Whirlwind Weekend

I think the title says it all. What a weekend. I finally got some sleep last night and it was much needed. Bo and I worked on paperwork until after midnight, but after speaking with our family coordinator at AWAA this morning, it seems everything was received and was in order. For those of you thinking, what is the rush from when you get the call, let me attempt to explain, although I'm not an expert. China has a shared referral system for children with "special needs" and when they put the referrals out there, there are many adoption agencies that have access to those referrals. It begins to be a rush in that you don't know what agency is contacting families regarding the babies on the list and our agency looks at those referrals and makes every attempt to match them with the families that are waiting based on what those families have specified that they are willing to consider. (For example, cleft lip/palate, heart problems, appendage deformity, etc.) We are blessed that we are with a Christian adoption agency that I firmly believe prayerfully considers each child and family. We know that when we got the call, they had looked at our list of things we would consider and then matched that accordingly. We feel very blessed to have them as our agency. If you look back on our history, you will find they are the only agency we called and after talking to them, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, they were the right ones for us. I still feel that way. So with all that said, they try to match these little ones to the perfect family for them (with much Godly advisement) and then make the call. After that, you have only a short period of time to decide and that's not something the agency is happy about, but it is out of their control. With us receiving a call at 12:30 on Friday afternoon, we had to contact doctors to have her paperwork reviewed. Okay, so not as easy as it might sound considering it was Friday afternoon. I have to give a huge shout out to Old Harding Pediatrics and the doctors that talked with me on Friday. The doctor that we planned on using was out of town and 2 other doctors called. Dr. Chris Smeltzer called me at 10 pm while I was at work and he had reviewed her paperwork on his on time and covered everything that he could based on what he was provided with. He was a God send! I also have to give a huge shout out to the Vanderbilt International Adoption Clinic for the quick response that I received from them. They had limited staff due to doctors being on vacation, yet Dr. Alice Rothman e-mailed me, called me twice over the weekend and even consulted other doctors regarding our little one. Yes, there is a fee for that, but you can tell they do this out of a heart of love for children, ALL children. She was wonderful and even as late as last night was still e-mailing me with more information. I would highly recommend them to anyone. So from the time that you say yes to a referral, you have 48 hours to get all of that done and the paperwork into your agency. We met the deadline! I will make an attempt to explain the process more as we go along. This is really a learning experience for me also.

Okay, so this morning I have been a worthless slug while waiting to hear back from AWAA. I have done some laundry, made the bed and here it is almost noon and I am still sitting in my gown. (Not a pretty sight). I did manage to got through some little girl clothes in Ashton's closet and get out the things that will be too small for her. I see a big e-bay listing coming in the future. As Ashton put it Saturday while I was talking about how much sister weighs, "You see, I told you you shouldn't have spent a $1,000 on those clothes." Well, if you know me, you know that everything that I have bought for her was on clearance, but when you have no idea what size your child is going to be, you take a gamble when shopping. For anyone who needs some 6-9 month sizes of adorable little girl clothes with the tags still on them, you know how to contact me:)

My husband was an emotional wreck yesterday. Brother Bob, our pastor, had called him on Saturday night and asked him to give his testimony on Father's Day and talk about our journey. Well, if you know my husband and for those of you that don't, he's a baby. He cries at movies, he cries when he hears a song, he is just a baby (in a very sweet and tender way). He wrote up what he wanted to say because he knew he wouldn't be able to talk without some notes. Then he was crying so much he had a hard time reading his notes. Too funny. Brady was sitting next to me completely embarrassed as every 14 year old boy would be. I heard him tell Bo later that he had no idea his voice could reach those notes! I was beaming with pride. He is such a great dad and this little girl has already got him by the heart. He has always wanted a girl and now we are finally there. It's a feeling that I can't describe adequately. I told Bo yesterday that I feel like the weight of the world has been taken off our shoulders. The waiting has been so hard, and even though we know that by accepting a child with special needs, we are going to face some challenges, we feel such peace about it. When I look at her, I don't see challenges ahead, I see joy ahead. I see our daughter. As Melissa said to me Saturday, God doesn't make mistakes. He created our girl the way she is for a reason, and he knew when she was born (and before) that she would be our daughter. We are ready for the challenges, but we are more ready for the complete privilege to parent her just like we do the boys. From the beginning of this journey I have prayed that God would allow us to love her exactly like we do the boys and I think that God has allowed that and will continue to do so. When I think in terms of how many children that I have, I think 3. I have thought that for some time, but now that we have an adorable face to put with the dream, it just feels even more right.

Okay, the other really funny thing that I have forgotten to mention since we found out about her and saw her picture is her clothes. For those of you unaware, the Chinese bundle their babies up like the Micheline man. I mean layers of clothes! When Brady was looking at her picture, the first thing he noticed was that she had on University of Alabama pants. Okay, for a family of UT fans, that is an insult! But how fitting. I think that just goes along with that whole God having a sense of humor thing. Of all the clothes that she could be wearing in an orphanage half way around the world, she has on Alabama clothes. Those have got to go! And for all our friends that are Roll Tide fans, forget about it. She will be a Vols fan all the way.

Please continue to pray for our family and her. We are not sure when we will travel if this all goes through, but we have a lot of work to do before we get that far. She doesn't even have a room yet. We have just drug our feet waiting and now it's time to get on the stick. Also, please pray for the financial aspect of all of this. We are prepared, but due to the increased wait time, there have been additional costs due to paperwork that had to be renewed, etc. We are just average people with average jobs and raising our family, so this is a huge expense. We have not doubts that it will all work out though. God has provided from day one and he won't stop now.

Quick boys note, they are finally at church camp. We drove them all down yesterday and they were fired up. This is the week that they don't take a shower all week. I'm betting you! They have more fun at church camp than anything they do all summer.