HOW TO POST A COMMENT

Hey everyone! Since many of you are brand new to blogging I thought I should explain this. At the bottom right of each one of our posts it says "comments" and will have a number by it. If anyone has made a comment then it will show the number of comments made. If no one has made a comment on that post then it will just show 0. If you click on "comments" it will take you to a new screen where you can read others' comments and you can post your own comments. You have to register because it will not let you write something annonymously. It's easy to register but you should write your info down somewhere in case you can't remember it because, if I remember right, you have to sign in each time you want to post a comment. Happy commenting!!!
Nicole

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE!!!

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Gracie, Happy birthday to you!!!! Today was a bittersweet day. We thank God for the day Gracie was born but it was hard to not have her physically with us as we celebrated this joyous day! Several times today I broke down crying because we want her here with us so bad. We plead with God everyday that He will help her paperwork move swiftly and as effeciently as absolutely possible. Chloe helped me bake a cake for her and thought we were going to actually be able to give it to her today. I explained we were going to have a party for her but that she was still in China. She said "Oh yeah, we have to wait." And I said "Yeah, but I'm tired of waiting" and she said with a sigh, "yeah, me too." We went over to John and Connie Hickman's house tonight for a goodbye dinner for Abe & Jess heading off to Alaska (another reason I've been shedding tears today!). So, we took the cake with us and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Gracie. It was sweet. We love you Gracie!

OUR TIMELINE

Well, I thought it might be interesting for you all to see a timeline of our journey so far. So, here goes...
Fall '05--started throwing around the idea of adopting
Dec '05--shared with our friends Aaron & Kelli Couch we were exploring the idea of adopting and they told us they were too!!!
Jan '06-March '06--We began praying a lot and doing research on foster adoption & international adoption. Although we thought foster adoption seemed more practical for financial reasons we kept getting tugged towards international adoption and had gotten referred to an agency called Small World by several people we talked to.
March '06--went out to dinner with Aaron & Kelli for Scott's birthday and shared we had an appointment to meet with Small World. They shared with us that they and some other friends we knew had just applied with the same agency to adopt from China!!!
March 20, '06--We met with Kathy & Janell at Small World and knew immediately that God had led us directly to them and applied that day to adopt a baby girl from China!!
March 20-July '06-The "Paper Chase"!!! Here's a few of the the things we had to do:
-ordering birth & marriage certificates
-medical physicals to show we're in good health
-Homestudy paperwork & interviews to show "worthiness" :)
-required reading and study on adoption
-applying for advance permission to adopt an "orphan" (I-600A)
-fingerprints done, mine rejected!, mine redone and accepted! :)
July 26, '06-delivered our completed dossier (all required paperwork & documents) to Small World!!!!!
End of July-started feeling God tug on my heart to consider the "waiting child" program & asked Janell to start e-mailing them to us whenever they come out
August 4, '06-our dossier "certified" in Olympia, WA and then sent to San Francisco to be "authenticated"
August 11, '06-Kelli called me and said they had found their baby on the August waiting child list!!!
August 18, '06-Small World received our dossier back from San Francisco!
August 21, '06-Small World sent our dossier to China!!!!
September 20, '06-Exactly 6 months after we began, our dossier was officially approved in China and this was our "log-in date"!!!
January '07-applied for the "waiting child" program
April 5, '07-received a call from Janell while we were in Boise for our referral!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 6-8th, '07-preparing acceptance of our referral paperwork
April 9, '07-delivered our paperwork to Small World
April 10, '07-Small World sent our acceptance paperwork off to China!!!!!!!!!!!
April 10, '07-attended a travel info meeting at Small World!!! We have so much to do to get ready for our trip!!!!!!
Waiting for our letter of acceptance to adopt Gracie and for permission to travel from China!


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WAITING FOR THE "WAITING CHILD" LIST!!!

