Thank Heaven for Little Girls

As many of you know we have been blessed with three of the most incredible, fun loving, considerate, and on most days, well behaved sons. With each year since their birth, we have been amazed to see them grow into unique individuals with their own personalities, interest and talents. All three boys have accepted Christ and are growing in their Christian walk. We truly don't think God could have given us any greater blessings here on earth.

A few years ago God planted a seed in Teresa's heart about adopting a little girl from China. Our life took a few twist and turns and she thought maybe it was just a dream and put it aside. A couple of years ago Curtis came and asked her if this was still something she was interested in doing, as he felt God had been working in his heart in regard to adopting a little girl from China as well. After a lot of prayer and discussion we agreed this was something we felt called to do ~ however, Teresa needed to get more of her schooling behind her as she is pursing a degree as family nurse practitioner. We felt God had called us to do this ~ just not quite yet.

It is now two years later and we feel God is asking us to start the process to bring our daughter home from China. On October 1 we applied to a very well respected adoption agency and on October 8 we received notification that we were accepted into their China program. In the last two years China has drastically changed the requirements that families need to meet in order to adopt a child from their country ~ thankfully, we do meet all of the requirements.

I'm sure many of you are asking what the boys are thinking about all of this. Daniel smiled ear to ear and said "when can we go get her"? Jordan said "I want to go get her too, but if it happens to be during the state finals of basketball and we're in the championship, I won't be able to go". Nicholas said "I want to go too...do they have Kentucky Fr*ed Ch*cken or something I can eat over there"?

It is with great excitement, peace, joy and a little apprehension of the unknown that we are officially beginning the journey to bring Gabriella Grace home from China. The journey could be completed in as early as a year but may be as long as two years. We are requesting a little girl, under the age of two. As many of you know, Jordan was born with medical issues and would be considered special needs in the adoption world. As we can choose how minor or major of a special need we feel we can handle, and in China something as small as a birth mark qualifies as special needs, we have requested to adopt a little girl with some form of a very mild special need. We will post updates on the blog as to how things are going during our journey.

There will be lots of paper work, meetings, paper work, obtaining passports, paper work, educational classes on adopting, paper work, decorating a little girls room, paper work, a trip to China, paper work, having Gabriella Grace placed in our arms, paper work, a trip home from China, paper work and a completed family....together, sharing the times of our lives.