Steven Curtis Chapman video

It's official!!!

Well, we turned in our application to Great Wall Adoption Agency on Thursday, October 16th... and last night, October 17th at 6:30 p.m. we got the call.... "Is this Melissa? (yes),First I'm sorry to call so late but we wanted to let you know before the weekend that we've received your application and have processed it and reviewed it... Welcome to the China Adoption Program!!!" Wow, I was not expecting that phone call to take place just one day later (it usually takes 4 to 7 days)but it sure made our day and weekend! Our next main steps are to have a home study done and collect lots of paper work to send to China (ie: birth certificates, marriage license, Immigration forms, fingerprinting etc., etc.). They say the timeline to collect and have all this done is between 3 and 6 months so our goal is 3 months! We'll keep you posted!!

It all began 7 weeks ago (well, really 3 1/2 years ago)....

Ok to get everyone caught up on where we are in our lives right now I need to back up just a bit....about 3 1/2 years ago...Jaime and I had just celebrated our daughter, Abby's 3rd birthday at Pump It Up and afterwards went to a Stephen Curtis Chapman/Casting Crowns Concert. Little did we know God was planting a seed that very night that would eventually lead us to where we are in our lives today! Stephen Curtis Chapman spoke about his experience with adopting 3 of his daughters from China and what an incredible experience it was! He showed pictures, sang a song and that was it, Jaime and I were hooked. At this point we had been trying to get pregnant with our 2nd child for about 1 1/2 years with a miscarriage at 11 weeks in there as well. We had decided we would try for a few more months but that if it didn't happen then we would adopt our 2nd daughter from China. Well, about 5 months later low and behold I became pregnant and gave birth to our 2nd daughter, Avery in May 2006. At that point and for the next 2 years we felt our family was complete, or so we thought. Every now and then Jaime and I would bring up the idea of adoption and wonder if it was still meant to be for us but just never really persued it.....until now!

Now, to get you more up to speed, about 7 weeks ago, Thursday, August 21st at bible study, we were talking about a story in our bible that made us all think "What if God were trying to tell us something and we weren't listening, therefore not being obedient to what He has called us to do?" and though adoption was not the topic, I kept thinking about that (and thinking what if God is calling us to adopt and we aren't listening...)as we were discussing the bible story. I let it go for the night and the following morning on Friday, August 22nd I woke up and went to the computer where I have a daily devotional emailed to me every morning and as I opened it up there the title stared me in the face 'ADOPTED' and it was all about adoption. So, needless to say that got my attention. I told Jaime about it and from the get-go, he was on board to discuss it more, pray about it, research, etc. We still weren't for certain this is what God was calling us to do but day after day, sign after sign, there was no denying it (just a few examples....one being where were the Olympics taking place right now? CHINA!! then 2 days later in Sunday school a man in our class discussed his mission trip to where?? CHINA!! and a few days later out of the blue, our daughter, Abby asked me "Mom, how long does it take to get to China and will we go there some day? Later I figured out she meant California but still....) It was those things that happened over and over again that just solidified our decision to adopt our 3rd daughter from China and so we have officially begun the process.

We have attended a few workshops for different agencies and have decided on Great Wall Adoption Agency, as they only handle China adoptions. We have filled out the application and are sending it in tomorrow, Thursday! I wanted to start this blog to let our friends and family know our latest exciting news and keep you all posted as this journey takes us to China to get our daughter. This may not happen for a few years, as the wait is long but we will keep you all in the 'know' as we find things out. Please just keep our family (especially our daughters, all 3 of them) in your prayers....thank you!