INTRODUCING OUR BABY DOLL

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family.  I will announce her name later.  First, the picture, then the story.

When we started this process, I had a conversation with my sister-in-law about how I would know which baby is mine.  She said, "I'll pray that it will be obvious."

Once we received the referral of our little girl, it was obvious.

Why I know she is mine?  I was struggling asking, why weren't we matched with one of the boys on the photolising?  If I do say so myself, I've been blessed with a wonderful family.  The answer is that they were keeping our file back to be matched with a little girl.   What a blessing.  That is why it is good to be patient.  God's answers are ALWAYS better.

We were looking into a baby boy from the photolisting.  I was comfortable with raising him.  His medical conditions weren't life-threatening and were probably not going to have any lasting effects.  Another family was ready to move forward with him on Monday, January 24.  On Monday night, I quieted myself and prayed HARD about whether we should proceed or not.  The next morning, God whispered, "Wait."  I was uneasy and I couldn't close the door on a little girl.  Shawn and I discussed it .  He said, "Is this your baby?  I feel that you would not trade your baby no matter what."   We decided not to proceed with the little boy.  It was the most difficult decision that we had made since we started this journey.   The cool thing is that we have been in contact with his family.

There is a mother on the boards from Kansas City that was referred a baby girl on 1/18/11.  She was about 18 days ahead of us in her process.  In adopting you're always waiting on something and you have to be patient because things are out of your control.  I had to do something to keep my self and mind under control.  On January 31, I said to myself, "I can wait another 18 days (we would find out that our baby girl's birthday was in another 18 days, but Monday 1/31 was referral day).  For those of you that don't know, referral is when you receive the information on a possible match for your family.

This little girl was born from a VERY hostile environment (bacteria in the womb and within her).  She spent over a month in the hospital after birth.  She has a whole laundry list of medical conditions from birth, so it's a miracle she was born at all.  Those have all been resolved.

Her mother signed her over for adoption on my birthday. 

The 2nd part of her birth given first name is the same as someone very special to me.

I can't stop looking at her picture.  A while back I told my SIL that there is just something about an Asian baby dressed in yellow.  She is dressed in yellow in the pictures our agency sent to us.

So, yes.  God made it obvious.

To be able to be united with your child, the Korean government has to  issue an Emmigration Permit (EP), which allows your baby to leave the country.  For some reason there is a backlog in EP's which makes the wait time longer.  Besides that situation, we are behind a huge number of referrals that happened in December.

She won't be home for another 4-8 months.   Pray for God to move the EP mountain and for all of the rest of the paperwork to go smoothly so that we can be united with our baby girl sooner rather than later.  God is Faithful!