Nearer to Noelle: Daddy

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Daddy

Noelle will have the best Daddy ever!! Here's a pic of Emma with Paul just before their Daddy / Daughter date at Chick-fil-a for Valentine's Day.

4 comments:

Renae MooreMarch 7, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Ann and Crew...I am so very excited for you and I know the Lord has worked out all the details of Noelle's heart and awareness of where she belongs and that you and Paul are Mommy and Daddy and that Emma is her sister. She will relish in the love and warmth of your arms and know she is home. Blessings to you all as you travel. I pray for good health and that all connections will go smoothly.

xx Renae
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AnnaMarch 8, 2012 at 2:13 PM
We are both waiting on tenterhooks to read the first post/news from China! :D You must be there by now... We hope the flight went fine and that Emma is enjoying her first taste of world travel! HUGS, A & A
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TraciMarch 8, 2012 at 7:20 PM
Hi Ann, Paul and Emma!
Thank you for letting us know about your blog. I will be sure to show it to the kids tomorrow. Noelle will be as much of a blessing to you all as you will be to her. What a wonderful future she has ahead of her.
We'll look forward to seeing and hearing more about your trip and all about Noelle. Hoping she's with you as I write.
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Adam & AnnaMarch 10, 2012 at 7:19 PM
OK, so you guys have been in China for days! What's going on???
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Our Journey

We began the adoption process in October, 2006, and were approved by China on April 4th, 2007. At the time, we were expecting to travel to China in the summer of 2008. Little did we know...

While we were preparing to submit our application to the Chinese authorities, China announced big changes in the qualifications for adoptive parents; new restrictions on age, weight, and health. There was a flood of applications from people trying to be approved before the new restrictions went in to effect. What we didn't know was that China also greatly reduced the number of healthy children available for adoption.

The effect of these changes only slowly became clear to us. In the summer of 2010 we learned that, at current rates, we could be waiting another 10 years to receive a healthy child. A 14 year wait!?

So we decided to look into adopting a "special needs" child. We received counseling on special needs from a nurse practitioner who specializes in adoption, then had our home study changed to reflect our desire for a special-needs child and resubmitted our application, not expecting to hear back from China for another year or so. Imagine our suprise when when we were offered Liu Dan only six months later!

The time since then has seemed an eternity. After receiving a few medical records and photos, the flow of information stopped and now we wonder constantly how she's doing.

Our adoption approval from U.S.C.I.S expired (again!) and needed to be renewed. This process should have taken only about 60 days but took much longer. We had to get new fingerprints taken but Ann's new prints were rejected by the USCIS, twice! How long could this drag on while Liu Dan was sitting in an orphanage?

Then, suddenly (or so it seemed), everything started coming together and what seemed an eternity was now 1 1/2 weeks! OMG! Lots to do! That's the point where we created this blog.

I don't know how much free time we'll have in China but sincerely hope that we can share the trials and excitement of each day. Thanks to all our friends and family for investing the time to keep up with us. Those of you awaiting an adoption, you are welcome to contact us. We would love to be a resource for you as so many have been toward us.

Come along with us

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Daddy

4 comments: