*Here's the News....

Alright, so now I have a few minutes to write and wanted to let you know that we are moving forward with China. We are very excited about. For the first time in a long time, things actually seem to be moving forward MORE QUICKLY than we expected. Because we had just updated our home study for Vietnam, our social worker was able to surprise us by having our China home study done in two days!! We expected this to take at least a month, not really knowing that it didn't require all new paperwork. That was a huge praise!

We are going the special needs route with the China program through our agency, Faith International. This route works much different than the route for healthy children, where the wait is as long as 3 years now. Our whole process from now until we have the child home could be 9 months, or even less since our paperwork stage is progressing quickly.

We have done some research on what kinds of special needs we are open to. We are using the term "minor correctable special needs" in our paperwork, and can be more specific with our agency. They will then help us find the right child for us based on the age and special needs we have requested. The most common special needs that we are open to are cleft palate/lip, minor physical deformities like missing or extra digits..., sight or hearing weakness, skin conditions, minor heart conditions, Hepatitis B.....We are still requesting a girl, under the age of 2.

Our immigration forms are being sent to the US Consulate today. It is perfect timing because our Vietnam approval expires soon and we were needing to update our forms anyway. Anyone can have one free update and one free change of status, and you can do both at once. So, we are updating and changing our status to China, and will wait a few weeks for approval. Once we have our immigration approval, and all of our paperwork done, our dossier goes to China and our agency will start looking on the special needs lists for our child! Most of the paperwork we have done before. The most time consuming are things we need other people to help with - our medical reports, and employment letters..... The stress of paperwork is adding to the busyness of the season, but it's a good stress.

The Lord has given us peace about this, and is open doors along the way. Now we need Him to provide the funds, and help us find our daughter.

We are not giving up on Vietnam. If things open again soon, we may have to delay our Vietnam adoption, until our first daughter is home and adjusted. It would also be an even bigger financial stretch to do two adoptions, but if this is what the Lord has for us, He will provide. Liv is still in Vietnam, and I won't give up looking for her until the Lord tells me to.

We need a nickname for our Chinese daughter, and may have to start a new blog, since this one is obviously rather Vietnamese. Some nicknames we have brainstormed are: Pearl, LIA (Love in Asia - LIC just isn't cute, and LICh is worse:) and Mei Mei (which means little sister in Mandarin). Any other suggestions, or votes?

It is so great to see an end to this long wait for our next child in site! I have hope, and am also trying to guard my hope for fear of trials like we've had with Vietnam.