New Pictures

I haven't had much blog time recently...most of my time has been devoted to running around and getting the necessary paperwork finished in the shortest amount of time possible. :) We are also working hard on our house, changing the rooms around so that the girls can share and Eli can be next to our room.

I received several emails full of pictures of Eli recently and thought I would share. We have been so blessed with his adoption so far. He has lived in a foster care center since he was a tiny baby, and the nannies there clearly love the children and work hard to do the very best for them. We realize that there are going to be some bumps along the way and that his transition to our family is likely going to be more challenging than Norah's, but we are so ready to bring him home!

blissfully unaware

There are times that I still long for the days when I was blissfully unaware. Unaware the differences between a mic-key and an amt mini. Unaware of how melatonin works (or why it doesn't sometimes). Unaware that syringes made great bath toys. And so on. You get the idea.

I fully realize that part of my journey included becoming MORE aware, not less, and that clearly, the path that God has me on does not include naivety or ignorance.

I was reminded of this again the other day while at an activity for one of my girls. During the activity, I have only one girl to attend to. I find myself very relaxed, carefree even. However, while we were there, I noticed another child that was a part of what we were doing. Suddenly, my heart sank, and my stomach was in knots. Because it was clear to me that this other child had a little something more. Pre-diagnosis, I'm sure....this child's mother was clearly struggling. She remarked how she was always tired, and how her child never stopped. You could feel her embarrassment when her child wouldn't listen, despite her best efforts.

Bah. I hate being aware sometimes. I wanted to hug her, to tell her that she wasn't a bad parent, and that, in the end, everything would be okay. But she doesn't yet know about this journey; about the road she's going to travel. So, for now, I play with my daughter and watch from the sidelines.

Because sometimes the best I can do is to pretend to be unaware.

dossier pictures

We have to include some pictures in our dossier. Here are a couple of the cuter ones:

I found them this way, watching TV. Aren't they sweet???

I have a hard time believing there will be four before long! :)

details, details

I wanted to take a minute and answer some questions we've been asked:

What is his special need? He was born with a meningocele, a neural tube defect. It was repaired when he was a young baby, and he's doing very well now. He just learned to walk at age 3, but is talking and trying to potty train.

How old is he? He's 3. He and Norah share the exact same birthday, except that he is one year older than she is.

How long will this process take? The timeline looks to be about 6-8 months.

Isn't adopting a boy from China rare? No, not if you are looking at special needs. Many of the healthy children adopted are girls still, but the special need lists are full of boys waiting for homes. For a variety of reasons, the boys sit on these lists for a very long time, even when there are both girls and boys on the waiting lists. Girls are still generally chosen first.

What will it cost? Honestly, though sometimes stressful, this doesn't matter much. We believe that God will provide for us and we've never been disappointed before. I decided to edit here and take out the real cost. You can always find out on the internet. :)

One other thing.....we realize this type of journey is not for everyone. Three years ago, when we began Norah's adoption, it wasn't for us, either. We actually started in the "healthy as possible" child line and asked for a girl. We later decided that we wanted to switch to a special needs adoption. Norah was originally suspected of having a condition that would affect her right arm and possibly her heart. Turns out that she has just a birthmark.

This time around, we knew if we planned to adopt again, it would be a child that was considered "hard to place". Even a year ago, however, I could not have handled this with Will's needs. It is all part of our journey.

So, here it is....Eli's story begins. We can't wait for him to come home.

have you seen this?

Kisses From Katie

It is a blog, written by a girl who is over 10 years younger than I. Amazing. Inspiring.

pre-approval!!!

Yahoo! We received pre-approval for our boy in China last night!!! The picture above shows him with a buddy who is also being adopted. Looking at this picture makes me realize he's a BIG boy! :)

Today I spent the better part of the morning trying to put together a package to send to Eli Tao. (Yep, that's his name! Eli is the American name we've given him; Tao is his Chinese name. We *think* we'll be calling him by both for a while, but honestly....we aren't set on anything. Some of it depends on what he thinks!)

What a task....just what do you send your child the first time he hears about you?? We created a photo book with our pictures and will be sending him a small pillow with Cars movie characters on it as well as a small toy school bus like the one his big sister rides. :)

Hopefully I'll answer some questions that we've been asked in the next post. Its been sort of crazy around here!!

oh, the paperwork journey

I seriously thought I'd never have the patience or tolerance to go through this paperwork process again. Putting together Norah's dossier was so incredibly consuming for me that I literally got ill at the thought of pursuing another.

However, it is really amazing how knowing what to expect lessens some of the burden.

It isn't without the craziness, though! Thankfully we are working with two really great agencies, who are used to dealing with stressed out parents.

Just when I thought pre-approval was submitted and all was quiet on the homefront for a few days, we received a call today saying that China needs some bloodwork. Like yesterday. Unfortunately, Jim's doctor did not draw for the bloodwork the day we had our physicals like mine did. So my labs are in, and he rushed off to the office to have labs drawn a few minutes ago.
This too shall pass.

As far as the process goes, our timeline to bring him home looks like it averages out to around 6-8 months from now. We have submitted for pre-approval. Once we receive pre-approval, we have three months to submit our dossier or an extension. After the dossier, most are taking 3-4 months for a Letter of Approval (LOA). Following that, we wait a few more weeks for travel approval and then off we go!

I know we've had a lot of questions since we've announced this....I promise to answer more of them over the next couple of weeks.

For now, I'll leave you with just a picture of the cutie pie when he was a little younger.....