An Unexpected Update

Sabrina, our Chinese liason for Wasatch (our placing agency) surprised us with two new photos and measurements on our baby Amaris. So exciting... I would like to see two little Chinese pigtails poke out of that hair shortly though. I had to ask this question though, "Is this my baby?" I didn't recognize her at all.

We Found Our NEW Agency

We are so excited to move on in our journey to our daughters.

Jason wanted me to move on since December 2010, but I kept hoping, praying, and believing that God would miraculously change the hearts of those currently in charge of our home study. That would not be the case.

So, when our home study was finally given to us August 10, 2011, we made the decision to write one final plee together. If that didn't work, we would leave.

I had a social worker lined up with a great agency for the last 3 months, just in case we ran into this, but I didn't believe she was the right person for our family. And, I knew that it was the social worker that made all the difference. She was for our family adopting two, but I didn't have the peace in my heart that I longed for helping me to know that SHE was our social worker to work with.

Through email networking though, I found OUR new social worker and agency. I knew that this gal was the one. We began working with her and the agency she represented even before we ever left our current homestudy agency.

We had already had a 4 hour home interview before the weekend had started, and God was already putting our pieces together.

Thank you to JoAnn Vesper and Agape Adoptions... you gals are AMAZING!

Homestudy from Hell... Completed in 221 DAYS!

Today is a big day... I guess.

We got our home study draft to review. We waited 221 days for this. Part of the wait, our family was put on "hold" for, but the other part is just another part of the story.

Part of the wait was for our oldest son to get his fingerprints re-done, I am hoping that the other part was purely DIVINE DELAY.

Our home study was not written to bring home our two daughters... even though that is what we hired them to do.

We will have to exercise our rights to not accept the home study. We can't, in good conscience, let another person, un-involved in our life, decide for us, something different from what God is calling us to do. Even if they have prayed a prayer over our family, or with their 3 friends.

We have been praying for 2 years, all the time, throughout the day, throughout the weeks, months, and now more than two years... prayer consumes our very being. Faith consumes us. And, we clearly have been led by God throughout our journey.

Someone else's 3 minute prayer about whether they have done the right thing or not for our family, can't take precedence over God. Their feeling of doing the right thing can't even compare to what we feel God is directing us to do.

So, we will not accept her home study; something that we made very clear to our agency when we hired them. If our home study is not being written for two, we wanted to know immediately so that we could move on for a second opinion. Well, we waited quite some time to get the home study in our hands.

Now, it's time to part ways.

"God, please let this be easy. Please let us keep our integrity." While our faith is great; and, our faith and prayers were that our current agency would see that God was directing every step we took, our "un-named" agency just wouldn't change their decision to let us bring both of our daugthers home.

"God, please show me whom our next social worker and agency will be."

Baba chose Annabella for her name!

Since 2009, we have talked about Amaris by name, but we never had a name for Baby #3.

I always felt like we would name Baby #3 when we saw her, but when I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to name her now, we started thinking about names more seriously.

I wanted her name to be Giavanna... Gia for short; but, Jason wasn't in favor of that name.

He finally texted me today his choice... Annabella. Annabella means, beautiful grace.

So, Annabella it is. This is the first child of ours that Jason has named.

We can't wait to find out who this little one is. We imagine her to be 2 1/2 years old at PA.

Naming the OTHER Sister

Today I felt very strongly that God said we need to name the girls other sister. We have always talked about her as adoption#3, but that's only because Jason and I can't seem to agree on a name.

I think her name should be Giavanna. Jason doesn't know what it should be. So today, I searched AGAIN for possible princess names based on their meaning. We are certainly open to other "foo-foo" names... especially names with "anna or ella" at the end.

We will consider her given American listing name, depending on it's meaning. It would most probably be her middle name with her full Chinese name.

While this little one wasn't part of my original vision 18 years ago, in June 2009 we both felt that God clearly was directing our hearts to a third little one... one that we believe He has shown us will be our "gift".

I have prayed for grace and favor for these next two adoptions:
Analena – grace and favor

I have prayed for two beautiful girls:
Arabella- beautiful
Annabella – beautiful grace (Jason's favorite)

I have prayed that faith would arise:
Amariah – given by God
Emmanuella – faith
Giavanna – gracious gift from God (Patty's favorite)

We are all so excited to see who God has for our daughter #3... but, she needs a name. She's a real person waiting for her mama and baba to come get her.

Who is she? How old is she? What does she look like? We want to be approved for a daughter ages 0-14, but we believe our little one is two turning three within months of getting her.

Gabriella learned to pray a year ago today!

Gabriella learned to pray to Jesus a year ago today, Monday, August 1, 2011.

It was her first full day in America... having come from Guilin, Guangxi, China. She became an American citizen the night before.

Each night since, she has prayed for each of her family members, but she especially loves praying for Amaris. We are diligently thinking of a name for her other sister.

God loves special days as much as I do... he gave us Amaris' PA (Pre-Approval) one year to the day when Gabriella started to pray!

We Got PA!

We found out Wednesday, August 3rd at 8:04am that we received our PA on Monday, August 1st.

It took 15 days to get PA. Many, many PA's have only been taking hours to 7 days, so for ours to take 15 days was a bit odd. I have to believe that there have been some divine delays in our life with our next two adoptions. Maybe because both girls files weren't ready at the same time, I am not sure.

Here's what Kathy wrote:

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Here is your pre-approval. This is just for your records. We will keep a copy on file in the office. So happy for you.

Sincerely,

Kathy Junk
Wasatch Adoption Inquiries