Miracles Happen

We got LOA today!   That is our Letter of Acceptance.  It is the point where we switch from trying to prove we can be Claire's parents to working on immigration and travel documents.  It is an important day that has been a long time coming.   We've been told that LOA normally comes somewhere around 70 days after LID (Log in Date.)  For us, that stretched to 138 days of waiting!  Even though we understand why our process has been long, the wait has not been fun.

I posted  about our LOA on one of the adoption lists today and a lady I don't know emailed with a little advice about filling out immigration paperwork and how to apply for visas.  She ended her email by saying, "Miracles happen."

If she only knew.

Claire's life is a miracle. 
Read her story by clicking here.

For us to be adopting her is also a miracle.
We were so done with adoption.  We love Ana and Jenny, but more than 10 years of struggling to overcome the hard places of their past had left us exhausted and sad.  Even though they had moved out, they were still managing to create  emotional upheaval every time we had contact. We were not interested in even thinking about adoption again.

Until...

Pinelake started their "Outlive Your Life" initiative.   It was about lots of things, but for some reason every discussion of adoption pierced my heart.  I argued with God.  No way!  I've been there, done that.  It was NOT good!  You can't ask me to do this again....can you?

Eventually, God won the argument and we were thinking about adoption again.  I was looking at some of the waiting children, but nothing was motivating us to start the homestudy process.

Then, I went to China with Ben  Even though I was afraid before we left, it turned out to be an amazing trip. 

A couple months after being home, I got a call from one of the missions pastors.  He had some ladies who were headed to China on a medical mission trip and they were nervous.  He wondered if I would talk to them.  I did what I could to reassure them. And, I asked about where they were going. That was the very first time I ever heard of New Day Foster Home. 

When I searched their website, I clicked on their children.  On a page with lots of children, her face caused me to catch my breath.  New Day's Kids