We were so surprised!

As you may know (well you do now!!), we sent our paperwork into China on April 17th, 2007, for a baby to complete our family. Two was not enough!
We originally applied for a NSN (non special needs) baby, and were not so patiently watching the wait times increase. About two months into the wait, the wait time was estimated to be 24 to 26 months. (FYI . . Alyssa's wait time was 18 months, and Mikaela's was 6 months.)

We decided to fill out a SN (special needs) checklist to see if this might make our timeline go faster. We were very specific with the special needs that we would accept. We would accept a boy or girl, 0 to 12 months, with minor skin conditions (i.e., bruises, birth marks, eczema) or a baby with a cleft lip and / or cleft palate. We were told by CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International -- our adoption agency) that based on our very young age limits, it would not be likely that we would be matched with a SN child.

Imagine our suprise, when 6 months into the wait, we received a call from CCAI on November 9th, that a little boy who was celebrating his first birthday that same day, wanted us to be his mommy and daddy!!! We were over the moon! We were immediatly sent his pictures and the brief history that CCAI had.

We took his information to our pediatrician for review. In addition we spoke with a plastic surgeon who specialized in cleft lips and cleft palates. (He also heads our local cleft palate foundation in Colorado Springs!). We prayed for God's guidance in our decision, involving our families and church in prayer as well.

On Tuesday afternoon, we placed a call to CCAI and told Pam that we'd love to make this little guy a part of our family. Our LOI (Letter of Intent to adopt) was officially sent to CCAI November 16th, 2007. We've been told to anticipate travel in 3 to 5 months.

PA Received!!!

Wow!!! We got our PA -- preliminary approval.

This means that the Chinese officials have received our Letter of Intent, and have preliminarily approved us to be K.T.'s parents. They have given their permission for our file to be pulled from the April paperwork that was sent over, and once that is done it will be forwarded to the "Match Room" where they will determine final approval.

It's not much to look at, but it is one step closer to bringing this baby home!!!

Hugs, Rich, Gail, Alyssa and Mikaela

P.S. What's next? Let's see, there is LOA - letter of approval, TA -- travel approval, and finally CA -- consulate appointment -- then we can finally figure out when we'll go. We're taking bets -- I say March - ish. Rich says late February, and Bobo wants to spend his birthday in China. Mikaela just wants to be there right now.

It's Christmas in China

It's been a hard weekend in our house (at least for mommy and Mikaela). It's just tough to realize that K.T. woke up this morning (where it's already Christmas) and has to spend it there, without his family.

This special needs stuff is so different than our first two adoptions. We had Alyssa and Mikaela in our arms 6 weeks after we first saw their pictures. It's now been over six weeks since we first saw K.T., and we still have no idea when we'll be going to get him.

We did have an unexpected surprise. A lady from a Yahoo group that I'm part of took her daughter back on a Heritage tour -- her daughter is 12 and was adopted from K.T.'s orphanage over 10 years ago. When the mom was there, she was allowed to visit the orphanage, and while there took some pictures of the kids there. . . Yep, you guessed it-- she took a picture of K.T. with his Nanny!!! I've attached it for everyone to see -- if I haven't already shown you.

Many Christmas Blessings to you and yours -- our wish this holiday season is speedy travel to pick up our son -- please pray for us.

Hugs, Gail, Rich, Alyssa, Mikaela and K.T.

We got an Update!!!

We received an update today from CCAI on K.T. He had successful lip repair on the 9th of November -- about 3 weeks ago. From the picture, you can see that it still looks sore, but it seems that they did a very good job.

Other stats that we have from November 28th -- Wednesday are that he is 25 pounds (Mikaela is almost 4 and weighs 28 pounds) and he is 30 inches long. He has 5 inch feet as well.

Since surgery he's only been able to drink his bottle, but before he was eating congee (watered down rice) and ground fish and meats.

I want him to be here now! Please pray for our quick travel to get him home where he belongs!

Holiday Pictures

LOI

We sent in our LOI (Letter of Intent) to adopt K.T. on November 19th, 2007. Now all we can do is wait. Wow, three to five months seems so long now that we have a beautiful picture to remind us of what is waiting for us.

I filled out Alyssa's "Vacation form" today while I was at school. The school seems to be fine with her being gone. We'll be doing some major homework though.