Connor is Going to be a Big Brother!

I sit here tonight physically and emotionally exhausted from the week that I've had. Last week, while visiting a close friend in the hospital who had just had a new baby, I finally began to think about expanding our family. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted another child, but I just didn't know when we were supposed to get pregnant. I just couldn't come to a peace about it. Adoption has always been in the back of my mind. I have been around a lot of adoptive parents throughout my life and always admired them. I always thought that if we adopted, I'd like to adopt from China. Every time I see a little Chinese girl, I get goosebumps. It's always been this weird thing, but I just didn't know if we would have that calling. The people I know who are adoptive parents are some of the people I admire the most because of their faith, heart, and strength. I would never consider myself as strong as them. And then it came.....

We were walking downtown last Saturday to a parade and having a conversation about having a baby, I kept thinking about adoption. I was too scared to say anything because when I had mentioned it before, Greg had always said that he would be open to discussing it if we could figure out how to make it affordable. I never knew how in the world to make twenty thousand dollars sound affordable, so I just didn't bring it up. I was thinking to myself, I really want to talk about this, but I can't, and then I came around a corner and saw a little Chinese girl with adoptive parents. I became very emotional and was hiding tears behind my sunglasses. We got home later that afternoon and I prayed for God to open up Greg's heart to adoption if this is what we were supposed to do and that night we had our first real conversation about adoption, and neither of us seemed so closed to the idea anymore. I began a journal, just in case any of this came to pass.

As I sit here tonight, one week later, so much has happened. It has been the most incredible week of my life. I have never seen God as much as I have this week. He has done amazing things and I have experienced what it is truly like to listen to God and follow his will and so..........as of last night, we are adopting a little girl from China. It will be at least three years until she joins our family, but through patience and obedience, we will bring her home. We are at a holding phase right now. We cannot submit our application until I am 29 1/2, so that will not come until February. After February, we will prepare our dossier for about 6 months. Hopefully by my 30th birthday (the age at which China will allow you to adopt) , we can mail our dossier to China and begin our 18-24 month (or more as we begin researching on current trends) wait for a referral. We will then have two months to prepare for travel, and then we will fly to Beijing and spend 14 days in China, before bringing her home.

I would love to share all of the God moments that I have had this week, but I'd write all night. Now, I just begin counting down to my thirtieth birthday so we can mail our paperwork to China. I never thought I'd be counting the days until I was 30! Then again, I never thought God would choose me to do something this amazing and important! It's been a good week!

My precious little man is excited. He's already talking about "sissy". I pray our daughter has the same sweetness and kindness as our Connor. He is an amazing little boy and deserves an amazing sister.