Here SHE is

She is 2 1/2 years old. Date of Birth is February 20th, 2008. She is from Guiyang in Guizhou province. We think she is awfully cute and can't wait to meet her. Our oldest son will travel with us. He is beyond excited. He will try any food and is very adventuresome so we can't wait for him to have this experience. It surely will make a lasting impression.

I think we have setttled on a name. Corinne suggested "Maggie". This name was never on our list but when I saw her face she just looked like a Maggie to me. Still waiting on DH to cast his final vote.

We received our Pre-approval (PA) from China on Sept 29th. Right now our agency tells us that we might travel by the first part of December. These things can be so hard to predict because China is always changing timeframes and the process.

2 1/2 years old

2 1/2 years old - photo Sept 21st

1 year old

Referral

Sunday night Sept 19th people started getting calls for referrals from the new special needs list. We did not get a call. Monday morning we did not get a call. We assumed by this p0int we had not been matched. At about 9pm Monday night our agency personal (who was in China on an official visit) called us. He said he wanted to let us know about a little girl that he thought we might be intersted in. Her file had been locked earlier but unlocked due to a families personal problems. She had a special need that we had not checked off on our list but wanted to give us the opportunity to review her file. He went on to tell us that she had a cleft lip/cleft gum line and is 2 1/2 years old living in foster care. We told him sure we would love to look at her file.
We had 72 hours to review and submit our LOI before her file would be unlocked and other potetnial parents could petition to adopt her. We spent the next 2 days praying and seeking God's will. We were not concerned about her or her special needs which just needed affirmation that she was truly the child God wanted in our family. By Wednesday morning we had recieved our answer and submitted our LOI to China. We are very lucky to be able to adopt her. I can not share photos or much identifying info until China send us our PA. A PA means pre-approval. It is their way of saying "your application looks ok you can adopt her". We are so excited as well as G, D, and C. They have each suggested names but we have yet to decide for sure. Although, I think C's suggestion of Maggie is winning.

Waiting for a Match

This adoption has been about waiting. To be totally honest I have been content to wait. Our first adoption I moved forward like a bullet train. This time we have been much slower and it has been about seeking God's direction for each and every step. We started our homestudy in November of 2008. Our paperwork was logged into China June 2009. The next step has been for us to submit our special needs checklist. This is a list that you submit stating the special needs you are willing to accept. For a long time we haven't had peace about taking this next step. That is until now.....This past Friday Sept 17th we emailed our checklist to our agency.


We are with a small agency that tends to match families within 1-3 months after submitting the checklist. Every 4-6 weeks China sends a new list of special needs children. A new list comes out tonight. Our agency emailed us today and said they will try to match us with this list. So how do you sleep the night before you might discover you new child. Let's just say this is nothing like birthing a baby the old fashion way. My prayer is that if we are given a childs file for review it will be very clear if she is ours.