Back to waiting...

No call today...sigh...so back to waiting 'patiently' it is.

I can't believe what an emotional roller coaster this...I am trying hard to not let the dissappointment get to me.  The bright side is that we still know that our daughter is alive...somewhere in China...it just means we will have to wait awhile longer before we get to see her face. 

I think that this will most likely mean that we will be waiting another month until the end of March when the shared list will be updated once again.  There is a small chance of us getting matched in a few days.  The agencies are under a lot of time pressure to 'lock-in' files as soon as the shared list is updated...and it is not uncommon for agencies to 'lock-in' a child's file (for 72 hours) and then realize when looking closer that it doesn't match a family's parameters...those files should be back on the shared list Thursday night.

I kind of had a freak-out moment this morning when I was chatting with my friend from Airdrie, AB.  Glen always calls me from work at 9:30am just to say hi...so I was surprised when his number didn't show up on the call display at that time.  Awhile later (I was still on the phone), my niece texted me to see if there was any news...it was only then that I realized that when we made some changes with Shaw last week, we had gotten rid of our call display/call waiting!!!  I called the adoption agency right away thinking I might have missed 'The Call'...but unfortunately there was no news waiting.  Needless to say, my awesome big sister (who happens to work for Shaw) took care of this for us today, so that we will now have that feature again until at least after we get a referral.  Thanks sis!

I also want to say thank you to all our friends and family that called, emailed, and texted us to check on us today and offer support...wish I had more exciting news to share today, but hopefully soon!  Thank you as well to all of you that have prayed for Bob from FOI (that will be the one matching us with our daughter), as well as for us, and our little girl too...we are so blessed!

So like I said before...back to waiting for now it is...

love, gayle :)

Will we get a referral tomorrow???

I just found out that China has updated the waiting child shared list for this month, and agencies are busy matching children with families right now!!! 

How will I ever sleep tonight??...I can hardly believe that we might actually get a referral tomorrow!!!  I am beside myself...after all these years of hoping, dreaming, and praying for this day...for her...it feels surreal.

I am trying hard not to get my hopes up as there is definitely the possibility that we might have to wait another month.  I am so thankful to have peace in knowing that God is the one that is in control over all of this with HIS perfect plan for our family and our little girl.  And since i'm sure that getting much sleep is out of the question tonight, i will instead spend the time praying for God's will to unfold as only he knows is best. Obviously, I am praying that we will definitely be matched tonight and get a call from the agency tomorrow...but we'll have to see if that is HIS plan too.

I once read something about God having revision rights over our prayers.  He will... edit them, correct them, bring them in line with His will and then hand them back to us.  I often need to remind myself of this :)

So to bed I go...dreaming and praying for our little one...

What happens when we get a referral...

Only one more week until the 'last week of February'...I am praying like mad that we will be matched this month and get a referral for our baby girl!  We'll see what God has planned though...He has a habit of putting me in my place when I try to control things too much...lol...so I will sit back and wait as patiently as possible knowing He is the one with the 'grand plan'...and that His timing is always perfect! :)

Here is a quick overview of how our referral will unfold...

- Bob from FOI (the Ontario adoption agency) will match us when a child comes up on the shared list that matches our parameters (age, gender, special needs).  Like I've already mentioned, he is hoping this will happen the last week of February (7 days from now!!!!...but who's counting?), but if not, then most likely the end of March instead.

- Bob will put a 'lock' on the child which gives us only a 72 hour period to review her file information and make a decision

- Bob will then forward the child's information to the adoption agency here, and they will then contact us (hopefully quickly as the 72 hour clock is ticking!)  The child's file will usually include: 1 picture, a one page biography on the child, a short medical and development report (this will include information about the child's special need), and a blood analysis

- We will then review the information ourselves, and then take it to our family physician to go over with us and decipher all the medical jargon

- If we decide we want to adopt her, we then have to write what's called a 'Letter of Intent'.  This includes an explanation of who we had review her information, a statement about how we fully understand her medical condition and what additional care she will require, a 'care plan' of how we will support her and her special need, how our insurance will cover her medical needs, other supports available to us, as well as a promise that we will love her and care for her to the best of our ability.

- We then email this letter back to Bob at FOI, he will have it translated into Mandarin and sent to China ALL within the 72 hour window...whew!

As you can see...when we do get our referral, we definitely won't have a lot of time to make a decision and get all the requirements done.  The 72 hour window is not all that long, but they do that in fairness to the children... because if we chose not to adopt the child for some reason (which I can't even fathom at this point), then the file is unlocked again and other potential families can review the file.

