We've decided to Adopt from China.

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I have always wanted to adopt. I knew this from a very young age (probably 8 or 9). I remember riding in the backseat of my mothers car with my sister sitting beside me and my mom driving and our neighbor sitting in the passenger seat. With great excitement I spoke up and said "When I grow up I am going to adopt a little baby from another country!" Our neighbor looked at my mom with her mouth wide open, as if she was told the world was going to end right that very minute! Then she turned around and scolded me saying "Now why would you want to go and do something like that? What would people think? Why would you do that to your family?" She was offended by my statement. I did not care what anyone would think. In my mind I felt sorry for this woman for saying such a rude thing to me. As I grew up that feeling of wanting to adopt kept growing stronger and stronger. One day while working in my cousins law firm I overheard her speaking to a woman about the situation in China and how they had a 1 child rule there and that the little girls were not wanted by their families. She went on telling how these precious little girls were being abandoned by their families. My heart sank into my chest! I felt such sadness for these little girls. Right then is when I knew which country I was going to adopt from, China! I had just started dating my husband, Jeff, around that time and I told him that I am going to adopt from China someday. He thought that was a brilliant idea! He shared with me that he had 2 cousins that were adopted when they were infants and he too had always wanted to adopt because of them. It was cool that we were on the same page about adopting. We both agreed that we still wanted to have biological children too. We got married a year after we started dating in 1996.

We started trying to have a baby soon after we married but we had fertility issues. It was not until 2001 that we finally became pregnant with our first child, with the help of fertility medications. In November of 2001 Hannah was born! Then in November of 2002, on Hannah's first birthday we found out that we were expecting our second child. Big surprise this time because we were not trying. In July of 2003 we welcomed our second daughter Hailee. She was born 6 weeks early but she was fine! Praise God!

Even after we were blessed with both of our amazing little girls Jeff and I still felt like we wanted to adopt. We knew that adopting is expensive so we decided to wait. Wait for what? Yes adoption is expensive but where was our Faith in God? He has ALWAYS been faithful to us and he has ALWAYS provided for us. Last winter we decided that it was time to get serious, put our faith in the Lord and go for it! No more waiting for us. It is now or never! We started praying for God's guidance and for his blessings in adoption. We prayed for the child that we knew he has planned for us, the one we WILL adopt! We prayed for Him to bless and watch over this child and protect her. Over the past year I have joined many advocate sites for Waiting Children in China and Korea. I searched almost daily through these listings. I looked at literally hundreds of lists of children. I was waiting for Him to give me that nudge. I wanted Him to show me our child. Jeff and I had always prayed for that too that He would show us our child and he would let us know when we found her! Last week while doing my regular searching on Waiting Children sites He showed me HER! This precious little girl in China almost jumped off of the page at me. I felt God's presence! I almost could hear him say "here is your daughter that I have planned for you". It was such a strong feeling of love, excitement and a feeling like I had found a long lost relative. When Jeff came home from work that afternoon I showed her to him. I tried not to react. I just said "what do you think of her?" He looked at her with tears in his eyes and he said "She is the one!" We both cried and we hugged each other. We showed her picture to Hannah and Hailee and they asked us "is that our sister?" It was like they knew too!

I immediately felt led to contact the advocate that had her listed and she gave me this little girls agency information. We contacted the agency and filled out a pre-application and emailed it the following day. The next 2 days felt like eternity. Jeff and I were both emotional. We worried that we would not be qualified to adopt her. I checked our email constantly and waited. Finally we got the email with her medical file. We were pre approved! We were told to send her file to an IAP for them to review it and go over it with us. Things just started moving quickly! We felt God's hands all over this and we still do. We are trying to finish up all of the needed paperwork and the "official" application. We are also trying to come up with all of the fee's that need to be turned in with the "official" application. When we found out the total amount due NOW we almost fainted! We did not expect it to be so much NOW! We just made our van payment and paid some other bills so we just don't have it this very second. But we are not letting this discourage us because GOD is our provider. He is the one in charge of everything! He has the final say not man! We are trusting that He will provide for us every cent we need to adopt our precious princess. We are asking for our friends and family and even strangers to pray for us that this will all work out.