"Tell your children of Him, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation." Joel 1:3

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Telling the boys

On Tuesday, after we were sure of our decision, we called the boys to the living room to tell them the news. They knew nothing of what had been going on the past few days, so they weren't expecting it at all. When we said we had gotten a call and had gotten a referral, they were so excited. Tyler just said "what?..already??" Timmy started crying right away and so did Trae. That made me cry. I love that they are so happy about this. What makes some kids like this? Actually, what makes some families like this? I can't tell you how many kids I know that would probably not be happy about another sibling or at least could care less. I think our family just has such a good openess to life and it gets in their hearts and makes them the same. What a blessing.
When I got home from work on Tues. night, I was pulling into the driveway and this is what I saw. Sooooo cute!

How to choose

I was going to wait until everything was done and we had our pre-approval, but I have so much to share that I thought I'd do it now.
Last Thurs. we got a call from Jill, our social worker, that we had recieved our LID (Log In Date). This is what we've been working towards this whole time. It's the holy grale of the adoption process becuase once you get it, it means you are finally eligible for a referral. We didn't expect it until Oct. so this was a welcome surprise. The timing on it could not have been better because the new shared list for China's Special Needs that comes out once a month, was coming out that next Monday, Sept. 20th. Monday morning in China is Sunday evening in America so Jill was at the computer ready to go Sunday night as the kids started to come up on the list. Ya see, the whole process is a bit of a game....a race, really. One by one, new kids get added to the list. As they pop up, it's up to the social worker to lock in a child for their client....but, every social worker around the country is doing the same thing at the same time....so, she has about 30 seconds to read male or female, birthdate, and a one/two word description of their special need before having to lock them. If they don't do it fast, the child will be locked out by someone else first and they lose them.
On Sunday night, Jay and I had to go to a Couples In Christ function at church. We had our cell phone close by hoping she would be calling us. She did. At 8pm she called to quick ask us if we would be interested in a little one yr. old girl with bad scarring on her feet, ankles, and thighs. She said it looked like burns. I said yes and we hung up. An hour later, she called again to say that she had not got that little one locked in on time for us, but that she had gotten 2 others. She was sending the emails with their records to us and we would have to chose. We quick finished up at church and headed home. We both pulled up a chair to the computer and opened the files.
The first one.....girl, age 22 mos., unrepaired cleft lip/palate, loves to play on her swinging car, loves to eat meat congee, bone soup, and cake, loves to imitate, understands what "No" means, abandoned at a post office at a day old, and the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen.
The second....girl, age 2 yr.4 mos old, repaired cleft lip/palate, loves to eat sweet foods and fruits, can point to her eyes, ears, and nose, abandoned at a police station at 3 days old, and a totally sweet little face.
Talk about making a tough decision. We weighed all the factors and made a choice based on something very obscure and something most people would probably not even consider when making a decision like this. It came down to personality. The personality of the second little one was listed as timid, shy, like's quietness, introverted. The first one's personality? Restless, active, like's to imitate, outgoing, extroverted, talkative. Um...I wonder which one would have an easier time getting used to our home, our boys, and our craziness? We didn't care either way, but we considered her. What would be easiest for her. And so we picked the first little baby girl we saw that night. And we are so happy we did because each time I look at her face, which is often, I just fall in love with those beautiful eyes and sweet chubby arms a little bit more.
And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.

Matthew 18:5

Our News

Sunday night, for the first time, Jason and I saw the sweet face of the child that we hope will be our daughter. We recieved our Log In Date (LID) on Thurs. just a few days before the new Special Needs list came out for Sept. We weren't expecting it so soon, we were hopeful for October so this was a great surprise.
I can't share too much about her yet because we technically do not have a permanent lock on her. She is temporarily locked in to us, but we will need to submit a Letter Of Intent (LOI) to China first thing tomorrow morning so that they can give us our Pre-Approval (PA). It's then that we can truly call her ours and I can share all the details. Until then, I am only allowed to disclose very minimal information about her.
So, here's what I will say.
She will be 2 in November.
She has an unrepaired cleft lip and palate.
She sounds like a fun, feisty little thing.
She is absolutely beautiful.
We are over the moon to have 'met' her and can't wait to start our journey to bring her home.