The First Post

I am setting up this Blog to journal the journey and arrival of our newest addition to our family.  Zoey has grown up in a foster home in Fuyang, PR China for the past 3 1/2 years, and will be our #4-we have a 12 year old DD, 10 year old DD, and a 7 year old DS.  We started the adoption process in 2008 (a month before Zoey's birthday), after many years of feeling that we were being called to the miraculous journey of nurturing another child -  but this time it would be one who would bring together Bryan's adoption experience with my experience of having lived in Asia as a teen.  We both agreed that China would be the destination.

We remained strong through the bankruptcy of our prior agency (which occurred right when we were about to hand all of our documents over to US Immigration for approval to adopt).  After finding a new agency and re-doing most of our paperwork, we finally had a LID for China of 12/3/10 (ironically, we were standing in front of the China pavilion in EPCOT when I received the email about our LID).  On 11/8/11, we received Zoey's file from our agency and had a hunch this little girl could be THE ONE we have been awaiting for FOUR years.  We are now waiting and hoping that this week we'll have provisional approval on our I-800 application, and the process will be relatively painless.  I am predicting a mid-April, early-May travel.

We never became frustrated-never once thought twice of all of the documents we had to chase or why we seemed to be spinning our wheels and not making much progress.  We just knew that everything happens for a reason and all this waiting must be important-we have trusted in God that we will be expanding our family at the right time with the right child.  We want to welcome the newest member of our family into our craziness!  We want Zoey to know that long before she knew us, even before she was born, we were searching for her and we had faith that the red thread would lead us to where we all need to be. 


"An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."  - Ancient Chinese Proverb