Overjoyed...

The past week has been such an exciting whirlwind of events. Since joining the Waiting Child Program of our adoption agency in February it has seemed like we've been on such an emotional roller coaster from week to week just anticipating the possibility of seeing a referral for a child that could be our daughter.

For those of you that don't about the Waiting Child, here is the lowdown. America World, just as many other adoption agencies, has a list of children given to them by China that have a variety of special needs - the needs range from some that require very little extra care to major care. Some of these children are simply listed here because they are out of the age range that most families are seeking - that means that their special need is that they are an older child. We've seen it stated somewhere that the age at which a child joins the waiting list is 6 in China. To say all that, we had been intending to join the AWAA Waiting Child Program for some time - joining doesn't affect your place in line for a "healthy" infant unless you pursue an adoption with a child on the list - in which case you move out of the "healthy" line and pursue that adoption with the waiting child. So, AWAA has children assigned to them by China - and they also receive what is known as shared referrals.

Shared referrals are sent out by China to all agencies that they work with in order to increase the opportunity of finding these children families. Since we joined in February, we have reviewed 5 shared referrals. These are very time sensitive - meaning that we had a very short time to decide what to do. We were the only AWAA family looking at each of these children at a given moment, but across our country and even the world other agencies were reviewing them with familes. So, you can see prayer was extremely important in reviewing each of these children. Just to clarify, we didn't review them all at one time. AWAA allows one family to review one child at a time - which is wise...these are lives that are being reviewed on paper and in photos. There are also steps in place - 1) review the child with your spouse, 2) have a doctor review the child and share about the care needed, 3) Lock down the file with the intent to pursue adoption of the child 4) 48 hours from locking the file down the agency must send in a letter from you describing why you want to adopt that particular child and how you will care for their needs - this is known as Electronic Acceptance (EA).

We got the call for the first shared referral a week after we turned in our application for the program, and after that we saw a new one each month. We almost made it to step 3 with the second and third shared referrals we saw, but the LORD had other plans because they were already being pursued by other families somewhere in the world. In all honesty, those were difficult days - to be so close(we were less than 15 minutes late for the third referral which we saw just a couple of weeks ago) to the child you think the LORD might have for you only to see them joined with another family...very heart wrenching. But God is sooo GOOD!

The LORD has shown and taught us great things through this process.

When we began this journey, we were thinking our first Chinese daughter would be anywhere from birth to 18 months. We saw us adopting older children at some point, just not in the beginning. It wasn't long until God broadened our thinking. Many of you know that this past summer and then again during spring break of this year we took our church to work at Rio Bravo Children's Home in Reynosa, Mexico. We know that one thing the LORD showed us in Reynosa was that if we could've brought any of those children home to be a part of our family we would do it in a heartbeat...no matter the age. After we returned home in March we received a shared referral for a 3yr old...she wasn't ours, but through her - God settled the question of a 3yr old. Another shared referral came for a 3yr old, and again she wasn't our's. The next day we received an email with shared referral photos of children that our agency was unable to match with families. We looked at the email as we always did. There was a precious little girl that completely stood out to me. She was 5 yrs old though, so we closed the email and continued to wait.

We were getting ready to leave for a visit with family in Oklahoma the next day - and all of a sudden her face was in my head and I couldn't forget her. So, Monte and I discussed asking to review her file. We had crossed the bridge of a 3yr old - why not a 5yr old? We agreed and emailed AWAA our request.

During the drive up to family we discussed what it would be like to suddenly have a 5yr old - the challenges and the learning. Her being a 5yr old became less and less of a factor. We were disappointed to find the email stating that her file had already been locked by another family somewhere in the world. It seemed that God had broadened our thinking and enlarged hearts only to say again "Not Yet."

There was another little girl in this same group of shared referrals that had caught Monte's eye - she was 6 and 1/2 - so we asked to see her file. She was still available. I should probably interject at this point that each of these children we've reviewed do each have medical needs. After a LOT of prayer over that weekend we just didn't have the LORD's guidance to pursue her adoption, so we sent her file back Monday morning.

About 5 minutes after sending that email the phone rang. It was our AWAA Family Coordinator(FC)...and the 5yr old was available again. This doesn't happen often, but if paperwork is not submitted in that 48 hour timeframe or if a family decides against pursuing the adoption then China resubmits the child to the database. Our FC asked if we would still be interested in reviewing her file...well, of course - we most definitely would like to learn more about her!!! So, we went through the steps and made it all the way through this time! What a marvelous work the LORD has done! A HUGE thanks to Bob and Crystal for their timely medical input! Our EA was sent Tuesday - May 12th! Now we just wait for China to approve our acceptance of her - which is called Referral Approval (RA).

We can't post her picture or give many details about her until we receive the RA. Just know, though, she is a CUTIE! What a great JOY it is to have finally seen her face! Now, we are diligently completing an online course about adopting an older child because it is required to be done before we receive the RA. We're trying to learn some Chinese. Our home study is being updated again so that we can get USCIS approval for an older child. We're trying to get our house in order...especially her room! Gotta figure out what exactly a 5yr old needs because our family and church family want to have a shower for us...any input out there? And last but certainly not least, we're tallying up our finances and the upcoming expenses! So, please add any and/or all of these to your prayers for us. Also, please PRAY that the LORD prepares her little heart for us just as He is preparing our's for her. Thank YOU!

Overjoyed,
Missy