Introducing....

Wu Miao Shan

Birthday 11/6/12

Zheng Shan Hao

Birthday 9/14/12

English names coming soon!  :-)

A Quick Update

On Friday we received news that our "Letter of Intent" went in for our little boy, and we were essentially granted Pre-approval since our paperwork had already been filed for our little girl.  This means that we can send him a care package whenever we'd like!  We've been having fun discussing what to send over.  We'll have to wait and send hers once we've been granted Pre-approval for her.

On Monday I called back our agency to see if the "clock had begun ticking" (as one social worker put it) for our countdown to travel.  It seems there has been a bit of confusion on how the process goes to adopt two children at the same time, as the CCCWA (Chinese Government) recently changed some of their regulations.

We need to renew, as well file some NEW paperwork for our little girl, then a copy of our dossier can be sent to China.  Once their it will be reviewed and translated, and then we will receive our "Letter of Acceptance" for her.   At that point our countdown to travel will begin.

When I took the averages from our agency, it looks like the earliest we could travel would be the end of May and the latest end of August, although we are hoping it won't be that long!

The Second Call We've Been Waiting For!

After all of the initial excitement, we had a flurry of a weekend.  Our agency had told us that we could travel as early as 11 weeks after we were matched with our little boy, which (in my mind) was vastly different from the average of 4-7 months. My mind was spinning as I made lists of all we would need to do.  There was getting the house and our lives ready for two babies, and then there was everything that needed to happen (and gather :-)) in order to travel internationally for two weeks!

While my mind was racing ahead in full throttle, my husband got us going..... We started with cleaning out the medicine closet for the first time since Caleb and Mason were babies.

 Eight nose suckers were among the many treasures we found.  Liam thought they made great maraccas!

Now we can actually find things, and nothing falls out when you open the door! If our cleaning trend continues at the same rate, we won't do this again until children are leaving the home....


We also tackled clothes.  Oh my.  Clearly I need to do this more often.  Between the clothes we threw away, packed away, and gave away, we weeded out over 200 pieces of clothing.  Yes, it's embaressing.  Apparently we had more in the closet than in the storage buckets.  We let each boy pick out 6 short sleeve shirts, 6 long sleeve, and six pairs of pants to keep out.  Hopefully this will help us in conquering the mountains of laundry!

Then on Tuesday evening we were getting ready to host our small group when we got an email from our agency.  Our social worker explained that she had mistakenly given us some wrong information about filing some paperwork, asking that we call tomorrow.

Wednesday morning, the 8th, we got up and did our quiet time as a family, breakfast, and then Travis left for work.  I decided to quickly call our agency before we got our school day started.

After assuring our social worker that we were not upset, and found out how to proceed, I asked if she thought it was likely they would be able to find a little boy for us from the same province as our little girl.  She responded, "Well, I may just have a little guy for you today."  "How exciting!" I thought!  "They must have just gotten a batch of new files!"  She then went on to say, "I have a cute little guy here, with a cleft lip and palate from Henan.  (Our little girls province!) Would you like to see his file?"  I was shell shocked!  "We would love to see his file!" I responded.

The children and I pulled up the computer and compulsively hit refresh until it came through.  We saw how adorable he was and then called the ER to tell Travis, who was as shocked as I was!  

We were doubaly thrilled to find out that he had been cared for at Maria's Big House of Hope and had his lip surgery done there.  (We had received a grant from Show Hope and thought it would be so sweet if we were able to get one of their babies!)  They also placed tubes in his ears, which was a wonderful bonus, as this is not a practice done in China.

We all floated through the rest of the day, attempting to get school, music lessons, and everything else done. :-)

It turns out we cannot send our Letters of Intent for both children at the same time as we originally thought, (Hence the Wednesday morning phone call) but need to send in for our daughter first.  (As a side note, our Letter of Intent for her was sent today.)  Once we've been pre-approved to adopt her, we can then send in our letter for our little guy, and THEN I think we are allowed to share pictures!

The Call We've Been Waiting For!

For the past 15 months I've walked around feeling like I'm holding a winning lottery ticket - only better - and just waiting for my number to be called, which I was sure could happen ANY day.  I had read blogs by people who had been matched the day after they'd begun the process.  Many people were matched around the one month mark.  After almost 15 month, I must admit, there were times when my hope was beginning to wane a bit. :-( 

I typically called our agency about every 6 weeks or so, just to check in and make sure they remembered who I was. ;-) I usually waited until I had a legitimate question, but some questions didn't quite pass the test.  On one of those calls, I asked our sweet social worker “Has there ever been anyone who did not get a baby?!?” She laughed, and I attempted to muster up a laugh in return.... 

