Our Family Is Not Complete.....Yet!

Bill & I have been married for 20 years. I remember after we got married we talked about adopting.  Never in a million years did I think we would have 4 children, let alone 3 from China.  In fact, when we first got married, Bill said he only wanted 2 kids. And he never wanted a son. Only daughters.  I said "Well I want 4 kids and I want the oldest to be a boy".

Well.....that was 20 years ago.  And our plans are not God's plans.  Obviously.  Because we have 4 kids and the oldest is not a boy and we don't have all girls.

3 years ago when Bill went to China for camp, he came home with the desire to adopt again. This time for an older girl. Well I had the desire to adopt his "buddy". Bill was not too sure about that.  But we decided to try.  4 months into our paperchase we knew that adopting his "buddy" was not the best idea for our family.  Lots of reasons that I don't want to get into right now.  So we changed our application to adopt a boy age 1-4.  Then we were given Ethan.

Bill still had the desire to adopt the older girl.  We had talked and said if we ever adopt another girl we should name her Hope.  Because it was Bring Me Hope that put this desire into Bills heart. He went to camp again this summer and it was still there.  He wanted to bring home an 11 year old girl but that did not work out. I suggested we try for the 3 year old girl. He was not thrilled about the idea, but said okay anyways.  Well that did not work out.  We were getting frustrated.  We were looking on a couple of adoption agencies Waiting Child lists and it just did not feel natural.  So we decided to stop.

I honestly do not know what happened this week. But adoption came up.   I was finally on board with adopting an older girl.  We were thinking of between the ages of 9-11.  We looked again at the lists and nothing. Nobody popped out.  Well on Wed, a friend of ours updated her blog and they are adopting 2 girls.  Another friend is adopting 2 boys. Another friend adopted 2 boys earlier this year. So I 1/2 jokingly said to Bill "How hard would it be to adopt 2 girls at the same time".  Bill looked at me like I had 2 heads.

We came home and I looked at Great Wall's list.  They just updated their list with 2 girls who are at the same orphanage.  That got our attention.  We looked at their description.  Iris is 11 years old. She has a SN that we're not familiar with.  Hallie is 12 and has a repaired cleft lip and possibly a repaired cleft palate.  That we are familiar with.  Well, Wed afternoon Bill asked if we could see both files.  Great Wall sent them to us.  We sent them off to a friend who is a doctor and found out that Iris' SN is not bad.  She had surgery 7 years ago and she should be okay.  Hallie's lip was repaired but we're not sure about her palate.

Bill emailed the agency asking for more info on the palate.  When they replied, this is what they said...
The girls are involved with a program at the orphanage with Love Without Boundaries.  Their English names are Maggie and Hope".  Bill freaked out.  I freaked out.  Really??? Hope???

You see, Bill & I were still not sure if 2 would be a good thing.  We were thinking more of adopting Iris (aka Maggie).  But felt guilty for not adopting Hallie (aka Hope).  Then when we were told her English name is Hope, the name we thought about naming our next daughter, we just knew that this was God telling us "she is also your daughter.  Don't forget about her".

So today, we told Great Wall "YES". We want to adopt both girls.  What do we need to do to get started?

That is where we are at now.  Waiting to tackle the mound of paperwork.  We are hoping to travel within a year.

Please pray for us.  Bill & I are still in shock with how this all happened.  We told the girls the other night what we were thinking about doing.  Tiffani immediately said "I'll move downstairs. The girls can have my room".  Abby & Jadyn said "We can share a room and the girls can have our other room".  A month ago, all 3 girls were against us adopting.  Now they are willing to change rooms.  Well today, I told Abby & Jadyn that they have new sisters.  They screamed with delight.  Then they asked about the bedrooms.  I said "Well, Tiff said she would move downstairs" and before I could finish, Jadyn said "Can Abby & I have Tiffs old room? Then the girls can have their own room".  I wanted to cry.  A month ago Jadyn did not want to share her room, and she did not want to move out of her room.  Now she is willing to give up her space & share with her sister.

Then Tiff called after school.  I said "Hey Tiff, we said YES today".  She said with a shock "what?" I said "We said YES. We're going to adopt both girls".  She SCREAMED.  She said "I'm going to cry". And then broke down in tears.  Of course I started crying. This was not the reaction I expected.  But I am so thankful it's the reaction we received.

Thank you for your love & support.  I can't post pictures right now.  Once I'm given permission from our agency then I will put them up on the blog.

OH, our "red thread"?  The girls were both in the hospital receiving their surgeries the same 2 weeks that we were in China adopting Abby.  Maggie was admitted to the hospital on Abby's Gotcha Day.  That just gives me chills.  

Until next time!