adoption news ... this could be BIG

Okay so our adoption journey has been, well......... tough tough tough.  NOT at all what we expected.  But I am learning that if you choose to enter the adoption journey you need to be prepared to fight - hard - for the life of a child. 

The "step" we've been in most recently was waiting for final paper processing in the US before sending off our dossier (big thick stack of paper that is our official request to adopt from China).  This step was estimated to take 3-4 weeks.  We were in that step for TEN looooooong weeks.  We finally got DTC (dossier to China) on Monday and it felt like such a huge relief to be moving on to the next step.

I knew we were moving closer to receiving a referral (ie information about a specific child) but did not think that would be coming too soon..... until TODAY when a very unexpected email arrived with the referral for a specific little boy.  Asking us if we wanted to move forward towards adopting him.  

Luckily Matt has been working from home mostly this week so in a moderately panicked voice I said "ummmm, Matt, I just downloaded email and we have a referral!!!!!!!!!!".

The way China special needs adoption works is that we now have a limited amount of time to read through the information and make a decision to pursue or not pursue adopting this specific little boy.  We have to make a decision by Saturday evening (China time).

Though I would LOVE to tell you more details, at this point the only thing I can really ask you to do is PRAY.  Pray hard that God would clearly lead us and we would be able to move forward confidently, whatever our decision.

Julianna took one look at his picture and said "awww, he is so cute".  [She says that about 90% of all young children, and even today I found her trying to hold Isaac when he didn't want a big sister snuggle.  "But he's just so cute I want to snuggle him" was her defense when I asked her to give him a little space!]

Anyways, we've explained to the kids that we need a lot of wisdom to make this decision and Julianna said "definitely get him".  When I asked why she answered "because we have been waiting soooooooo long".  She's right.  It's almost two years ago that we began this process (first domestic adoption, then switching to China special needs).  Two years is 1/3 of her entire life that she has spent waiting for an adopted sibling.  No wonder she's ready to move forward!!!

Friends, such joy to know you will join us in praying today.  We will definitely keep you posted!