Introducing..............

........our newest addition to the family.


Today, we received out PA (pre-approval) so we can officially show off our little girl. Didn't I tell you she was adorable!
We have decided to name her Olivia....with Livi being her nickname. We aren't sure on her middle name yet. We'd like to use a part of her Chinese name, but it's a bit of a mouthful, so we are working on that.
We have loved the name Olivia since we were pregnant with our first son. Actually, I fell in love with it 18 years ago when a co-worker had a daughter with the same name. It was unheard of at that time...it's gained a lot of popularity since then, but we just couldn't change it. We've loved it for far too long.
We are now beginning a whole new set of paperwork and red tape to get her home. The average time frame from now is about 6 mos. which puts us in China by March.
Our little Livi, as you can see, has an unrepaired cleft lip and palate. We aren't sure whether or not it will be fixed by the time we go get her. We are prepared for it to not be....either way is fine with us. She is a healthy little girl and sounds like a real spitfire. I think she'll fit right in with all these crazy boys.
She will be 2 years old in November and is doing all the things an almost 2 yr. old should be doing...
.....except knowing the real love of a family. That part, to her, is a foreign concept. The idea of only 2 people to care for her rather than a sea of caretakers. The idea of brothers that will dote on her like the princess she will certainly be around here. The comfort of coming home at the end of a busy day and feeling safe in her own room.
She is most definately in for a whirlwind of emotion.....and so are we.

Waiting.....

If you ever want a lesson in patience.....adopt a child. It's definitely out of my comfort zone to have to wait and wait for each new step. We waited for our immigration to get filed, we waited for our new passports after losing the first ones, we waited for our LID, and now we wait for our PA (pre-approval). This does not sit well with a person who, when she gets an idea in her head, gets stuff done....quick. I really am trying to be patient. I'm trying to listen to the friends....voices in my head....that keep reminding me that there is a reason for everything and that this timing is no different. That the 3 week wait here, the rule change there, the delay over there....all get us to our little girl. One of those things being different would not have given us the same smiling face and beautiful huge brown eyes. I know this, I just have a hard time surrendering to it. I'm trying though. What choice do I have.

My football players

I have been so wrapped up in adoption news that I never even shared what's been going on with the boys and their football season.
It's been interesting, to say the least. But, then again, is anything here boring? We pretty much epitomize the phrase...."Never a dull moment."
This year, it was 3 going into football. Last year was 2, year before that was one...you get the idea. Basically, hubby and I are gluttons for punishment and apparently didn't think we were busy enough.
Anyhooo....
Since the teams go by grade, they were all three on seperate teams. Of course.
This was the schedule rundown for practices that began in mid August.
Getting to practices....
Tyler - 5:30pm (monday - friday)
Trae - 5:45pm (monday - thurs)
Timmy - 6:15pm (monday thurs)
...all at different parks. Of course.
Getting picked up from practice...
Tyler - 7:00pm
Trae - 7:15pm
Timmy - 8:00pm
Now, because I work on Tues. and Thurs. nights, that meant that Jay had to do this all on his own....with 2 little ones in tow....somehow getting them all fed dinner at some point as well....God help that poor man.
Fast forward a few weeks to when the games start.
Now, practices are the same, but we've added games.....lots of 'em
Tyler now has a game every Saturday and Sunday. Sunday. Huh?
Trae has games every Monday and Wednesday
Timmy has games every Tuesday and Thursday.
In case you lost count, that's 7 days a week.
Wasn't that nice of them to spread them all out like that.....just for us...
But wait....don't forget that now school has started. So on top of it all, we have to somehow squeeze in homework and getting to bed at a decent time. Notgonnahappen
Something had to give....and since I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let us adopt another child if we chose dinner as the thing to cut out....we don't get them to bed on time. Ever.
Exhausting right? Well....I'm not done.
See, what I didn't yet mention was that in the second week of practice Tyler fell backwards and broke his thumb right at the growth plate. He got a cast up to his elbow and was out for 3 weeks. That didn't stop him from wanting to go to practices and games though. He knew if he did that, he could get back into the game with a couple weeks left in the season.
Three weeks came, he got his cast off, got it re X-rayed....and then got told by the dr. that he could not play. He said he should not do any contact sports for at least another 3 weeks. ??? To say he was not a happy camper was an understatement. All this time he spent going to the games and practices only to be told that it would not pay off was not what he was hoping to hear. I have to admit, at that point, all I could think was "if I'd have known this 3 weeks ago, I could have probably gotten our registration fee back..."
So, that was Tyler.
Timmy....is another story. Like I said, Never a dull moment. Tim was trying to pop a wheely on his bike in the backyard when he fell backwards hitting his head....hard. He got a concussion and was told he couldn't play for 2 weeks. That time has just come and gone. Last night, he was back to playing and was happy about that.
Trae is the only one that didn't lose play time this year. It's a good thing too cuz that kid is goooood. He plays offense and defense for the entire game. Plays several positions and becomes a big part of most plays. Last night he got the teams only touchdown by running in a hand off. We were very proud of him.
I think he uses all that energy that drives me outtamymind all day long and channels it into kickin' butt on the field.
Works for me.

