Our Amazing Gift

Have you ever asked God for a birthday gift? After all, He is our Father who loves to give us good gifts, so why not!?! Last month was my birthday and there was only one thing I really wanted, and it was something that only He could give me: a referral for a child, our child. After months of paperwork, appointments, financial struggles, answered prayers, all I wanted was a face and a name. To know who I was doing all this for. So the week of my birthday Kory and I both prayed that we would be able to get a referral for my birthday.

That Friday, towards the end of the school day, I got a phone message from the China Director at All God's Children, International to call her back. I thought she was calling to follow up on our paper work. I called right when school got out because I knew she would be leaving her office soon since she is three hours ahead of us. When she answered she asked for Kory to be on the phone call too. So I went across the courtyard to Kory's classroom and told him I needed him to join me on this phone call. Our Director proceeded to tell us about a beautiful little girl who she thought was perfect for us. I couldn't believe it! God had answered our request, and given us a referral as a birthday present to me!

Usually, parents are given at most 24 hours to decide yes or no if they want to accept a referral. By calling us at the end of the day Friday she was essentially giving us the whole weekend to pray about. However, we didn't need a whole weekend. By Saturday we said "YES!" which catalyst us into a two week, fast paced timeline to complete everything to make our yes official. Within the next 24-48 hours we needed an international pediatrician to look over our prospective daughter's medical file and give us a report on anything we needed to know about her condition. We also had to complete a 20 page transition plan that we had to go over with AGCI's social worker on how we were going to help take care of this little girl and help her transition into her new life. Because of this little girl's special needs we were also able to apply for a special grant, so we had application paperwork to fill  out for that too! We got approval just in time for our two week deadline, so we didn't have to pay any of the referral fees out of pocket, praise Jesus!

We are so in love with this little girl, but the road ahead of us is still long. Although we have said, "yes", it isn't official until China gives us a Letter of Approval. This can take a few more months. Your prayers during this process are so appreciated! Last week we completed our biometric fingerprinting with immigration, so once we get our immigration paper work completed then we can move forward and get our approval from China. Please pray that our immigration process goes quickly and smoothly. I have heard of other families where their fingerprints "expired"because the process took to long. They then have to get them "refreshed" which takes a while. People have said that it is faster to then just go back and do the biometric fingerprinting again. However, since the immigration office is on Oahu it is neither convenient nor financially practical to do them again.

Thank you for all of your prayers, encouragements and supports during these past several months. I can't believe how far God has brought us already. We are just so excited at the possibility of bringing this little one home with us. Here is how you can be praying for us over the next several months...

* Immigration is "supposed" to take 60-90 days. Please pray it can actually gets completed in this timeframe, and we don't have to "refresh" or "redo" our biometric fingerprinting!
*Once all our paperwork in completed that there will be no delay in getting approval from China
*We applied for another grant, which we should hopefully hear back from in the next 4-6 weeks
*Pray for our little one in however the Lord leads you :)