Adopting Again!

Dear Friends and Family,
Yes, you read correctly, "Adopting Again!"  Much to our surprise we are adopting from China again!  Let me start at the beginning . . . 

Randy and I still receive update emails from our former adoption agency America World Adoption.  These updates usually pertain to upcoming events, office hours, seminars, and adoption stories.  Lately these emails have been advocating for little ones who are "children of focus." These children are ones that cannot currently be matched with an adopting family.  Boys often fall into this group.

On December 3rd I came home from work and Randy asked if I had seen the most recent AWAA email update.  I shook my head and he said, "Sit down, you need to see this.”  (I need to mention that Randy RARELY, if ever, reads the AWAA emails.)  By the tone of his voice and the look on his face I knew he was very serious about what he was going to show me. 

I sat down and he said, "Take a look."  Staring back at me was an adorable little boy.  I read the information provided and can only describe the feeling that came over me as “knowing.”  I looked at Randy and said, “Are you getting the same feeling I’m getting?”  Yep, we both felt like we were supposed to find out more about this child; that we were supposed to knock on this door and see what happened.  (WHAT??!  We aren’t adopting again!)  The crazy thing was that the email said that ANY family who was interested in finding out more about this child could inquire (currently working with AWAA or not).  We inquired.

I emailed our former family coordinator, Aimee, to ask about the referral file and we waited. The next day (the 4th) I heard back from Aimee and she said that another family was reviewing the file.  She had noted our interest and would let me know if the status of the file changed. On Friday the 5th I received another email from Aimee letting me know the file had been returned and was available for review.  Were we still interested? What we thought had been a closed door had now been firmly pushed open.  We asked to be sent the file for review.  

Since we received the file on a Friday afternoon we had the weekend to read, process, research, and pray about our decision.  We had to let Aimee know one way or another by 9:00am on Monday.  The more we processed and prayed, the more we had an overwhelming peace that this was, in a word, right.  (It still makes my head spin to think about that!)  We let Aimee know that we wanted to move forward.  After taking the next steps required by AWAA and Chinese Children's services we decided to accept the referral!  YAY! (Sorry, we cannot share any information about or photos of Little Ross #2 but will do so when we can.)

In the last ten days we have reapplied and been accepted to adopt through AWAA for a second time, sent in our referral acceptance paperwork (which puts this little one "on hold" for us until our paperwork can catch up) and started collecting documents for our home study and dossier.  Now we race the clock.  We have no more than 6 months to complete a home study, collect all of our paperwork and get our dossier sent to China.  Last time around it took us four months so we are praying for a similar turnaround this time. It's a good thing we know God has a plan and He has given us a peace that we are doing what we have been asked to do or we wouldn't be sleeping through the night!    

More to come soon!

We appreciate your prayers!

Robyn, Randy & Zeke

P.S.  We have not mentioned to Zeke that he is going to be a big brother but we know he will make a great one!