It Hurts So Good

When we decided to enter this crazy world of adoption again, it wasn't a well thought out plan.  It was a "we saw a picture and fell in love"" kind of thing...well I fell in love, Bern fell in shock.  Someone {Cheri} had advocated for a little girl, age 7, who tugged at my heart strings.  After having her file reviewed and praying about it, we decided to move forward.  Through a series of other events going on at the very same time, parallel universes we'll call them, someone else was having the file reviewed and locked it before we could.  I was sad and a little heartbroken, not for this little girl, but more selfishly, for me.  I got over it, picked myself up and moved on to the child God really intended for us to have, Zi Jing.

The coolest thing about this story is, through a mutual bloggy friend, I got to know the woman who would become mommy to this little 7 year old girl.  There are no ill feelings.  So, reading her blog, I am happy to report that this little girl finally has her forever family TODAY and she is so very "right" where she is.

Bittersweet....a  little; happy for them.....you have no idea. 

Congratulations Ma Pei and your forever family!

I.Love.It.

My new best friend, Christie, over at Bushel and a Peck, here , not only has the cutest darn kids in the world and such an honest heart, but her skills at blog design are MAD!!!  Look what she's done for me.  Someday I'd love to dig into learning how to do this, but for now, my money's on Christie!

We had a very nice, family filled Thanksgiving this year and are truly blessed to still have so many of those we love with us. We give thanks to the Lord for He is Good!

The Effort Continues

In an effort to record this crazy roller coaster we are on, I must report that we are finally LID or Log In Date for you who aren't in the know.  This means they have our file in China, they have put it together with ZiJing's file and now they are reviewing it.  Once that piece is complete, they will send us a letter of acceptance, or LOA.  I still holding out hope that we will travel in Feb or March.  Our agency is advocating for a fast LOA so we will see.

In the meantime, today is my Zachary's 16th birthday, so I'll have pics and a story for later :)  Love that guy!

Christmas Giveaways

Had to do a quick post about Stephanie over at Ni Hao Y'all; she's doing a cool giveaway for 30 days and I didn't want to miss out on being entered...do you?

DTC

I haven't had the "gumption" to post anything lately, not that life hasn't been good and things haven't been happening; but now I have something special to announce and that is...we are officially "DTC", or for you lay people, Dossier to China.



This means our paperwork is winging its way to someone's desk in China who will log us in and then we can officially request to adopt Olivia Zi Jing. I am still hopeful (prayerful) that we will travel in February, but will take whatever God has in store for us.


So hang on little girl, mommy and daddy really are coming...

For the Record

I-800A approval 9/22/10.  Thank you Officer Hence.  Bring on LID!!!

I guess their paperwork was done...

As I put my precious Abigail to bed last night, she was telling me all about a classmate who "got a new baby" yesterday.  She was very excited for this child!  Then she made the comment that she guessed their paperwork was done and they could bring the baby home. 

We are on this journey to bring ZiJing home and have been helping Abby mark milestones by "this paperwork" and "that paperwork"; and when its all done, we will bring her home.  Soooo...I had one of those moments I've been dreading.  Rather than nod in agreement, I explained to her that all babies are born to their mothers.  Its just that some mommies can't take care of their babies for one reason or another and leave them in a safe place for someone to find them and adopt them.  Others get to stay with their birth mommies and be raised by them.  I said that was what happened with ZiJing, her mommy couldn't care for her...and that's what happened to her, Abigail.

She knows she is adopted, but she doesn't really know what that means.  I admit I have avoided the whole birth mother thing.  It never felt right for me to pray for this person, but I knew the time would come I needed to address it.  She didn't ask ANY questions about it, and didn't understand why I was crying, but I knew the gears were grinding.  The fact that she woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream verified to me that it was in her subconscious. 

Where do I go from here?  Guess I'll read the part I've always skipped about the birth  mommy in her "Love you like Crazycakes" book...I'm not good at this, not one.little.bit.