Back to waiting . . .

Well, God has answered our prayer for guidance. Although we were hoping that we'd be able to adopt the little girl whose file we'd been reviewing, it turns out that another agency has already "locked" the file, which means they have a family who wants to adopt her. If we had called on Friday instead of waiting until Monday, maybe we'd have gotten her. But we're really, truly at peace about it, knowing that God has a different little girl for our family. And I'm so happy that this little girl has found hers! Another list should come out by the end of the month, so until then . . . we just rest and wait.

Prayer Needed this Weekend

We've been reviewing files for 2 adoptable little girls over the past couple days. And today we have made a decision to move forward with one of them! She has some medical issues, but they are things that should be correctable. If we are able to get this child, we'll share more details at that point.

Because of China's rules, we can't put a hold on a child until we've decided on that particular child. (The hold is just for time to submit the "Letter of Intent" for that specific child.) We can't do anything until Monday when our agency's open, so we're praying that if this is NOT the child for us, that God would make her unavailable by then.

Please pray with us for a definite answer about this life changing decision. Thank you so much!

Wisdom Needed!

We are very excited to be reviewing the files of two little girls available for adoption! Our agency just got China's new "shared list", and this is the first list when we've been far enough along in the process to choose a child. When we first saw the list, there were four that we thought were possibilities. When we called our agency, two of them were no longer available, so that's narrowed it down to two. It is an overwhelming thought that one of these little girls might be our daughter! The list is also open to other agencies, so someone else could potentially choose one of these girls before us. Please pray that God will direct us to our child--whether it's one of these two girls, or we should wait for the next list. Thank you for your prayers!

Snow Day!

We've hardly had any snow this winter--just a few inches here and there. But today, the second day of March, we woke up to a beautiful covering of powdery, fluffy snow! I'm very ready for spring, but this was so pretty that I can't complain. The boys (all 3 of them) were out first thing this morning shovelling and playing. And Shadow's been having a blast too. A nice way to end winter (at least I HOPE this is the end of winter)! :)

DTC!

In the lingo of the adoption chat groups I read, DTC means Dossier to China! So, we are now officially DTC! Our agency mailed our dossier to China on Friday. Within the next one to six weeks, CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) will log us into their system, and we'll be "in line." If we weren't using the Waiting Child (special needs)program, we'd then receive a referral in 2-3 years! But with the Waiting Child program, it is much faster. We're hoping the phone call about our child will be coming soon. It could actually be any day, but it could also be months. So, we'll just keep taking it one day at a time. . .

Dossier in Progress

Our dossier is now in the hands of our agency, Living Hope. I mailed it January 28th, and they received it the next day. What's a dossier, you may ask? Well, it's a compilation of every possible thing you might ever want to know about someone, and plenty of things you couldn't care less about. Here's the list of what it included:

birth certificate for each parent (remember, we had to get newly certified ones as if the information might have changed)

employment letter for each parent (even for me, who's not employed)

marriage license (yes, newly certified again)

divorce/death decrees (we got to skip that one)

medical exam form for each parent

certificate of criminal or non-criminal record (thankfully, we both received the "non-criminal" version of this)

adoption application letter ("Dear China, We want to adopt one of your children, and here's why . . . ")

financial statement (which will be in much better shape if our house ever sells!)

completed home study (the requirements just for that would include a list longer than this one!)

USCIS notice of favorable determination (the form from immigration that I rejoiced over in my last adoption post)

three copies of each applicant's passport (why?)

two passport photos of each applicant (ok)

six photos reflecting family life (no, i did not send in the ones of the boys and the dog wrestling each other while the room around them is in utter chaos)

and, of course, a certified check (no, not a small one and not the last one)

So, after reading all that you can probably imagine my glee at having it all finished! Today we got an email from our agency saying, "Your Dossier is in the State Seal and Chinese Authentication process. We will let you know when we send it to China!" Yay!

No leads on specific children yet, but we could potentially get a call from our agency at any time; or we might find a child on their internet list when they receive the new one from China sometime this month.

So, it's an exciting time! But, for those of you who know me, you'll know that this whole process goes against my planned, scheduled, organized personality. I mean, we could go to China is less than 6 months, and we don't even have the date on our calendar yet! How can I even function?!!

=)

We had a family Valentine's Day celebration Friday night. We've never made a big deal about it before, but for some reason Ethan was very excited this year and kept asking "When's Valentine's Day?!!!" He even picked out a box of chocolates for me! We had a special fancy dinner, complete with candlelight. (It was actually dark outside, but the flash made the picture look like day time.) Then we gave the boys their candy and a new book about love (which we give them every year). Later, Heath and I watched Fireproof--very good movie for Valentine's Day. Then, this evening, Heath and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster. Fortunately, we got there before the rush and only had a 90-minute wait . .. but it was worth the wait for the delicious food! And tonight I got an e-card from a friend (thanks, Rachael) reminding us to think about God's great example of love for us . . . without which there'd be no reason to celebrate. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!