Give me a B, Give me an O, Give me a Y! It's a BOY!

Scott, Allison and I would like to formally announce the addition of a beautiful little boy to our family!

In mid-June Scott and I applied to the Waiting Children program with our agency - AWAA. In late June we were accepted into the program, and on July 12th we accepted a referral. To say it's been crazy around our house these past few weeks would be an understatement.

Just the Facts (in case you're not into reading the long narrative that follows):

Chinese name: Only to be shared upon receiving referral acceptance
Name we've given him: Aaron Scott
Age: 16 months
Province: Guangdong
Resides: In orphanage
Special Need: repaired cleft lip/un-repaired cleft palate
Personality- outgoing, loves to eat, likes music, likes to be teased by adults, likes colorful toys that make noise, active
Mommy's favorite features: BIG, beautiful brown eyes, big lips, and chubby cheeks! We cannot share pictures publicly until receiving referral acceptance


I promised some folks the long version of the story, so here goes....

A year ago July 12th, our paperwork for our 2nd adoption was logged in with the CCAA. We were prepared to wait 2-3 years for our 2nd child to arrive, but the wait time kept growing and growing every month, making it likely we'd be waiting 5 or 6 years before adding to our family. I can handle waiting. I mean, I didn't get married until I was 32. I can wait. However, I began to get nervous that variables beyond our control could get in the way of us adopting again, and together, Scott and I began to research other options. No option seemed to be "the" option, so I prayed. I prayed for some guidance. Should we stay on the path we're on? Is there a path we haven't considered that we should? In the week following my prayer I had 4 individuals come into my life with stories that would leave me KNOWING that God was offering us a new plan. I will ALWAYS remember the words of Heather, Kate, Tina, and Andrea, and how they touched me and led us to make the decision to apply for the Waiting Children program. These ladies are all very strong Christian women, and I have no doubt that God put them in my life that week to encourage me.

I was told that since we did not put a gender preference on our form, we could be contacted sooner than later. I thought that meant that maybe we'd be called within a year or so. I could handle that. A year sounded really good. However, God had another plan in mind. Two weeks after being accepted into the program, we got a call to review a child's file. I was SHOCKED and quite frankly, not ready. I felt confused and hurried, and in the end, we declined the referral, which is just fine to do in this program, but still leaves you with some rather conflicted feelings.

The very next day our agency called again. This time I felt more prepared and ready to review a file. I said a prayer prior to the email arriving and asked that God give me some clear direction about what to do. Either way was okay, but I wanted to FEEL something, not just be numb, as I felt the day before. Well, as usual, He answered my prayer. I opened the picture and started crying. I knew this was my child. I sent the file to Scott, and he was on board with me. Here's where the story gets interesting- in case you were bored up until now. :)

Time of agency call: 1:00 PM

*Coincidentally, Scott and I had doctor appointments that day at 3:00 (to update our home study). We were also scheduled to babysit that night at 5:30.

After viewing the file, I called the agency back and said, "We're in love. What do we do?" She just laughed and then explained the process to me. I already knew exactly how the process worked, but since my mind was working in major overtime, it was probably good to hear it all again. Basically, we could choose to take his medical information to our doctor and THEN call to accept him (knowing that another family could accept him before we called back), or we could "lock in the file", which would mean another family could not view his file. It also meant that we were agreeing to proceed with his adoption. COME ON! NO ONE has labor this quickly!

*picture the scene- crazy woman on the phone (me, not the sweet agency lady), who has NOT showered but has a doctor appointment in about an hour. Three year old child, also not cleaned up and ready, is running around the house, begging for my attention as I'm deciding whether or not she's going to have this precious little boy become her brother. Potential new father is at work, waiting for me to call him back with what the plan is....

I told her, "I'm calling Scott. I will call you back in one minute." I called Scott and said, "Okay, you have 30 seconds to make this life altering decision. Do you want to lock in his file?" I have goosebumps just typing this. He says, "What do you think?" I'm like- I'm not THINKING- I'm in LABOR!! I told him that I already fell in love and I want him to be ours. He says, "I'm on board. Lock it in." I hang up and call the agency back to tell them to lock it in. She then tells me that usually I'd have 48 hours to see a doctor with his medical information, fill out the necessary forms online, and write a one page letter talking about the care we're going to give this child, but since it was Friday, they'd like to have the materials in by 5:00. UH, not gonna happen. They are in Virginia, where it would be 5:00 when it's 4:00 to us. It is now about 2:00. After we discuss how this probably can't happen, she tells me that a gal will be working on processing paperwork tomorrow until 10:00 AM, and if we have everything in by 10:00, it'll be okay. After 10:00? His file would be open for another family.

At 2:15 I realize that I'm not going to get to shower before leaving for the doctor, and I also realize that I cannot handle this situation with child in tow. It's time to call for a BIG favor. I call Beth, who I'm supposed to babysit for in a few hours and say, "I need help, and I need it now. Can you come get Allison in 20 minutes and take her with you tonight?" Being the awesome friend that she is, she says yes and not only shows up within 20 minutes, but transfers our car seat into her car for me cause I'm a sweaty, crazy lunatic by now. She does all this having NO idea what is going on with me. :)

Scott and I meet at the doctors office at 3:00, have our appointments, and visit with our doctor about our little boy. We then go out (him, looking very nice coming from work, me looking like a wreck) to eat to celebrate! After dinner we head to Barnes and Noble to read all we can about cleft lip/cleft palate. It was quite a night!! We picked up Allison before her bedtime and went home to work on our paperwork. The next day, on the 1 year anniversary of our LID, we sent in our electronic acceptance to our agency. It was sent to China that evening.

Two weeks later, this past Tuesday, we received pre-approval, which means China has received our letter of intent to adopt this child and will begin processing our adoption. The next step is to wait for our referral acceptance, which means China has approved us to adopt this child and our agency can begin making travel plans for us. That acceptance can take anywhere between 1-4 months, but the trend is leaning toward 3 months, so we will just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, we have purchased a double stroller, chosen a nursery theme for a boy's nursery, moved most of the playroom down to the basement so the current playroom can become Allison's bedroom, researched the booster seat Allison will get so the little one can have her car seat, and bought more clothes than anyone SHOULD buy without knowing the exact size of a child. :) All of this has been done with extreme joy! Those of you who know me know that I have NO idea what to do with a little boy. I am ALL ABOUT princesses and painting nails and having tea parties and buying dresses. I have a LOT to learn! :)

I will of course keep the blog updated with any future developments. Thank you so much to those of you who already knew this whole story and have supported and congratulated us these past few weeks. We know that Aaron will be coming home to an extended family and a group of friends who will love him as they love his sister, and who will pray for us to be the best parents we can be.

Whew- my fingers are tired. Have a great weekend! :)