GREAT NEWS!

We are adopting another little girl! 

We're so excited to bring our daughter home! We can't wait for everyone to meet her; she is pretty spectacular! 

In August 2014 we sent a care package to our soon to be adopted four year old daughter Zoey. We included a translated letter in her package. In the letter we asked if they could please take a video of Zoey interacting or speaking if possible. The reports we had to date were contradictory about her ability to speak and her social skills. We wanted to know where she was so we could prepare to meet her there. 

A few weeks later we received two videos. Our little munchkin was perched on some boxes in a storage room and looking at our family photo album with two older girls. Both of the older girls were adorable and very tender with Zoey. They flipped through the pages of the album and coaxed the words out of her "mama, mommy, baba, daddy, gege, brother..." Zoey really responded to their attention and said the words in the tiniest voice as she pointed to our pictures. We wept. 

We shared the video with friends and family. Everyone was elated to hear Zoey's voice and see her little smile. The second thing everyone asked was "who are those little girls?" and "they must be the children of nannies or workers that come to work there."
I couldn't shake them though, especially the oldest girl. Neither could Pete. A few days later we spoke about the video and he said it "Why don't you inquire? Find out if she is adoptable. Just in case." 

If you don't know, "just in case" are famous last words in adoption circles. That phrase means so much more than it sounds like it would. 

I reached out to a friend of mine that worked with the hospital that Zoey grew up in. I asked if he knew the girl. Much to my amazement, I found that he and his wife had formerly fostered her and she was now living with Zoey. He was able to give me her name, medical need and date of birth.

I passed the girls information on to my amazing agency and they were able to get back to me in a couple days to let me know that she was unadoptable. They had never made a file for her to be adopted and had no plans to do so. They felt her needs were quite significant and a family would not choose her!

We mourned this answer for just about a few minutes and then we called our agency back to say with certainty that she was not unadoptable. We wanted to adopt her! We begged them to do whatever they could to convince the powers that be to make a file for her.

We then set about much conversation over her special need, how we would handle it and if we could really handle it. We also did the one thing that was new to our marriage since pursuing adoption: we prayed together. Hard. We felt so compelled, so led to add both Zoey and this girl to our family that we felt certain this was a plan not of our design.

We were going to be a one and done adopting family. We had three boys. We just wanted to round our family out with a little girl to love and spoil. We made this plan in 2005 on our first date! This. Was. The. Plan.

Our agency soon got back to us and told us that they convinced the Social Welfare Institute to make a file for her. They had successfully intervened on our behalf! We excitedly began asking questions about adopting both girls at the same time, was it possible? What were our next steps?

This was the next brick wall. We were cautioned (lovingly) that the process to make a file from scratch would be arduous and unpredictable. It was not likely that timelines would align and we would be able to adopt the girls together. It was possible but not likely. We were not dismayed. We really felt called to this path and we were both accepting that this was the path we were to follow. 

Thus began the 15 month cycle of her file creation. We kept in contact with our agency every 4-6 weeks. We consistently heard "they are working on it" and "not ready yet.."
In March of this year we went to China to adopt Zoey. Our agency's in country staff assisted us with hiring a private car to head up the mountain to meet those that had cared for Zoey all of her life. Of course, we knew we would likely meet our big girl and we had to be very careful with what we said. We really relied on prayer again here. We needed strength. Emotions were high as we were falling in love with Zoey after receiving her only three days prior. We struggled with driving up there, walking through the door and then leaving without the other child we called daughter. 

When we arrived, we walked up three flights of stairs and down the hall. We could hear the voices of many children on the other side of the door. As the door opened we saw her, she was right there with a huge smile and shaking with excitement. "MAAAAAAA" she yelled and then "DADDYYYYYYYY" followed by big hugs. Those were our names, to her. She spent months teaching Zoey to say mommy and daddy. It was very surreal. We had not considered it. The next three hours made an indelible impression on us both. Every child there, etched in our minds forever. The sights, sounds and smell of the rooms are now a part of our daily lives. Walking out of that building was the hardest thing we have ever done together in our marriage and as individuals. We would have given anything to stay, to care for them all, to play and to teach, to pray over and to love. Let me tell you, a part of our soul was left behind that day and if you never experience time in an orphanage setting you might not ever understand that. It was life changing.

Two days before Thanksgiving our adoption agency rep called to tell me how thankful she was to have such a great job, she was thankful for all of the amazing families she works with and all of the amazing children she gets to see come home. I thought "Wow! This is really personable. They are a big agency, It must take forever to call each client like this."

That's when it hit me! 

In a wave of realization and relief I burst into tears and she said it:
"...thankful for long awaited files."

It was here! Her file was done and it was here and we got it!
Thank you God and our agency and China! We got it! We already had our Letter of Intent to Adopt drafted and we turned it in before the end of the day!
It was a long road, it will be a little bit longer and it will be so worth it.

If you are still reading, thank you and stay tuned. 

The best is yet to come. :)

We've started a fundraiser on Pure Charity to raise the funding that we need to make our adoption a success. We have a donations goal of $9,357.00 that will go towards the  cost of the adoption fees and travel expenses to go to CHina and adopt our daughter. It's been our dream to bring this beautiful girl home since we first laid eyes on her nearly two years ago! We really felt immediately called to do whatever it takes to make her a part of our family. It has been a long road and we hope that you will consider helping us make our dream a reality.

Every donation is important and will help make this adoption a success. Would you kindly consider making a donation? Also, we would appreciate your willingness to share this with others who may want to participate.

• Thank you so much for being a part of our lives and helping accomplish something that's important to all of us!