Big News!

See this bundle of pure sweetness?
This is the first picture we saw of our beautiful daughter!
Yes, this precious baby girl will be joining our family!


Shi Si (her Chinese name / "Sissy" is her agency translated name) is not quite 1-year-old, but she will be in 3 short days! She is 7 months old in the picture above, which was taken in February. (She is all snuggled up with layers and layers of clothing due to the lack of heating in the orphanage.)

We don't know how long we will have to wait to actually travel overseas, but I would say it will be at least six months before we can bring her home.

Here's a little bit of background information...

On June 27th, we received the file of this sweet little girl.
Thirty-one pages all about her: pictures, medical reports, hospital records, and developmental evaluations.
Half in English, half in Chinese.

Our hearts leapt.

Just as we were about to ask our agency, "What's our next step in bringing her home?" I received word from our social worker:

Ashley,

I need to let you know that Sissy’s file is now on hold with a family who is preparing their LOI*.

*LOI is the Letter of Intent that a family sends to be approved to adopt a specific child.


My heart sank.
No, it felt worse than just sinking.
My heart felt like it was literally drowning.

I then realized, this precious little girl was one step closer to having a family.
That is a wonderful thing.
I needed to get over my selfish feelings of sadness -- it was a joyous day for this little one and this other family.
As I reached down deep for my proverbial bootstraps, I felt God speak, "Trust Me..."
In that moment, I knew He was up to something.

Daniel and I began praying.
We both felt God hadn't totally shut the door, even though from every other angle it looked like a done deal.
We could request another child's file to review, but we did not.
We couldn't.
In our hearts, this file was still open.

I remember Daniel said, "You know, it will be a complete GOD-thing if we end up getting to have her file again."

And I knew he was right.

Our social worker called me the next day to apologize for what happened. She felt horrible that this was the first file we ever reviewed, and it was essentially ripped away. When I asked her if the other family had already submitted the LOI for Sissy, she said they had not. They had three more days to get all the paperwork completed.

My hands were shaking and my heart was racing as I hung up the phone.
I contacted my prayer warriors to pray and pray hard for God's perfect plan to prevail.
God had already ordained every single second of Sissy's life before she took her first breath.
I knew He'd chosen her family too.
God, I'm trusting Your sovereignty.
I'm following Your lead. 

On June 30th, 18 hours after talking to our social worker on the phone, she contacted me again:

Ashley,
Sissy's file is available again. Do you want to put it on hold?
The other family had backed out for unknown reasons.


Daniel was in the driveway when I found out. I ran out the garage door, yelling at the top of my lungs as the large door was closing between me and him, "SISSY'S FILE IS AVAILABLE! SHE'S AVAILABLE!!!" I clicked the button to open the door, and Daniel hugged me so tightly my feet weren't touching the ground. It was the exact same reaction when I told him over four years ago that I was pregnant with Aubrey. (It was actually in the garage of our Birmingham home when I told him we were going to have a baby. Such a funny coincidence!) We were both bawling.

Aubrey had no idea what had gotten into her parents, "Hey, what's going on?!" she demanded. When we told her, she ran in between us and we all just embraced. Thank you, Lord, for that precious moment I'll treasure forever. We all came inside, held hands in the entry, and prayed. Thank You, God, for this miraculous blessing. Thank You...Thank You....Thank You....

And over the course of the next week, we spent our days collecting the necessary documents and typing up paperwork requesting approval to adopt this precious little one. Once we had completed everything, we mailed all the original documents to our agency...

Then we just waited for the days to tick by.
One of the many requirements for Chinese adoptions is that both parents have to be 30.
So on July 13th, the day before Daniel's birthday, all that paperwork was sent for translation.

And less than a week after Daniel's 30th birthday, on July 20th, we were granted approval from a country over 10,000 miles away to adopt sweet, little Shi Si!

Our hearts are just about to burst with joy! 

We are so grateful to God for this amazing blessing in our family!

More details to come...