Sweet November

November is a really cool month for our family. KateLin's Gotcha Day Anniversary is coming up soon. She will be home for 3 years. Wow!! Time does fly when you are busy, and having so much fun. Interesting that her Adoption Day and Caragan's birthday are the same day. Crazy, but our original Log in Date for China has still not been matched with referrals, now 4 years later. Our LID was October 10, 2006 for a healthy baby girl 0-18 months. If we hadn't decided to switch to the Special Needs list, we still wouldn't have a referral. Instead we've been to China and back twice....but our choices didn't come without lots of heartache. Before we received our referral for KateLin, I got an email in my inbox from Madison Adoption Associates. They had a list of children, one child they called Katie. We pursued her for adoption but because we were already logged in with America World for China...we were unable to adopt her. It was as though we were experiencing a miscarriage because we had wrapped our hearts and minds around this beautiful little girl we had only seen in photos. She had a cleft palate unrepaired and a cleft lip that had been repaired. We had prayed for her and made plans, fixed her nursery thinking our time would be short to travel to go get her. Instead the China Center of Adoption Affairs denied our request to change agencies and our request to adopt her. I was devastated...but there was a ray of light in the darkness. We later felt like we were meant to adopt through Madison Adoption Associates. This is the agency that we used to adopt Caragan. Diana Bramble was such a strong advocate for us and really pressed the CCAA to consider us for adopting Katie. We were really impressed with how she reached out to us and tried so hard to get them to let us change agencies. In the end, we decided to halt the pursuit in fear that Katie would miss out on the family she was intended for due to our endeavors. Lil Katie's story has a happy ending just like our's though....she lives in California with her 4 siblings, two of which are also from China. Her parents named her Kellie. Diana is now a very close friend and I miss our chats. We hope to meet her in person in a few weeks and I can't wait for her to meet KateLin and Caragan in person and to see just how perfect these girls are for our family. She was an amazing part of that journey and we'll always be grateful that she is such a strong advocate for the Orphans of China and around the world. I can't wait to hug her and express our thanks in person for all she's done for us over the last 4 years. It was also Diana that named Caragan, Hope on the agency's list. Her being named Hope was the reason we were drawn to her, otherwise we would have never considered adopting an older child, out of birth order. All the little details have woven our lives together in an amazing journey of faith, hope and especially love.

As we celebrate 3 years with KateLin and Caragan's birthday, meet Diana and even some more of our girl's orphanage sisters, this November will likely be one for our memory books. Caragan will hopefully get to see Lu Xinhua, Lauren...from Tianjin that just came home to Connecticutt a few months ago. She hasn't seen her since December 9th of last year, when we visited Caragan's orphanage in Tianjin. They talk on the phone often and chat on QQ regularly. KateLin will get to see LilyRose and hopefully Georgia. Georgia is the little girl that followed Lance around at the Yangzhou orphanage where KateLin was from. He soo wanted to bring her home with us too. Little did we know that God was planting another seed for adoption in our hearts. She came home to Maryland several months after we came home with KateLin. All of our lives have been woven together by the Miracle of Adoption. We have met so many wonderful families and friends through our journeys. We wouldn't trade these experiences for anything.

I feel like I blog about the girls all the time and don't mention my crazy boys enough. When it comes to adoption they clearly have hearts for the Miracle as well. I remember night after night at bedtime them praying for their sisters, first KateLin then Caragan while we waited. They would pray for their safety and health and that the process would go quickly. I can't discredit what all they've learned through this process. Many might think that they have sacrificed...but I would have to argue that my kids, each and everyone have alot more than most when it comes to material things. What adoption has taught them though is that you can open your heart up and gain so much more than anything of this world. I watch Logan ride KateLin around on his shoulders and it brings tears to my eyes. He seems to look out for her more, whereas Christian loves on Caragan more. Plus, it's a far better thing to give than recieve anyday. I can assure you they all have everything they need and most of what they want. Plus they got to experience China firsthand and they wouldn't have gotten that otherwise. For once you've seen the moon from the other side of the world your life will be changed forever.

This November will be SWEET indeed!!