Ella Grace Bailey

We are thrilled to say that we have PA and can officially share pictures of our beautiful little girl, Ella Grace Bailey "Gracie"!  Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I got a phone call from our social worker telling me that we could share her picture.  I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks, not a couple of days.  Maybe this means all the other steps will go quickly;-)

It's a Girl!!!!!

We are so excited to announce that we have been matched with a beautiful little girl! She is 2 1/2 years old and absolutely precious!  We have spent the day reviewing her medical records and talking with physicians.  As most of you know we are adopting a child with special needs.  She has a congenital heart arrhythmia.  Good thing her Daddy is a heart rhythm specialist!  I have spent a lot of time praying that when we received a referral the child would have a medical need that Michael would be familiar with.  I was hoping that it would be her heart, but never imagined it would be an arrhythmia.  It certainly put us ahead of the curve while looking at her file!  God truly is a work in all the details of our lives.  I can't help but imagine that on July 18, 2011, when God spoke to my heart and told me there was a little girl out there for our family, He was also answering her cries for a family.  We are all in His hands and truly loved by Him!  The unfortunate news is that I can not share her picture until we receive PA from China.  Hopefully, in a couple of weeks I can introduce you to our little girl by name and by picture.  Please pray for her that she will be cared for and nurtured until we can bring her home.  I love you all and thank you for joining us on this most incredible journey!

Praying for a referral

It looks like the next list will be released on February 27th.  I promise to update as soon as we know if this is the month that we are matched with our little girl.  It is just a matter of time (and an awful lot of patience) before we see her sweet face!  I am so grateful that God is blessing us with another child.  We are so full of anticipation waiting to see how His plan continues to unfold. 

In the meantime, we are excited that we have been given an opportunity to volunteer at a Show Hope event in conjunction with Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Songs and Stories” tour near Huntsville this weekend.  http://www.showhope.org/.  I have also been approved to work on the medical team as a volunteer with Love Without Boundaries.  http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/. 

I also have several of my friends from The Red Thread group that are preparing to travel to China and bring their babies home.  Please pray for them that they have safe travels and that God will prepare the hearts of their children for the new life they are about the begin.  I can only imagine how difficult it must be, even for a small child, to be taken away from all that is familiar and placed in the arms of strangers.  Although they are certainly going to loving, Christ centered homes, it is in the familiar that we find comfort.  Please pray that God will comfort their sweet hearts as the unfamiliar becomes their forever family.

Love to all of you reading this:-)

Become a sponsor today!

DTC!!!!!

We are officially DTC (dossier to China)!  There is a rumor that the next list may come out February 20th.  If we can get expedited log in, we may make it for a referral this month!  I am asking prayers for God's direction to those who are making the match and for wisdom for us as we are presented with a referral.  I almost feel silly asking God for these things.  I have never been more certain that God has a specific plan for us and I am confident that he is directing us to the child that will forever become part of our family.  Through this process, God has opened my heart to the needs of those that have been orphaned and found a deeper faith in a God who is bigger than all my worries.  Is life for us going to change?  Definitely!  Are there going to be struggles?  You bet!  Is that any different than adding to a family by "conventional" methods?  No way!   I encourage anyone who is reading this that has ever considered adoption to think about the statistics below and prayerfully consider whether God may be calling you to blessings beyond measure through adoption.  

Did You Know?
There are 143 million children in the world today who have lost one or both of their parents. That figure equals nearly half the United States population.
¦ Every 14 seconds, an AIDS death creates another orphan.
¦ Every year, more than 14 million children become orphans.
¦ There are currently 500,000 children in foster care in the United States. Approximately 118,000 of them are available for adoption.
¦ Every year in the U.S. alone, over 25,000 children “age out” of the foster system—meaning that at age 21, they lose eligibility for child welfare benefits—with no family to belong to and no place to call home.
¦ In Ukraine and Russia, 10 to 15 percent of children who “age out” of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.
¦ More than a third of Americans have seriously considered adopting, but no more than 2 percent have actually adopted.
(All information is from 2009 UNICEF, USAID, and UNAIDS materials.)

