We have a little GIRL! God is so good!

   Just a note of warning... this post might be long and scattered trying to convey the incredible string of events God worked out so we could be matched with this little girl. I will start from the beginning. At the beginning of our home study I had a "discussion" with God. I was telling him how I just wasn't sure what to put on the medical checklist form. It felt so strange to me to say no to a medical problem. Mainly because in my heart I knew that if God chose to give that specific condition to a child we conceived we would accept that condition and love the child. I didn't see how this was different except that I didn't really want to ask for something I didn't think I could handle. After discussing this with Darryl he felt the same way so in the end I just checked the "maybe" box down pretty much the whole medical checklist because I couldn't say no. It was my way of compromising on the fact that I really felt God asking us to adopt a special needs child. HA! I know, compromising with God always works out so well. Looking back God was so obviously preparing us for this referral because every time I prayed about the adoption I felt led towards a special needs child of some type I just didn't know in what way or what child. I looked through the waiting child profiles and none of the children fit our family. Thailand requires a 2 year age difference so that was hindering some of the possibilities but mostly it was just that they didn't feel like our child. 

   We were not expecting a referral until about June or September of 2013 because of some low referral numbers coming out of Thailand. In the end of May Darryl received an email from Holt about a little girl in Thailand they were looking for a family for. The email stated that if they had no interest she would be put on the waiting child program list. I took one look at the email and knew she was our child. I can't explain that but I just knew. I immediately contacted our Pediatrician who happens to also be a friend of the family and my boss. He called me and we discussed her medical needs. Darryl and I decided we wanted further information so we contacted Holt. We were informed there were 2 other families that also requested her information. We prayed about it and discussed more with our Dr. about her medical conditions. There are several unknowns with her condition but through all the prayer and discussions we never felt apprehension. It's a strange feeling that can only be described as God's presence in the situation. I am a nurse so I feel very qualified to deal with any of her medical needs from day to day. I am also pretty well connected in the medical community so I know who to contact for anything she needs. We discussed the unknowns with being a parent in general. God never promises us tomorrow will be easy or that there will even be a tomorrow with our children. We have seen parents with perfectly healthy children lose their child to an accident. No parent likes to think about it but it's the truth. God has loaned us our children to raise for Him. So we didn't feel comfortable saying no just because she has some unknowns. We all have unknowns. So we then contacted Holt and told them we wanted to be her family. They told us that we had to wait 2 weeks for the other 2 families to decide if they wanted to be her family also. At that time the board would meet and decide which family would best suit her needs. It was a VERY long 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks Holt called back to inform us that the other 2 families both decided they were not best for her. I couldn't believe it! I had just felt the whole time that God was telling me she was going to be ours but was to afraid to believe it. We then had to wait for the board to meet and approve our match. Well the board met and realized our home study needed to be updated because the social worker who did our original home study didn't include some of the things it needed to say. So were waiting again (which is basically how international adoption works... lots of waiting and waiting). It took a month but we finally got the updated and notarized home study to Holt on this last Wednesday. Friday Jessica from Holt called to tell me we had officially been approved!!!! We were actually camping at the time and I had very spotty coverage so I was pretty thrilled the call went through at all. 

   I waited until today to say it was official though because today is when we got our paperwork from Holt with all the approval documents. There is so much paperwork to do but that's normal with international adoption too. We have paperwork for our government and for their government also. It's domestic adoption paperwork x2. The most surreal part for me so far has been writing a letter to our little girl and her foster family. We are supposed to tell them about ourselves. It's so hard to introduce yourself to your child. I mean really how do you explain that you love them and can't wait to meet her to a 1 year old.

  We are pretty much beyond excited. Our kids are excited but just want her to come home now. I'm not sure if I can post pictures or even her name but as soon as I find out from Holt I will post on here.