Waiting Child Approved!

Just got news today that we have been approved for the Waiting Child Program and are now able to receive referrals. This is exciting news!!! This means we could be matched with a child at any time. Continue to keep us and this little one in your prayers and I'll update you if anything progresses.

This could take awhile.....

I get numerous people a day asking for an update on our journey. As of right now it looks like the earliest we could be going to China would be late December. Again, that is the earliest. Things just take time and lots of it.

We met with our pediatrician yesterday to go over all the medical info that goes along with the Waiting Child program. The Waiting Child program consists of children that range from 6 months to 13 years old and the majority of children available through this program have a medically correctable special need. Many children even receive surgeries in China. The waiting child program's application requires you list all medical needs that you would be willing to accept and the list is LONG. Many items we had never even heard of so, the help of our pediatrician was key in completing this application. He was amazing at explaining everything. Now it will be up to us to narrow down the special needs. As soon as we complete the paper work we will be open to recieve referrals. Please keep us in your prayers these next few days as we complete this next phase.

Prayer for Ethiopia

Heard about this Sunday from our friend's The Sanderson's who are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. I just received this from our agency and wanted to pass it along to all my friends and family to keep them in your prayers.


America World is asking all families to be in prayer for the Ethiopian adoption process. The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWA) has stated a desire to reduce the number of recommendation letters they write each day for families in the court process. The number of recommendation letters have already started to decrease and we anticipate this will continue over the next few weeks as the court, MOWA, and other entities meet to discuss MOWA’s desire to decrease the number of recommendation letters they write overall.

Even as this continues to unfold, we know that the Lord places the lonely in families, and that the enemy does not want to see this happen. Please pray that God will break down the strongholds set up against adoption, and that His Spirit will direct the decisions being made in the coming days and weeks in Ethiopia. Pray for all of the families and children affected by decisions being made and that they will experience God’s peace and comfort through this time.

“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” Psalm 5:3

Email Updates

I've been trying to get the word out to all our friends and family to sign up on the right to get emailed updates when I post something new. No spam email - promise. Just sharing this joyful journey.

Oh, and make sure you verify your subscription. After you add your email you will be emailed to verify before you will start getting your emails. If you don't get the email check your spam or junk folder.

Meant to be - What a neat song

I think I've got to go get this Veggie Tale movie too to have for our little China one.

Crazy Statistics

In the Special Needs program there are roughly the same amount of boys and girls available for adoption. The crazy statistic is that 80-90% of couples adopting in this program want a girl. The other statistic that I read over and over again is that 25% of professing Christians think or talk about adopting but only a staggering 1% actually do. WOW.

So whats in a Dossier you ask?

Here is a list of our work thus far:

Prospective Adoptive Parent Form
Application Letter
Husband's Birth Certificate
Wife's Birth Certificate
Employment Letter - Husband
Employment/non-employment Letter - Wife
Certificate of Financial Status
Physical Exam - Husband
Physical Exam - Wife
Local or State Police Clearance - Husband
Local or State Police Clearance - Wife
Home Study (included 1 joint visit, 2 individual visits and 1 family visit + 4 referral letters, pet vaccination records, 10 hours of Hague training and more that I can't think of right now.)
Passport Page - Husband
Passport Page - Wife
1-797 Approval Notice
Photographs of Family and House

And basically all of it with the exception of maybe a few had to be notarized and certified. Phew. They weren't kidding when they say it is alot of paperwork and waiting.

Breaks my heart

This picture is not of a crippled child or a child who is going without food but of cribs. Ordinary cribs in mass quantity. This is a typical orphanage where my soon to be little one may be sleeping. Being fed in an assembly line with bottles being propped in their cribs. Often not leaving this one room for days. It was so hard for me to imagine until I came across this photo on a blog today. Oh, how this breaks my heart and makes me want to get to China even faster.