Pre-Approval from China

Ready, set, go!  To most of you it seems like that is how this adoption started.  Let me begin by saying that is not entirely true.  Luke brought up the idea of us adopting in March 2012 and we've been thinking about it ever since. Sometimes talking about.  Most of the time reading and researching about adoption and occasionally mentioning it to a few of you.

I started praying about it about 5 months ago and on February 28, 2013 found a picture and bio that tugged about my heart in a different way.  I showed Luke and we wrestled with what to do and where to go from there for just a few days.  I tracked down the agency that had Noah's (then called Henry) file and requested more information.  We reviewed his file, photos and 2 short videos and the idea of adopting him from China-out of an orphanage-felt like what we were meant to do.

It's not a void we feel yearning for another child; it's an opportunity to give a little boy a life he'd never have.  It's a forever family, a mommy, daddy, big sister and little brother that will love and nurture him no matter what.  The fact that Noah has albinism makes others not want to adopt him. It deems him special needs and sets him up for a lifetime of challenges with vision and sun exposure regardless of what country he lives in.  To many Chinese he has "a curse from God".  People with albinism are treated very poorly in China, not given proper care and released into the streets at age 16.  Not Noah.

Luke and I completed the application for the agency that had Noah's file and received pre-approval from China to proceed with the adoption on Good Friday, March 29, 2013 which just so happened to be my 30th birthday.  Probably one of the greatest gifts I could have received.

We've since started our Home Study with a local agency in Georgia-beginning the journey of collecting every document and fingerprint that proves who we are, where we've lived, what we earn, spend and everything else under the sun.  Although it's very overwhelming, Luke and I are working on the Home Study documents every single day and hope to finish it in a matter of weeks.  We'll likely be waiting on the results from our FBI fingerprints for the next 8 weeks.  Sickening.  Just waiting.

That's why we need hope for Noah.  We hope and plan to rescue him and bring him home with us as soon as possible (the timeline we have been given is 9-11 months).  I'll write more later but that is the basic how and why we decided to adopt.  Information coming soon on our fundraising campaign-first up t-shirts.

Here is the first picture we ever saw of him

1 Samuel 1:27  I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him.