She's already keeping us up at night! We had no trouble going to sleep but woke up at 4:00 am with visions of our sugar plum dancing in our heads. It's safe to say we think she's awesome.
I cried in my belgian waffle at 6:00 am this morning as I looked at her photo. Probably had something to do with the song that came on Pandora - "God Bless the Broken Road". It's starting to feel more real.
We've been working on some paperwork this morning to submit to our agency so we can get on with the show. Andy, being a much better writer than me, tended to the Letter of Intent that we needed to give. He said it was the most important piece of paper he's ever written. Also safe to say he is smitten already!
On to the most popular questions of the morning:
1. When can we see a photo?
We're waiting to talk to our agency today to see what they recommend. We probably won't be posting it for awhile and want our families to see her face first. We hope to have a party soon for them to show her photos and tell them her name. It's been a long wait and we want to CELEBRATE!
2. How long until you bring her home?
After we submit our LOI (hopefully first thing Monday), we wait 3-4 months for the
CCAA to send us LOA (Letter of Approval). We also have to get approval from the US to adopt this specific child. We don't anticipate any issues with these - just protocol. However, nothing's official so you can see our need to be careful.
3. What is her name?
Her file came with a name. We have had an English first and middle name picked out for a long time. Again, we want to reveal that to our families first and then will be making it public :) I LOVE her name and there's a story behind it so we're excited to tell everyone.
A few things I can tell you now:
1. She was a cutie at first. Then she became beautiful to us. We joke that she is growing more beautiful everyday.
2. She is 21 months old - her birthday is in May. This is really exciting to me as there are already many birthdays in our family around the holidays. It will be nice to celebrate in the spring. Having a winter birthday myself, I am really looking forward to planning parties in the nice, warm weather.
3. Her special need is practically nothing. We were prepared for SO much more. The Lord has given us a very happy, healthy, active, developmentally-on-target child. Of course, it's still a step of faith as we don't necessarily know everything. But, we are so convinced she's ours that it doesn't really matter. Moving on.
4. It appears that she is in a wonderful orphanage. Based on her photos, we've been told she's way too "fat and happy" to be in just any orphanage. She seems to be really well-cared for and loved, as much as one can be without a mommy and daddy. This is HUGE as it was my everyday prayer that someone would be there to love her, smile at her, make her laugh, hold her, engage her. More than just feed her. There's so much more a child needs than food, shelter and clothing. From all indications, she's getting some lovin'.
5. Apparently, her favorite activity is "
riding the bike".
6. Here are a few of our favorite lines from her file:
"__________ is an active and lovely child; she loves to new toy so much that she cannot bear to part with it."
"At the age of 17months she can point to nose, eyes, mouth, hands and feet; she can understand simple orders and respond to the orders; she can ask for something to mother and can act like a spoiled child."
Haha! These gave us a good laugh.
So, that's our girl. More to come!
We cannot thank you all enough for the prayers that went up for us this week. It was one of the toughest yet. But turned out to be the best. Your prayers, encouragement, scripture, phone calls, emails and texts helped to carry us through. There were a few moments over the past two weeks when I felt I could not go another month of waiting. The Lord knew. We have more waiting to do but it's a different kind.
Can't wait to share more with you as time allows.
