WE'RE ON THE LIST!!!

Woo Hoo! Anthony and I have decided the time is right for our family to contact our agency and complete the process to enter the China-Child of Promise Program Paperwork. This program is a newer option Holt has offered families who are open to children with minor correctable needs as well as families who might be open to children of either gender. Some of you might be asking yourselves why we have chosen to take this route...hmmmm....good question....

Adoption is not a decision which is easily entered, by either party...birthparent or adoptive parent. It is one made of love and hope. We set out on our journey to become parents over 5 years ago with hopes of sharing all that we have with our children. We envisioned what our family would look like. Many of you know that family included adopted and biological children...it's funny how our hearts were already open to adoption...as it turned out, this was how God planed for us to build our family! Anyway, when we began dreaming about what our children would look like and how our the branches of our family tree would begin to wind, we did not consider the possibility of a child with any type of special need. We thought, healthy child...boy or girl, young as possible...probably as most folks would have who were just beginning the adoption process. In a few short months, we were blessed to be matched with Anthony on 10/27/07, he was 9 months old. We read his file and saddened to see he had a lot of stumbles in the beginning of his fragile little life. If not for the wonderful folks who cared for him while he lived in Vietnam, I'm not sure he would be where he is today. We decided God sent him to us and WE were meant to be his parents...six months later we were on an airplane to meet our precious son!

When we arrived home, we met with our pediatrician and the docs over at the International Adoption Clinic at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We found out that we had an amazingly talented little man, who also had a few set backs...nothing big...they certainly didn't effect him in anyway..but they were unexpected nevertheless. Although, he was smart, healthy, and beautiful...there were a few things he... and we, had to handle during his first year home. This, kind of, began to open our eyes to what adopting a child with Special Needs in China would mean. We began to realize that EVERY child has special needs, whether we know about them at birth, shortly after, or we find out about them at age 15, when they need glasses to read. Little Anthony and all of our AP friends have taught us to open our hearts to the beautiful idea that every child is speacial and perfect. So, it was easy for us to choose this path...we began thinking about the idea more closely. There are sooo many kiddos who NEED families and we NEED kiddos!

So, this brings us to our wonderful daughter who is out there somewhere, waiting to find us... she will have some sort of minor need...nothing that will be too significant. She will be happy, healthy, and loved, and we can't wait to find out who she is...our agency is predicting about 6 months before we will be matched. The wait will be long, but we have lots to do to keep us busy.

Until then, I dream of a little angel, somewhere in a land far away, waiting for her family to come sweep her away into the warmth of a family... good night all...