Updates are what get us through this long wait..........

Adoption is a long grueling process with so many ups and downs and in most cases so many road blocks.  I don't know how to explain it but when you decide to adopt this other force does every thing in its power to stop the process or make you just want to throw in the towel. When all that happens these are a few quotes that I found that help....

"The moment you give up is usually the moment right before miracles happen. Don't give up!!"

and another...

"Everything you want is on the other side of fear!"

This is our third rodeo and it has been the hardest process yet. So many road blocks and so many fears and unknowns. But I know in my heart of hearts this is what we are suppose to be doing. So we press on and listen to God. 

We are 16 months into this third adoption and has seemed like an eternity. Now that we have our match and have a face and information to fall in love with, it seems to be crawling more and more slow. To me the updates you are able to receive is what keeps you pressing on. We have been blessed with a team of missionaries that are serving our daughter orphanage and loving on all the children. We have been able to see a few updated pictures of our baby girl and could not be more happy. She has gotten so big since our first updates that were back in October of 2014. We have been told she has a sweet disposition. She loves to go to the park and splash in the water and play in the sand. She really likes to look in the mirror and make silly faces at herself. She sucks her thumb to go to sleep, has two boys that are her friends, she is potty trained and is afraid of a stuffed frog!! (We will make sure we have no stuffed frogs laying around the house.)

Every update and every piece of information makes us fall more in love with her. We are counting down the days until we are on that plane (well not really on the plane) but until she is in our arms. It will be a joyous day for us and we know a heartbreaking day for her. Being our 3rd adoption we hope we have all the right tools to get her through this emotional process and attachment. We have decided to bring a couple of our other children on this trip too. With our past adoptions it has seemed to help the adopted child to have sibling along. Our oldest daughter still has some Mandarin so she has been practicing and will help us with translation. 

We hope to travel in August if not sooner. 

Now to share a few updated pictures we have received in the last couple of days.

She received our gifts we sent for her 3rd birthday. We were told she loved the Minnie mouse and talking photo album.  The album was a big hit not only with her but with all the nannies and other children as well. 

We are headed back to China!!!

Yes, you read that right. We are headed back to China! Most of you know that already if you follow us on FB.  We were matched with a beautiful baby girl last month May 2015. We were signed with Holt again for a third time and were working on our dossier. Our dossier took over a year to complete, there were so many road blocks this time but we kept pushing forward. 

I'm on the Waiting Child Advocacy FB page and in April 2015 I saw the face of a sweet little girl. Her face caught my attention right away because she looked so much like Ava. I found out she was with America World and sadly found out she was with a partnership of theirs so they could not transfer the file. We thought and prayed about it long and hard for about 2 weeks. At the end of that two weeks we came to the decision that this was our girl and decided to switch agencies. I will admit that it was not an easy decision. We love Holt and loved working with them for Ava and Gemma. I was afraid to tell them we were going to switch but at the same time afraid of another agency - not knowing them and how they tick. Sean called Holt and gave them the news and they were as sweet as could be. Even told us they would leave our application open in case something happened. After working with America World this last month, I'm happy to say we are very pleased and they have been amazing.

We found out after an update that our baby girl has a second special need, Thalassemia. Her blood levels are scary low so we have pushed forward with a medical expedite. She also has repaired Cleft lip and palate. We hope to be traveling the first part of August to bring her home. 

Just a little more info on her. She is from Shaanxi and she will be 3 years old this July. She is 9 months younger than our current youngest, Rowen. So for 3 months out of the year we will have two 3 year olds. We have lots of picture and a video and she seems like a real sweetheart. We are naming her Pepper Philomena. 

We are beyond excited to be adding to our family again. Rowen is so excited to have a roommate soon and someone his age. I pray that they will be best buddies and get along more than fight. ha

On our trip to Ch*na, Gemma, Keaton and Rowen will be traveling with us. Ava is so happy to be staying with her crib mate Hannah in California while we are gone. Her family will take us to the airport and pick us up on our return home. The older boys will be staying home and holding down the fort there. Our sweet doggie Cooper will be staying with Nana and Papa. 

So without further ado here is our sweet Pepper or we think maybe a little spicy too!

We are over the moon in love with this sweet baby that we have not even met yet.