LOI, Almost there

I had been looking through the pages of waiting children.  There are so many kids with a variety of needs, who need homes.  How would I know which one would be ours?  I was still somewhat looking for a boy.  I thought I found him, Toby said that wasn't our child.  Really?  Ok, I kept looking.  I came across a little girl and wondered if this is her.  Toby thought maybe and said I could request her medical file.  I did.  That was back on July 19. 

We looked through her file, but mainly looked at her face.  She is beautiful.  I just knew at that point we wanted to pursue her.  I contacted our adoption agency and asked if anyone else was considering her.  Nope!  At that point, they put her on hold for us so we could pray about her specifically. 

Earlier this year, pre-adoption, we committed to a mission's trip to Nicaragua.  That's another whole story of its own!  We had to drive to Sioux Falls to fly out.  The morning before (it was July 26) we dropped of her file at the clinic on our way out of town.  I had asked our doctor to review her file while we were gone and touch base with us once we returned.  We were barely 2 hours into our drive (and it's a long, dull one) my phone rang.  Dr. T was on the phone and had already taken the time to review her file.  Her "needs" were an infection near the umbilical cord site at birth (minor), pulmonitis (a resiratory infection at age 1), and a cleft lip/palate.  She couldn't find anything surprising in her file.  Another 20-30 minutes down the road, our social worker called and told us another little boy we were interested in was available again.  Did we want to consider him?  No.  We knew in our hearts that she was the one.

Fast forward almost 6 weeks.  Where does time go?  We are finally almost to the point where we are ready to submit our LOI (Letter of Intent).  Hopefully by the end of next week our paperwork will be enroute to China.  If everything goes smoothly we should get confirmation (pre-approval) that we can be matched with her.  Yeah!  I've already claimed her and so has my family, but to have that approval from China will be wonderful.

We still have a very long road ahead.  Our homestudy isn't even complete yet, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will be.  God is definitely working for us.  Our FBI fingerprints came back in just under a month.  I'm told that just doesn't happen!  I'm learning patience, again.  It's a good lesson, but very hard when you're little girl is in China waiting.  I just want her home.  Again, God's timing is perfect.

Please pray that things go smoothly.  As soon as we get approval I'll post a picture of her.  Unfortunately, it isn't very recent, but it'll give you a face to go with the name.