In my heart, I knew that God was sovereign, that He had a good plan, and that our adoption would proceed in His timing, and yet there were times when I wondered “What if God decides to say no?”  "Did we misinterpret where we felt He was leading?".  There had definitely been other times in our lives where we felt God was leading in a certain direction, only to do something different later on.

Then Christmas came and we had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus as a family. It was a joyous month filled with many precious moments, and yet there was a tinge of sadness to it all as well. As I looked around at all of our blessings, and thought about the pictures of orphans I'd seen lying alone in beds for days on end, it made me teary. It still makes me teary. I am so thankful for ALL of the ways God has blessed us, and yet to think there is no one to hold those sweet children and rock them, while we live such an abundant life is hard.

Anyway, the week of Christmas Travis suggested that we should begin praying about bringing home two boys rather than a boy and girl. Our agency had just sent out (another) letter explaining their predicament – hundreds of families waiting for a girl, and hundreds of boys waiting for a family. Would we consider?

To be honest, it was a wrestle for me. I've been praying for our little girl for two and a half years. I had bought a little girl's First Christmas ornament. A soft Chinese baby doll. And a blanket. Pink. And yet, I knew all of these orphans were God's precious children. Was it selfish to want a girl? Was I making this process about me, or what God wanted? Finally, on Thursday (the day after Christmas), I mustered up the courage to call our agency.

Friday, our sweet social worker, Judy, returned my call. We chatted about what things would look like if we changed our preference to two boys. She told me we were getting closer on a girl, but that it could be another 3-6 months.

I continued to pray over the weekend, and on Monday the 30th, I layed down for a short nap with my little ones. When I got up, I looked at the paper and then answered a phone call. When I hung up I noticed the machine was blinking. It was Judy. “Hi Travis and Laura! If you could give me a call, it's about 3:30 now.”  That was it.

I fumbled with phone, shaking and getting teary as I dialed her number. Could she possibly have a baby? Or had she forgotten that she had returned my call last week?  She asked for both of us, so maybe she had some news?  Unfortunately I got her voicemail. 4:15pm. I left a message, knowing they closed at 4:30.  I ran outside (with both phones just in case ;-)) to the family crew hanging the Christmas zipline and gave them an update.

By 4:24pm I couldn't stand it. (I know.  I shouldn't even admit it publicly. This is one neurotic mommy-to-be.  I really have tried to stay rational through this process!) I attempted to call the lady I know at the front desk.  Off for the week.  Someone else did answer, said she'd check to see if Judy was still there. When she came back on the line, she explained that Judy was not answering the page, but that she would stop by her desk on her way out and let her know I was trying to reach her.

Finally, shortly before 5:00pm, our phone rang and it was indeed the call! After I apologized for hounding her, Judy said “Well, as the world turns..... we received a file of a little girl that you may be interested in.” She then proceeded to tell us about a precious little girl and asked if we'd like to review her file. Strangely enough, (We are confident it is the Lord) she explained the little girl had what was considered a fairly minor condition in China – Cleft Lip and Palate – and yet there was an additional diagnosis that bumped her into the “Special Focus” or severe needs category – Ametropia. Judy wasn't sure exactly what that was (and neither did we), but we knew it had something to do with her eyesight and that she could see - we could rule out blindness.

By the time I got off the phone I was really crying – I couldn't believe we'd been matched with a little girl! I raced outside and grabbed Caleb who then took off at top speed down the hill yelling “we got a match! We got a match!” Zipline dropped and forgotten, everyone raced in the house to hear more.

We all gathered around the computer to see her for the first time together, and as we pulled up her file, Addie was the first to speak “I will hold her!” she said. ;-) We all thought she was adorable and chubby, with little cheeks like Jackson had as a baby.

After quickly texting a few friends and calling Grandma, our next call was to a dear friend who is an Opthomologist. We explained what was happening and asked her what Ametropia was? “Farsightedness.” She replied. I wasn't sure I had heard correctly. “Farsightedness?” “Yes, it just means that she has different degrees of farsightedness in each eye.” At this point I had to repent of my lack of faith...

We had been praying since the spring that God would allow us to bring home two babies, and while Travis was confident God would work it all out, I tried to guard my heart, as I felt it was a bit of a long shot. To bring home two from China, one had to be classified in the “severe needs” group. Quite honestly, our medical checklist did not really lend itself to things China classifies as severe needs. In 15 months no severe needs child had popped up that matched our checklist. 

 Since the spring, we had been praying for two things that we knew God would have to do in order for us to bring home two. The first, was to provide a “severe needs” child that maatched our checklist. The second was that both kids would be from the same province in China, or we would have to extend our trip an extra week, which we knew was not a feasible option.

I spent most of the evening in disbelief that God had answered the first prayer, and the rest of the evening scanning the internet for pictures of out little one and researching out the foster home she is residing in. We were all THRILLED to be matched and can't wait to see if God has a little guy for us. We also can't wait to share her picture!