Interested in Adoption?

Here’s how to get started:
¦ Search God’s Word and pray.
¦ Seek counsel from others.
¦ Simplify the process by choosing the type of adoption that’s right for your family.
¦ Select an agency to help in your domestic or inter-country adoption.
¦ Surrender your plans to God, keeping the child—not yourself—as your central focus, and accessing the support and resources God has for you.
¦ Find additional important information at www.orphansandthechurch.com
"Adoption isn’t limited to child-placement, it’s not just for a few and it isn’t plan B. Adoption is at the very center of the Story of Redemption–and of the heart of God. We were all orphans without a home or hope in this world and God brought us into his family and gave us his name." —Sally Lloyd-Jones, Author of The Jesus Story Book Bible

Immigration Approval

We officially have approval from USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to adopt a child from China. 

Here is an explanation of that process:

Form I-800A! The full name of this form is Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, the convention country in our case being China. USCIS will evaluate whether not you are suitable to adopt a child from China.

The next step is to send our dossier to china (DTC):

What is a dossier? The official definition is "a collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject (usually a person's record). In this case, the record is being compiled on us as the adoptive parents. In order to adopt a child from China, we were required to collect a series of documents that tell the CCCWA about us, our family, our health, and our finances.

What's In The Dossier?

• A Completed Home Study


• Certified birth certificates for both parents


• Marriage License


• Divorce/death decrees if applicable


• Medical statement of good health for both parents


• Letter of Employment for both parents


• Financial Statement


• Police Reports for both parents


• I-800A Approval


• 6 photos of your family life


• 3 copies of each parent's passport


• 2 passport photos of each parent


• Adoption Application Letter (or Letter of Intent)

So, the good news is that we are making progress and should be logged in with the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) sometime in February so that we can recieve a referral when the shared list is released at the end of the month.

What is the Shared List?

The shared list is an online database of all the special needs children that are available to be matched with families. The CCCWAadds new children to this list every month. This is sometimes referred to as the CCCWA releasing a 'new list'. It's not really a new list, it's just additions to the main base list.
There are approximately 1700-2000 children on the shared list at any given time. Children that are *waiting* for families. Some have been waiting for months or even years on the shared list.

Accessing The Shared List
Only licensed adoption agencies and social workers can access this list. With rare exceptions, private individuals and adoptive parents can not access this list. The CCAA maintains this policy so as to protect the privacy of China's Waiting Children.





http://www.china-adoption-online.com/

Still waiting. . .

I should have exciting news any day, but none today.  Still waiting to get I800A approval so we can send our dossier to China (DTC).  I promise we are getting closer.  Still looking at a February referral. . . The reality is beginning to sink in and I am so excited about getting our baby home.  It amazes me how consumed I can be with thoughts of a child I have never met, or even seen a picture of, for that matter.  I think about her everyday with hopes and prayers that her tummy is full and loving hands are holding her.  I am also amazed at how much smaller the world now seems and how much more compassion I feel for those that are in need.  I guess when you have a child (even one not yet known) that is dependent on the generosity of others for their most basic needs, it puts into perspective God's call to love your neighbors and care for the widows and orphans.  Please keep us in your prayers as God directs us to the child he has planned for our family.  Lots of love to those who are following our journey.

Not much to update, update. . .

I wish I had more news to share. We are in the middle of finding our way through our first round with immigration. We have been fingerprinted (again) and filled out more and more paperwork in anticipation of sending our dossier to China. We are still on schedule for a referral by February (hopefully) and travel late summer to bring our baby home. I will update once we are DTC- get ready the acronyms will be flying the next few months! DTC, LOI, LOA, TA. I just have to figure out what they mean:-)