Sorry all of these posts are out of order but we are trying to go back and catch you all up on what has been going on for the last 13 months!! Once we get caught up then hopefully the posts will be easier to follow! Okay... so we started becoming interested in what our agency calls the "waiting child" program back at the end of last July. The waiting child lists are comprised of children who either are simply older or who have some kind of a health issue. Our agency receives a new list about every three months. Some great friends of ours found their little girl off of a list that came out last August. Then there was a list that came out in November and this is when we decided we wanted to seriously consider the next waiting child list that should have come out in February. In January, we had made it official with our agency that we were open to finding our Gracie off of one of the waiting child lists. We had to fill out a new "desired child" form that stated what age range we desired (6-18 months) and had to check the boxes of what health issues we felt we could handle. Well, unexpectedly our agency received another list right away in December. They still thought they would receive another list in February but by mid-march we were still waiting but by this point were told that we were one of the first families who they would try to match a child to!! We were so excited and on pins and needles!!! They called us on March 27th and said that the list had finally been sent from China and was on it's way!! But it does take several days to arrive and then possibly up to a week to be translated from chinese to English and so they told us not to expect a call until probably Monday, April 9th. This seemed okay though because we were spending the week in Boise for Spring break and that sort of distracted us from being completely consumed with anticipation.......(if you want to read the posts in order of how they happened then read the post titled "Getting the Call" next, then "Gracie's pulmonary stenosis," and then "We signed our final paperwork".)

WE SIGNED OUR FINAL PAPERWORK!!!

We had to write up a "care plan" for how we plan to care for Gracie's mild constricted valve, sign an "acceptance of referral of waiting child", a parent info sheet, and our "letter of intent" to adopt Gracie. We drove all of this paperwork over to our agency today, April 9th, and hopefully they will get it in the mail to send to China tomorrow! She told us that realistically it will probably take a few months to receive from China what is called their "letter of acceptance" for our request to adopt Gracie. Then, about a month after that we will receive our "permission to travel" which means we can make our travel arrangements to go get her. So, most likely it will be mid-July to mid-August when we will be able to go get her. It's already excruciating to not be able to go and get her right now but we know they are doing their best. They have thousands of families they are working with and currently are said to be about 30,000 families behind in the healthy child waiting line which translates into about 2 years!!! So, we defintely can't complain about a few months.

Gracie's Pulmonary Stenosis

Well, our agency gave us a website to read up on pulmonary stenosis: www.americanheart.org We read all about it and since hers was listed as "slight" were pretty sure that hers would be considered mild. But we wanted to know for sure so we were fully informed & prepared. So, I searched for cardiologists and called one while we were driving home Friday, April 6th, from our Spring break in Boise. They told me I needed a pediatric cardiologist and gave me the name of one. So, I called them and the receptionist told me Dr. Garabedian was great and that he loved working with families who were adopting. She told me to forward Gracie's echocardiogram and the test results and that he would call me Monday morning. True to her word he called at 9am this morning, April 9th! I was very impressed! He told me that her pulmonary stenosis was "no big deal." In fact, her stenosis or "constricted" valve is so slight that it is about as mild as it gets. He said she does not need any medication or anything done to correct it because it will not affect her life in any way!! He said to bring her in sometime after we bring her home so they can do an updated echocardiogram and then they would recommend us having them check her once a year for a period of time after that. He also said that even though her paperwork China filled out said she also had "slight tricuspid valve regurgitation" that she does not! He said that every baby/toddler has some leakage or "regurgitation" between the valves and ventricles and that hers is completely normal!!! We believe Gracie is a completely healthy little girl!!! Praise God!!!

GETTING THE CALL!

Yahoo!! Well, we weren't expecting to hear anything from our agency until after Spring Break but we were elated to receive a call from them on April 5th, while we were in Boise! Scott received the call while he was at the park with his good friends, Dave & Wayne, and all of our kids. While I was on a lunch date with my girlfriends, Hester, Pernille, and Kelli. When we all got back to the park the kids were running after our van as we were parking. As soon as I opened the door Kaleb announced to me that our agency had called! My mouth dropped and my stomach started doing flip flops! I could not believe it was finally happening! It turns out they had two girls who matched our request for a 6-18 month old girl with a minor health issue/special need. We had prayed that if we were put in this position that God would show us clearly which child was to be ours. Well, we rushed over to Wayne and Pernille's house to open up the e-mails of each girl's file. One little girl was 9 months old and did not have a right hand and the other little girl was 11 months old and had mild pulmonary stenosis. They were both beautiful! There was so much to look over and consider but then we got our answer! We had already chosen our soon to be adopted daughter's name to be Gracie Mei. We chose her middle name after my Grandma Kindall's middle name, Mae, but decided to spell it the Chinese way-Mei. Well, when we looked at the girls' names the little girl with the heart condition's first name was Mei!!! We knew this was our daughter!!! Her birthday also happens to be April 23, 2006 and our anniversary is March 23, 1996. We are not into numerology or anything but the number 23 is very sentimental to us. Then, we read the description her caretaker wrote about her that states she is active and likes to go to places that are fun and noisy!!! She will fit right in!!! :) We are so full of joy and can't wait for her to join our family! But wait again we must! :)