And now, just for fun...totally unrelated to our referral...here are a few pictures of the dragons the boys made to celebrate Chinese New Year a couple weeks ago...

Okay, one more...this is a picture of the special cross that Mataeus made to 'give to God' on Chinese New Years. 

This was totally his idea, and he even had my mom, Nathaniel and I do a special ceremony with him when he 'gave it to God'...too cute!  What a great kid he is...it is so awesome to see the love he has for God!

Gayle :)

Where things are at...

So here is an update as to where things are at with our adoption process...

Our file is currently with an adoption agency in Ontario called Family Outreach International (FOI).  Some of you already know that a while back we had made a decision to switch to what's called China's 'Waiting Child Program'...this program is for children with what China labels as special needs...but, somewhat different from what we think of in this regard.  Mostly these are children with minor correctable conditions.  Basically, we were given a list of 'special needs', and we had to say 'yes or no' to each one of them...definitely a more difficult task than we had anticipated.  That being said, we feel good about the decisions we made in this regard, knowing that we were honest with ourselves as to what 'special needs' we feel that we could support in our family right now.  So now, FOI takes that list and tries to find a child on the 'shared list' that matches the parameters we have given them (age, gender, special needs, etc).  There is an ongoing shared list that only certain agencies have access to...this list is updated with more children being added to it only one time per month.  I spoke with Bob from FOI (he is the one that does the actual matching of children with families) just over a week ago and it doesn't look like there is currently a child on the list that is a match for us, but he did give us other very exciting news.  

He said that he is almost certain that we will be matched with a girl that has cleft lip and/or palate.  This was a relief for us to hear as we already know families that have adopted girls through the WC program with cleft...so we are extremely lucky to have those families as a support and resource to us.  As well, we are also very fortunate where we live to have a great surgeon and other resources available to us to help support a child with cleft.  The craziest part of hearing this news was that about a week and a half prior to my conversation with Bob, Mataeus was praying before bed and he started to pray for his sister and for Bob (he knows this is the man that God will have make the decision as to who his sister will be).  Mataeus is a very sensitive boy that needs to know details about everything.  He had asked the day before that about each special need that we had said yes to, and had wanted to know what they all were.  At the time i had shown him pictures of some children with cleft lip/palate (before and after surgery), as well as some other 'special needs' too.  Anyways, this particular night when he was praying, he actually asked God that his sister would have cleft lip!  And now here we are...amazing and wonderful!

Even more exciting is how soon we might be matched...Bob said that currently FOI has 18 families waiting...and only 3 of them are willing to adopt a child with cleft...we are the third of those 3 families.  Bob said that he usually matches 2 or 3 families a month with children having cleft...so, he is hopeful that we will be matched in the last week of February, but of course didn't want to 'promise' me that.  I started crying...I can hardly believe after all this time we are actually this close to finding out who God has planned for our family!!!  Bob figures the latest would be a March referral...I guess after almost 5 years, I might be able to stand waiting another 2 months at the most. 

I am having trouble sleeping at night...I can't stop thinking about her!  It is so amazing to me to think that she is in China right now...and she has no idea that we have been praying for her and will be coming to bring her home soon.  Glen keeps telling me to get some sleep now, because i'm going to need it! :)

So here we are...still waiting...but it is different now because we know for sure that our little girl is actually alive right now, in an orphanage somewhere in China.  

For those of you that believe in prayer...please pray for Bob's wisdom and guidance in making the right 'choice' in choosing a daughter for our family.  And please pray for our little girl too...that she is being well taken care of until we can go and get her and finally bring her home!

Blessings to you...Gayle :)

What this blog's about...

After trying to decide what to share in our 1st post, I decided to focus on what prompted the creation of our family's blog in the first place...

Our Precious Daughter...to be that is.  Here is a 'picture' of her...

 

Okay...well, this is the only 'picture' we've had of her for the past almost 5 years.  After all this time, we have finally come to a place where we could be matched with our daughter and get a 'real' picture of her any day now...we are so excited!!! 

Sooo...I decided to create this blog as a way of sharing the updated news on our adoption (and family life) with all of our friends & family near and far.  But more than that, as a way of documenting things for Glen & I, and for our children as well.  (I found out that you can have blogs printed off all nice and pretty...and I can't help but think that our daughter would love that as a keepsake oneday)  So please bear with me as I pour out our life (or at least some of it) into this blog...the great news is that you only have to read it if you want to!! :)

Love & blessings to you all...Gayle :)