Listening

Wow, what a crazy couple days.
Jason stayed home from work on Tues. to be with me to get some stuff done with the referral. We needed to write up our LOI (Letter of Intent) to get sent asap to China. We wrote and sent it, it got translated and sent back to the agency and just had to be uploaded and submitted along with a few other things.
No problem, right?
Wrong.
We got a call on Tues. night from Jill, our social worker. She was just on her way home at 9pm because she had been struggling all day with a computer issue that wouldn't allow her to submit our paperwork. She was on the phone back and forth all day with a woman named Tu, who is the agency's liaison in China. Tu kept trying to reach someone at the CCAA (the place that facilitates all the adoptions) but was unable to because they were all off for mid-autumn festival. The problem was that after 72 hours (which happened on Tues. night) the lock is released and we lose the referral. Jill had called a couple other agencies and found out that one of them was not having the same problem. It was for this reason that we were sure she was lost for us. If the system is affecting only sporadic agencies, then the ones that aren't affected will have the opportunity to now lock into our little girl. Because CCAA was closed for 3 days, there was no way she wouldn't be snatched up in that time. She's a girl, under the age of 2, with a minor need....they don't stay unlocked on the SN list for long. Jill was very sorry, but there was nothing she could do.
We were so sad and very frustrated.
Could a computer glitch really just have taken this little one who's face we already adored?
Surely, God had not put her on our hearts only to take her away. We just didn't know what to think or how to feel.
The next day we woke up with the thought that if we were lucky we might get a new referral that week, but more than likely we felt we would be waiting another month.

At noon, I was at mom's house and Jill called me on my cell. She told me that the CCAA found out about the problem and discovered it was actually system wide. Every agency had the same problem. That meant that not only were there tons of people who got the same bad news as we did the night before, no one was able to lock into our child. They allowed everyone to re-lock the same child (something not normally allowed once the time frame ends) and extended the deadline for paperwork until noon that day. Jill found this out at 11:00am and frantically got all our papers uploaded and submitted just in time. I couldn't believe what I was hearing so I asked her just to be sure I wasn't misunderstanding her.....You mean we got her back??

Yes. We did.

I had woke up that Wednesday morning to my alarm going off to my favorite Christian station. The DJ was in the middle of a sentence that caught my attention, even in my half asleep mind. "....maybe you got a call yesterday that changed something in your life, and now you don't know what to do. Offer it up to the Lord and cast your worries on Him. Trust that His plan will be layed out for you."
I made the decision that morning to do just that.
Surrender it all to Him.
There was nothing I could do to change the situation.....but He could....and He did. God is so good to us and we are forever grateful.

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