WE HAVE A BABY!!!

"For this child I have prayed and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him." Oh, how many times I have prayed that verse from 1 Samuel! And now God has answered our prayer!

The past three weeks have been a testimony as to how God does indeed answer our prayers. Dave & I were wrapping up a three week fast regarding our adoption. Dave really felt the need for confirmation that we were to proceed with our adoption, since it was looking like it would be summer 2008 until we might be matched with a baby and we have been in the wait process for what seems like forever. We wanted to know without a doubt that we had heard from God and that we were doing the right thing by adopting a baby at this point in our lives. Just three days before our fast was to end, on Thursday, June 26 at 1:27 pm, our phone rang. When I saw the call was from our adoption agency, I just knew they were calling with a baby for us!

I began to tremble as our adoption coordinator began to tell me about a baby girl who was born July 10, 2006. She was 6.6 pounds and 18.9 inches long at birth. She now weighs 15.4 pounds and is 27.6 inches long. She has two teeth!! Her Chinese name is Yang Chun Hua Li, she is from the Guangdong Province and is currently in the Integrated Social Welfare Institute of Yangchun City. According to her medical report she is normal in physical development except for her right hand which in not fully developed. Apparently, she gets along well with the other children and she likes acquaintances but not strangers!!!

In January Dave and I had decided to put our names on the special needs list with our adoption agency. This list has many people on it with the majority being people like us, who are requesting children with minor health challenges. We were told it was highly unlikely that we would receive a special needs referral before our regular referral since there were around 100 people on the list ahead of us. The possibility of a referral sounded so remote that when they told us to update our homestudy for a special needs referral we didn't even bother. But God had other plans!! When America World receives their list from China they take the list and pray for direction as to how to match the children with families. So the first people on the list don't necessarily get the first baby that matches their request. Amazingly, they felt Huali (pronounced Wa Lee) was the child for us and that is what has brought us to this point.

I hung up the phone and called Dave. He could hardly believe it! God had spoken clearly to us that not only were we to proceed with the adoption, but that He had chosen this baby just for us and we were chosen to be her family! In a flurry of excitement I shared our news with Brady and Mikelle who both "just happened" to be home.

God continues to show us how incredible He is! Our beautiful little Sasha Mei is perfect as far as we are concerned and we cannot wait to hold our precious darling in our arms and love her and take care of her. We expect to travel this fall to bring her home. Please join with us in praying for her as we wait for our travel dates. It is estimated that it will take approximately 2-4 months to transfer our paperwork from a regular application to a special needs application. This is done in China. It will then be another 2-6 weeks until we actually travel.

Thank you to all of our special friends and family who have stood beside us during these difficult weeks and months and lifted us up in prayer and touched us with your love. You have encouraged us and blessed us in more ways than you know. And praise be to God for what He has done in our lives!

"How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears." -2 Samuel 7:22

"You don't bless me so that I can close my eyes and fold my hands and be content with what I have

You don't fill me so that I can live a life that's full and free for only me."