MADE IN CHINA

Several years ago God began working in each of our lives making a soft spot for adoption.  About two years ago (while pregnant with Luke) we started to seriously discuss the idea of adopting a child. This idea sounded totally crazy especially with the toddlers we already had and one more was on the way soon!  But we wrote it down in our journal that we would pray that our hearts and minds would open to the idea but honestly we were thinking let's just see how life with 3 goes first.  Over the past year lots of different things have come to us together and separately to start preparing us for this new adventure.  So the BIG announcement we are adding another little girlie our family this time from China!  We have found an agency we really like and have been accepted.  We are now currently in the middle of the paper chase stage and meeting with the social workers that will complete a home study. The paper chase is the stage where you run around like crazy to collect every document ever recorded about us and have it re-issued, notarized, and certified within a 6 month deadline due to various expiration dates on some of the documents.  This alone is overwhelming but God has already answered so many prayers in this area.  We are now slowing down and just waiting for some of the documents that we ordered to arrive. (4-6 weeks)

This label like most of the labels on everything we own I have for the most part ignored.  But all of a sudden each and every tag has a special meaning.  Especially through the eyes on my almost 6 year old.   To her joyful delight almost all of her toys are "Made in China" just like sister :)

Amazingly just like when you find out you are pregnant you start envisioning this sweet baby in your arms.  And as soon as we turned in our application the same thing happened we started to envision our little girl with sleek black hair completely beautiful the way God made her and we already miss her not knowing yet who she is.  

We named all of our children before we met them and couldn't help but to do the same with our new little girl.  Her name will be Caroline Joy (named 100% by her Daddy!)  She is more than likely just being born or already living in an orphanage.  From what we have researched the orphanages are not uniform in their care in any way.  We are so excited to have our daughter home but it will be a long time from now making pregnancy seem quick!  In the meantime we are praying earnestly for her safety, care, and that one of the workers in her orphanage will find a soft spot for Caroline to give her a little extra whether it be attention, picked up and held, clean diapers, or at least a smile.  We have already seen God start to provide for her adoption in some amazing and unexpected ways.  Please pray for us as we work our way through this paper chase stage and for Caroline.  We expect that our paper work will be complete and ready for China to receive this winter and then we will move to the referral stage where we will get a "match" for the girl that will be ours.  

Thank you all for your prayers as we step out and trust God for her!  This was a huge learning curve for us so if you have any questions please let me know and I'll try to answer as best as I can.

Grant and Julie