Big Adoption News!!!

I realize that I have not been updating our blog as we’ve been making our way through our adoption journey.  I’ve been trying to send our newsletter regularly and keep our Facebook page updated.  However, I want to catch up a little…okay, a lot!

A quick look at our last few months…

October:

*Finalized Home Study

*Applied for grants

*Sent off I800a (immigration paperwork)

*Gathered documents for our Dossier (our big packet of paperwork to be sent to China)

November:

*Second T-Shirt Fundraiser

 *Received one grantp

*Got notice for our finger print appointment

* Orphan Sunday at our church

December:

*Finger print appointment in Boston

*Immigration approval was mailed

January:

*Received a call from our social worker saying our agency received our immigration approval!!! 

(We didn’t get it in the mail first because we were traveling.)

*DTC…our dossier went to China on January 23!  Huge day!!!

February: 
*LID…We got our log in date, February 11.
We are officially logged in and can be matched with a child from the shared list!

And here we are in March…just 10 days in and we have already been through so much.  On Thursday, March 6, I received a call from our social worker at Lifeline.  She called while I was working out, and I happened to glance down and see her number on my phone.  I jumped off the machine and ran off to answer the call.  When I answered, she told me a file had been locked for our family.  This meant, we could see her file, we could read her story, see her pictures and pray about this little girl being in our family.  I told our social worker to send us the file.  I called Jon as soon as I hung up the phone and told him we had a file to see.

When I got home, Jon and I sat together and read through the file of this sweet girl.  We saw her beautiful pictures, watched the most precious video and prayed for God to give us wisdom.  We felt drawn to this little girl from the moment we laid eyes on her.  We were hopeful at the thought of her becoming our daughter.  After reading over her file, we decided right away to send her file to the International Adoption Clinic in Boston.  Our agency recommends an International Clinic taking a look at the files to help give families perspective on what needs will need to be met when she comes home.

I waited all day to hear back with an email or a call from the doctor.  At 8:22, I was out with my friend Mary, and got an email asking how late was too late to call.  I knew I had to stop on my way home, so I immediately responded and asked if 10 (or 9:30) would work.  She quickly emailed back and said she would call at 10 unless she fell asleep, then it would be after 1 on Friday before she could call.  I raced home and was ready for her call at 10.  When it was 10:30 and she hadn’t called, I knew I would have to wait.  LONGEST NIGHT EVER…I could hardly sleep.  I was up until after midnight and woke up at 4:30 a.m. and could not go back to sleep.  Friday morning was a blur…I was just ready for 1 and ready to talk to the doctor.  1 o’clock comes and goes…and at 2:10 my phone rang (I had to leave by 2:25 to pick up kids at school).  I was thankful to hear what she had to say…this referral looks positive!  She went into details about the sweet little girl and shared things with me that would help her as she comes home. I had to leave and go get kids, but when I got home from pick up Jon and I were able to talk about what the doctor had shared with me.  It was a matter of minutes before we knew…we knew…THIS IS OUR DAUGHTER!!!  Praise the Lord!  God has, in His perfect time and plan, led us to our little girl.  We are blessed to be welcoming this sweet, precious, little girl into our family!

The past few days have been a whirlwind.  After we made the decision to move forward, I called our social worker to let her know the news.  I wrote our LOI (letter of intent) to send to China, so we could be approved to adopt her.  I sent our LOI to our agency on Friday afternoon around 4:30.  We celebrated as a family with Chinese take-out for dinner and by giving our kids pictures of their baby sister! (I ordered prints and picked them up when I went out to get our dinner). This morning I heard from our social worker and we have been pre-approved!  Our little girl will be coming home sometime this summer.  We are humbled and blessed to be able to be her parents.  We can’t wait to have her home and in our arms!