me that one was missing.  Adam felt it too.   In the midst of this most beautiful holiday,  I'm a little bummed.  I'm blessed and have no complaints, but one of my children is half way across the world and he has a part of my heart with him.  I want him home.  There, I said it. 

For those of you that know me well, you know I love music.  I really love christian music.  Music has a way of speaking to me.  I know God uses it.  My kids have some of their best worship times in the car on the way home from school as we blast the tunes.   One of our family's favorite christian groups is Third Day.  Love them.   Random rambling about my love for music but there's a connection...promise. 

I came across a link tonight to a Third Day Christmas song.  I won't try to explain it, but God did it again.   It sums up everything.   I had to share.  It's beautiful and yes, I may have shed a tear or two. 




I will start cross stitching his stocking tonight.  I will love Michael from here for now.  I will thank God for his many gifts.   And I will choose to not lose the Joy that is Christmas. 

Let it snow!

Kerri

Different Perspective

It’s early on Thanksgiving morning.   The house is quiet.  Everyone is asleep.  Coffee pot just started brewing.  Like many people I’m thinking about what I’m thankful for.  

I’m going to take a different perspective today.

Today,  I’m thankful that God doesn’t always give me what I want.  Yes, it’s true. Because, if  I had planned the last few years based on what I wanted, I would not be where I am  today.   I would not be homeschooling (most certainly not!), would not be living in our current home, and would not be traveling by PLANE to  China to bring home our newest son.     Who knew that homeschooling would be such a blessing to our family,  that staying put was the answer, and that flying would be something I would volunteer to do?!  I’m thankful God is in the driver’s seat.

What else am I thankful for today? 

Coffee:   Enough said

Snow storms:  Without the snowstorm in Douglas County in winter of 1994, I wouldn’t have met by best friend, teammate, prayer partner, and all around amazing man that I’m married to today. 

Laundry:  I will choose to be thankful for laundry today.  It’s a reminder that my kids are active, growing, and healthy.  I’m thankful. 

Drywall Dust:  This is a stretch but yes I will be thankful for this too.  That means the basement bathroom is nearing completion and we can start rearranging rooms for our new addition. 

King Soopers the day before Thanksgiving:   Yes, I was there bright and early yesterday with what seemed, the entire population of Castle Rock.  But, I was there to buy food for a meal that I am privileged to share with family today.   

I’m thankful for many things.  I’m surrounded by some amazing women that I have the honor of calling friends.     I have a father-in law that is healthy this thanksgiving and will celebrate with us this year. 

I have unlimited call/texts on my cell phone so I won’t miss my Mom, Sister, Brother, Grandmother, quite as much. 

And I have my Dad and his wife ready to arrive any minute to start cooking our Thanksgiving meal. 

The coffee is done brewing and the house is not as quiet now as it was when I started typing.   The day has begun. 

I’m thankful!

Kerri

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

History

Identity

Legacy

Family

In a few days we need to send our final name choice to our agency for them to file for his travel documents.    So many evenings have been spent listening to a chorus of voices sharing opinions of what we should name our newest son.  

The choice was clear.

Michael:  My grandfather was an orphan.  He left a LEGACY that will never be forgotten.  His name will continue on.

JianJia:   Name given in China.  Forever a part of his HISTORY.  Never to be forgotten.

Hutchinson:  My grandmother was an orphan.   Adopted.  Given a new piece to her  IDENTITY.

Junge:  FAMILY.  Forever loved.

What's in a name...Everything.

MICHAEL JIANJIA HUTCHINSON JUNGE


-Kerri

LOA

Don't have time to do the full post right now,  but yesterday (11/15/2012) we got our LOA.   This a huge milestone in the adoption world!   For the first time we were able to see our name on an official document paired with ZhengJianJia.    We will be there soon little guy.

The big question is always "When?".  With the LOA coming in yesterday, it puts the estimated travel date in 11-15 weeks.   So, somtime in February (likely later February due to Chinese New year).

-Adam-

MATCHED!!!

I know this posting is way late..   more and more people are asking about our Blog (which I set up in May...) so we are going to be more diligent about updating it.

On August 23rd (Kerri's Birthday) we got "the call" from our agency that they had a file to share with us.  One look and it was done.  This amazing little boy would be our son.  
Meet JianJia!

His birthday is 9/19/2011

His surname (last name) is Zheng.   This name actually comes from the orphanage/city where he has been cared for from the beginning.
 

Then we learned (from the very friendly people at our agency) that that name is actually pronounced with a hard "J" sound for the "Zh".  and "eng" is pronounced more like our "ung" sound.   Um.  That means it is pronounced like we pronounce "Junge".   (For those that don't know us, our last name is Junge, which is a German name and is normally pronounced more like "Younga".   Of course,  we don't pronounce it that way.  We don't sound out the 'e' so we actually pronounce it more like "Jung".)   All a long way of saying,

Our little guy already has our last name!!  No coincidence, no irony, but God's plan from the beginning.

His Chinese First name is Jian,  and middle name is Jia.   We have seen his name on some of the documentation as "Jianjia".  

We are going to call him Michael :)   I'll save the explanation for another post.

More to come soon!

-Adam-