Wednesday, September 19, 2012

We Finally See Her Face!!!

I am thrilled to introduce our newest daughter...

Caroline Collins

Our sweet Caroline Collins, whom we will call Collins, is *seven* months old and living in southern China in the same province that Lia Kate is from. We are so in love with our beautiful girl already and we can't wait to travel to bring her home forever.

Here is the story of how we were matched with her...
We have been waiting for 6 months now to be matched with our daughter. Our dossier was logged-in in China on March 1, 2012, and we have just been waiting for files from our adoption agency's new orphanage partnerships to come in. But nothing really moves fast in the adoption world. We thought the files would be here in July, but they weren't. Then, August, but no. Then September rolled around and I was getting anxious. 

On Thursday, September 6, our awesome social worker, Karla, called and said she might have a file for us. She told me a little bit about her. I told her we were definitely interested and I asked how old she was. Karla hesitated and said she needed to check and would get back in touch with me. We were really wanting a young child (under 15 months) because we want some space between our older two and the next one. When she hesitated, I thought she might be older, but we were not going to pass up looking at a file. That afternoon she called back and said she had gotten the file together and was ready to send to me. She told me a little bit about her and then said, "Now, hold on to your socks because she is SEVEN months old!" I was in the car driving two sleepy children to gymnastics, and all I remember saying was, "No way! Holy cow! No way!" over and over. Seven months is *very* young for medical needs adoptions from China. She told me she was emailing me the file right then. I happened to be stuck in a massive traffic jam, so I checked my email and there was the file. I opened it up, saw her sweet face and started screaming. I immediately called Danny and told him I had just seen our daughter's face. This is verbatim what happened when we got Lia Kate's file. Danny is a little more even keel than I am, so he was like "Okay, send me the file." I did. Then I texted our social worker back and said "Oh, Karla. I'm done. She's the one. Hope my husband is on board!".  Just like with Lia Kate, I knew right away. No doubts.
The first picture I saw of Collins.
Danny must have known too because he came home a little bit later with Chinese food and a bottle of prosecco.

We sent her file to be reviewed by the International Adoption doctor who had visited her orphanage in April and did a physical on Collins, and waited for her to call back. Since we were going out of town bright and early the next morning, I spent that night writing a care plan so that our agency could send our Letter of Intent (LOI) as soon as we were ready to officially say yes. I may have gotten about three hours of sleep that night. I was just so giddy and excited. The next day at noon, even though we hadn't talked to the adoption doctor, we decided to go ahead and have our agency send LOI. We knew she was our daughter and there was nothing the doc was going to say that would change our minds.

One week later on September 13, we got our Pre-Approval from China. We have a few more months of paperwork to get through before we can travel. We are hoping to have her in our arms some time in December, but after Christmas/January may be more likely. She will be 10 or 11 months old. I can hardly believe it. Praising God for our sweet girl. She was so, so worth the wait!!!


16 comments:

Ruthie said...

EEEEEEKKKKK! She is beautiful!

Julia said...

We are all SOOO EXCITED! Looking forward to Christmas with all of you! (Of course, if you're flying over to get Collins, then that's where you need to be!)

Unknown said...

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! She's beautiful! So happy for you, and can't wait to follow along as Collins' story with her family unfolds! Yay God!

Brandi said...

She's beautiful! And how awesome that she's so young and you'll have her home so quickly! May I ask which agency you're using & if you're happy with them?

Tera said...

Ahhhh!!! Oh my goodness was she worth it!! She is precious!! Congrats! What a blessing she will be in your family and what a privilege you will have showing her God's love! Praise the Lord!

Anonymous said...

What a little beauty with such a happy smile. Congrats!

Catherine said...

Congratulations!!! What a precious little daughter you have!! SO happy for your family!!

Anonymous said...

do you mind sharing what special need does she have? She looks so happy and healthy! Congrats!

thegiffens said...

I am happy to answer the questions some of you have asked privately. My addy is giffenhouse at yahoo(dot)com
Thanks!

Debbie Sauer said...

She is precious. Congratulations

Research-China.Org said...

Congratulations!! When you are ready to get her newspaper finding ad (which has a great photo of her months younger than her referral photos!) come visit us. We have a lot of info on her orphanage, etc. also.

All the best!

Pam said...

Congratulations! Your newest daughter is just darling!

Karmen said...

Oh my goodness ... she is precious! I love how God weaves families together. Congratulations!

Karmen
www.babybernacchi.com

Cedar said...

Congratulations!!!! I am so very happy and excited for you! She is adorable! I pray your paperwork goes super smooth and she is in your arms before you know it!!!!!

Nora

Paige said...

she is so precious!!! Congrats, what a fun holiday season your family will have getting ready for her!

Keisha said...

She is a DOLL!! Congrats on your new arrival!