Another Picture of Caroline

This is another picture of our daughter. She is about 10 months old in this one. Isn't she cute?

Introducing Caroline XiaoXin

Because we had applied for a Special Needs Adoption, we knew that we could receive a referral sooner than we otherwise would. We still believed, however, that a referral would be months or even a year away.

When I saw America World's phone number on our Caller ID on June 28, I didn't think much about it. The voicemail message said that our Family Coordinator just wanted to go over our application with us. When I returned the call, our family coordinator began asking me about details of our application, making sure that it was up-to-date. The call seemed routine to me until she said, "I have a little girl to tell you about." When I finally understood that she was about to tell us about our new daughter, I quickly told Andy, who got the camera to take pictures of me on the phone. After we hung up, we ran to the computer to see the pictures of Hai Xiao Xin that our agency was about to e-mail to us. She was beautiful - as beautiful as Sarah Grace.

Our world was suddenly and joyfully turned upside down. We had no idea that this was coming. Trying to recover from the shock, we called several doctors that afternoon and began to pray for discernment. We also gathered a few friends to pray for us. As we grew more and more attached to this little girl, we waited to hear from the doctors. We expected to hear from them within 5 days but each of the doctors called the very next day. We appreciated their promptness because I don't know how we would have waited for 5 days. After the doctors gave us their opinions, we felt certain that God intended Hai Xiao Xin to be in our family. We called the adoption agency to officially complete the paperwork to bring Xiao Xin home.

After calling the agency, we got busy -- calling our families, creating packing lists, researching her medical condition, speaking with people who have visited her orphanage and choosing a name!

Caroline turned 1 on June 20. Her caretakers say that she loves to laugh. Her favorite activity is playing with other children and her favorite toys are colorful balls.

We hope to travel around October. We are all counting the days to meet Caroline. Sarah Grace is excited to be a big sister. She eagerly shows Caroline's picture to people, saying "This is Baby Xiao Xin. I'm her big sister."

Our next step is to wait for China to send our Travel Approval. This will probably take about 3 months. We are praying for speedy travel, for Caroline's health and for the bonding between us to be instantaneous. In fact, we pray daily that God is already revealing to Caroline who we are so that when we meet, she will feel safe and secure in our arms.

We never imagined what this Fall held for us. We know that God's timing is perfect and that His blessings are abundant.

Our Adoption Story

Before we were married, we had the opportunity to see a dance performance of 10 adopted Chinese-American girls at a local cultural festival. At that moment, God spoke to both of our hearts and told us that we would have daughters from China.

After our wedding, we began praying about how we should grow our family. Again and again, we felt God leading us to adopt from China. Not knowing if that meant that all of our children would be through adoption or not, we followed God's leading and applied for a Chinese adoption in Spring 2004.

In May 2005, we received a picture of Fu Ai Ye, whom we named Sarah Grace AiYe. We brought her home in July 2005. She is 2 1/2 now and a blessing beyond words to us.

In September 2006, we applied for our 2nd adoption. After much prayer, we decided to fill out an application for a Special Needs Adoption. When researching this, we discovered that there are many children categorized as Special Needs who have a more difficult time being adopted than healthy children. These Special Needs range from minor to more serious medical conditions. Many of these medical problems, while difficult to heal in China, can be easily cared for in U.S. hospitals.

Adoption has profoundly touched our lives. God reminds us that He adopted us into His family unconditionally simply because He loves us. Sarah Grace is a visual reminder to us of what God has done for us. We are passionate about the orphans around the world that God loves to place in families. Psalm 68:6 says, "God sets the lonely in families." We are thankful that God has allowed us the privilege of adoption and that before the beginning of time, He chose Sarah Grace and Caroline for our family. We pray that churches and Christians will be eager to care for orphans and that many will be led to experience the joy of adoption.