THE WAIT

As Christmas draws near, I have received a lot of questions from family and friends lately about when we will get our Maggie. We are certainly inching closer, but still so far away. I pray for a miracle speed up everyday and wish on every star that next year at this time we will be holding Maggie or a picture of her and getting ready to travel. Some days I feel very optimistic and other days, not so positive. In my heart I know that there is a reason for everything and that when I do hold Maggie, I will know just why we had to wait so long. She will be the reason. God has chosen this little angel for us already..........she is just not here yet. I visit a China adoption forum everyday and another waiting mother shared an excerpt of a letter that her mother had written her. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share it:

My mom wrote me a letter many months ago, after I had cried to her tears of frustration about the wait. The letter was so important to me, I’ve kept it - and maybe it will provide some encouragement here to someone. Some excerpt of what she wrote:“I’m thinking of you tonight, wishing I could run over and make your heart lighter. It does seem forever till you hold your daughter - but the certainty is that you *will* hold her. You will know her all your life on - she will always be your daughter. There is another woman across the world who will not know this child. This child will never know her as mother….“That, too is a certainty. When you feel so discouraged, try to pray for that mother’s grief and healing. Her sacrifice is your blessing and your daughter’s. What I am trying to say is *not* to feel guilty about this Chinese mother, or feel guilty about your discouragement. That is what it is. But, to find a way out of it. The wait is prolonged, but it will not be forever. The gift of your daughter will be forever….”
What Mom tried to gently remind me is that ultimately, time is on our side — we will be forever families.

Thanksgiving with the turkeys (Browns)!

Aren't we blessed! Thanks Aunt Jo and Uncle Gary for opening your home and hosting Thanksgiving every year! What memories!

Great News!!!!

We received word today from our adoption agency that our dossier(paperwork) is out of review. Here is the exciting letter:

Hello September LID families,

I wanted to let you know that we received word from our Beijing office that the CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with their office before September 30, 2006. Yeah September 2006 is out of review!!!!!! Congratulations to all of you!

Kim O'Bryant
Referral Counselor
Great Wall China Adoption

This means that the Chinese officials have cleared us to adopt. Now we just wait some more! Here is an excerpt from a letter from the president of our adoption agency, Snow Wu:

I know right now, the thing on your mind is the long wait. Last night, I talked to the CCAA officials and expressed all of your concern over this long wait. CCAA officials told me that they are very concerned over the wait as well. They have held many trainings with the orphanage directors to teach them how to get children's file ready, and they encourage them to send the children's file to the CCAA so the children can be matched with a family. The officials are not able to provide any timeline, but, assure me that once the backlog of dossiers is matched, the wait will go down. I still ask that you keep your faith in Chinese adoptions. As I said, it will happen. Please do not give up your hope!

This sounds encouraging as well, except to what date do they count the backlog of dossiers?
Oh well, it will happen!!!

Fall and Halloween Pics!

Thanks to Larry and Jackie loaning us their trailer, we got to have our 2nd annual hayride around the neighborhood to trick or treat! It was so much fun!! Pictured are: McKenna, Maci, and Tyler, Baylee and Lais. Lais has never been trick or treating, so she discovered it was a lot of fun!

Every year since Baylee was 9 months old, we have taken pictures at the Pumpkin Patch. She will be 18 and I will still be making her pose there!