Pre-approved!

We found out late last night that we have been pre-approved by China to adopt Josiah. This pre-approval is way faster than we expected (usually they take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month). Now we have to hurry up and get our paperwork finished! Best case scenario, we are hoping to travel at the earliest next January or February.

Here we go again!

We have been discussing the possibility of either having another child naturally or adopting again over the last four months. Last week (Thursday), we decided that we have a clear answer from God that it is part of His desire for us to adopt again. We also agreed that we have the personalities, family structure, exterior resources, and financial resources necessary to provide a loving home for an adopted child. Our Father calls us to care for the widows and orphans (James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.) As our hearts are already for the Chinese people, we have a clear understanding of the process, and there is a huge need we decided on another child from China. A boy this time… you know, to even out the female/male ratio. So over the weekend we reviewed some files of children with special needs. A couple piqued our interest and we requested more information. However last night around 10:30 we received an email file of a boy with cleft lip and palate who buried himself into our hearts. (I found out later that while I was checking my email, April was praying that we would have a clear answer to finding our son) After that, we calmed down and we prayed some more… then started to realize that this child was probably already “locked in” with someone else due to time differences, his minor special needs, and crazy good looks/personality. But we asked her to try and see if he was available anyways. 12:30 last night we got an email reporting that she had locked his file for us (meaning that he is ours). So… we have officially found our future son, Josiah. Here he is!