Where It All Began...

At a young age, I (Stacy) told my parents that I wanted an Asian baby and continued to casually mention it throughout my high school years. In college I believe God placed a true desire and love for adoption in my heart. Once Steve and I started dating I shared with him my desire to adopt. Then he too started thinking about the possibility. Even though he was for it from the start, his love for the concept took a little longer to grow. But before long his passion for adoption had reached the same level as mine. We started by getting an application in July of 2005 and finally began the official process by turning it in to Lifeline Children’s Services in September 2005. We made the usual paper chase for about 5 months and then sent all of our paperwork (dossier) to China in February of 2006. About a month later we were given a “Log in Date” with China of March 2, 2006. We were expecting the wait to be around 6 to 8 months after being logged in, but here we are today 3 years later. The wait has led us through many changes including paperwork updates and increases in finances that we were not anticipating. But on February 13th, 2009 we received our referral which is the information about your child that you have been matched with. We were in love at first sight and it was all worth it! God is really the only one who knows what He is doing during “the wait”. There is plenty of speculation that I could go on and on about, but nobody really ever knows anything for sure except that one day your name will come up and now ours has!! In the meantime, while we were waiting (and waiting some more) God blessed us with Halle Kate. Our desire had been for us to get pregnant and then adopt but we didn’t see it happening. But the Lord surprised us and we couldn’t be happier. Halle Kate is just adorable and makes us laugh every single day! She is 20 months old, loves to sing and watch VeggieTales! We know she will be a great big sister to her baby sister!
We are thinking that we will leave for our Journey to China somewhere around mid-March. We will most likely fly into Beijing where we will get our bearings and sleep off a little of the jet lag. We may also get some time here to do a little sightseeing if we can hold up to it! Then we are off to Southern China to our daughter’s province, Jiangxi. (Jzang-shi) We will go to Nanchang (kind of like our state capital) and be there a day before going to the civil affairs building to pick up Anna Claire. That is called our “Gotcha Day”! We will spend time in that city getting to know her for about 4 days while her paperwork is being prepared. We then will fly to Guangzhou, China (a little further south) where we will stay for another 4 or 5 days. We will visit the U.S. Consulate where we will take our oath to always love and care for her and to obtain her passport and visa to travel (among lots of other things we have to do). Then we will fly back with her halfway around the world to her new home in Birmingham!

We want to share with you what we know and some of what we think we know about our Anna Claire! She was 8 ½ months at the time of our referral and will be 10 months old on the day we get her if all goes according to plan! She was dropped off at the orphanage the day she was born and we think she was taken to a foster home for about six months. In November of 2008 we believe she was put in the care of the orphanage where she was originally abandoned and that is where she is now. It is called the Social Welfare Institute of Yifeng County, Jiangxi Province. A child that has been institutionalized is one that will need lots of special attention and family time! With her being from another country, this presents an even greater need for her introduction into our world to be a little slower than a traditional addition to a family. Even though we all know she will live a much better life than she has known, we are taking her out of everything that she has ever known. The language she will be hearing will be different, the smells, the food, the people, and the surroundings. She will likely have many “firsts” that most babies have done hundreds of times by her age. Her senses will most likely be overloaded and so we will be keeping our life close to home for a couple of months to teach her what family is really supposed to be like. She will have to learn to bond to us and that has proved to take time due to her coping ability to put up walls of protection since so many caregivers have come and gone out of her life from the day she was born. With God’s help, we are confident that she will adjust to her new life and be able to enjoy her “Forever Family”.

We appreciate all of the support and encouragement that you have given us during this time. We covet your prayers for travel, safety, Halle Kate, the needed finances, and favor in all that we do. Most of all, we ask you to pray that our precious little Anna Claire will bond with us quickly and that the Lord will prepare her heart for her new life in the U.S. God is good and we are thankful to be on this journey to finally hold our Anna Claire!