We are Matched!!

Monday (3/25/13) was a crazy day!!  We received word around noon that we were logged in Ch’s system that day.  We knew the shared list was coming out that night, but were told that most people do not get matched off the first shared list after being LID.  We didn’t get our hopes up. 

After getting ready for bed, I decided to check my email (and facebook, of course) one last time before cutting the light out.  Just as I hit the power button on my phone, it rang.  It was 11:12pm.  It was our social worker.  She had a file on a sweet, one year old boy, who has cleft lip and cleft palate.  She went over the basics of the file, and asked if we were interested in seeing it.  We said yes, so she emailed it over to us about 20 minutes later.  We reviewed it, and felt an immediate peace about him.  I did a little research on cl/cp that night, and then attempted to go to sleep (I only got 4 hours of sleep that night—my heart was way too happy to sleep).

I sent his file over to the physicians at the International Adoption Clinic at MUSC for review Tuesday morning, and waited to hear from them.  All the while, though, I kept getting confirmation from God that this is the right child for our family.  First, we have this amazing peace about him.  I have always been very nervous about cl/cp as there are several surgeries involved, and it can be painful during recovery.  It’s very, very, very hard as a Momma (and Dad) to see your baby in pain.  But there is this amazing peace in my heart, and I keep hearing God whispering in my ear “I’ve got this.  It’ll be okay.” 

Today I was getting Kathryn’s spring/summer clothes out (I have no idea why since we’re still having winter weather here), and she started taking some off the hangers as I was getting them hung up.  The next thing I knew she had dressed herself in the outfit in the picture above.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Anyway, I received a call from the physician at the IAC, and she went over his chart and basically after reviewing everything had a great report and expects him to thrive wonderfully once he gets home.  I did all the paperwork yesterday in order to officially pursue adopting him, but I wanted to hear from the physician before I gave the official “go ahead” to our social worker.  I reviewed everything with David (who had said yes immediately upon opening his file Monday night), and called the social worker and told her to submit our Letter of Intent.

What’s Next:  We are submitting our Letter of Intent today, which is our official letter stating that we are interesting in adopting him.  We will receive a Pre-Approval (PA) from Ch in one-two weeks.  We will then be waiting on our official Letter of Acceptance, which will take about 2-2 ½ months to get.  We will also have a lot of paperwork to do on our end, including immigration stuff, etc.

When will we bring him home:  It will be 4 ½-5 months before we are able to travel (given everything goes smoothly).  My guess for when we travel (at this point) will be August-September.  We only have to make one trip to Ch, which will be about 2 weeks long.  We will bring him home with us at that time.  The adoption will be completed in Ch.  The paperwork we do now will make it so that the moment the airplane’s wheels hit the runway, he will be an official US citizen.

Pictures:  We are not allowed to post or share pictures of him until we have our PA (pre-approval).  We will post a picture as soon as we receive this in a couple of weeks.  In the mean time, if you see me in person I can show you a picture on my phone.

About him:  He is one year old.  His birthday was last week.  We are going to name him Evan David.  Evan means “God is gracious”.  David wanted to give him his name as a middle name.  He has cleft lip/cleft palate—to our knowledge it has not been repaired.  We are submitting our LOI (Letter of Intent) today, 3/27/13.  He was found abandoned one year ago today.  Yes, indeed, God is gracious!!!!!