Our little girl was born on Feb.22, 2010 and was picked up from the gate of the nurses office by a police officer in Qingyang city on april 22, 2010. She was about 2 months. She was found in a red sweater, wrapped with a pink quilt outside. The police then reported her to the police station. After investigation but failed attempts to find the birth parents-the picker respectively issued birth certificates for picking up abandoned baby. After examination and approval by the Welfare Institute of Qingyang City-she was agreed to be admitted. She has been raised by the Welfare Institute of Qingyang City to this day. A physical exam was done and results were fairly normal-although she is very small and has a deformity of the right ear (actually one ear is small and low set and the other is larger and is pinned out-we will take her to a specialist when she gets home). They say she can follow noises and likes to smile. They say she responds to her name.
We have her medical exams and will just continue to trust God with her overall development. We know that at about 9 months old-she was about 11 pounds. We have her updated weight of about 15 pounds at 14 months old. She will be about 17 months by the time we bring her home! Please pray that our travel approval will come soon so that we can begin knowing more of our exact travel dates-we should find those out in June hopefully so we can better plan what our July might look like! I think of her birth mom often and pray for her as well-I know she made a tough decision to give this child up. We pray that each and every day someone would rock or hold her. Please join us in praying the same for our baby Belle.
It's Official!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Bringing Belle Home
We began our adoption journey last June but the journey to meet our little girl began over 20 years ago in my heart. It feels a little strange for me to be writing my first blog as I am new to this whole blogging world! I am not even sure where to begin! I want to give a quick re-cap of this past year and then fast forward to where we are now-within weeks away of going overseas...
Tim and I have been attending adoption meetings, conferences, and had our atennae's up for the past several years-mostly just gathering information and walking alongside and learning from friends who had gone before us. We finally decided to take the plunge last year and in faith-at least start the "home study" phase. We had learned about a wonderful gal/social worker at Catholic Charities that several of our friends had used for their home study and so we jumped in and began with the meetings/process. For most of the summer-we plowed through gathering information, ordering files, going to the doctor, and having several meetings with our social worker. At the end of this time-it was time to declare a country and make a decision as to what Agency (out of hundreds) we were going to use. This all felt very overwhelming to me because there was so much to learn and we did not have clarity for months. We are thankful that as we researched and talked to others-it all began crystal clear. The Pereira family was feeling more and more of a nudge to pursue China Special Needs (we had begun looking towards Central/Latin/South America and several doors closed there). We knew there was a huge orphan needs in China but we also looked at the various factors involved with having 4 other small kids at home (like how much time required for travel and how many trips). It has been such a joy to hear the kids get super excited at the thought of having another sibling-Anna Caroline can hardly wait to have a sister she can play dress up with(and smear makeup on!)
In September of 2010-we began making our application to America World and we were accepted into the Special Needs China Program (average wait time for a referral was about was a few months). We hit it off with our family coordinator over the phone and we began the long grueling process of the dossier. In the beginning-it was like reading Greek and we did not have our system down yet. I truly thought I was going to pull my hair out! Then-I talked to several experts who helped me get a good system for keeping track of the paperwork and get the system working. Thankfully-Tim was a champion at helping me locate records, going down to get fingerprinted, and mulling through the paperwork. Our pediatrician was amazing at helping us fill out the medical needs part. We prayerfully had a lot to consider. Our goal was to get the dossier done by the holidays and we turned it in officially before Christmas! Whew-that was a load off for us! Then-the WAITING PERIOD began. WE could NOT believe it! Just 60 days later on Feb. 15-our family coordinator called one afternoon and I was NOT expecting the call at all. It was a time a crazy time of the day when all of this kids had just gotten home from school and mayhem was about to start in the kitchen with after school snacks. The COOL part is that my cousin and Aunt had just driven in the day before to Nashville for the Antiques and Garden show so they were here when i got the call and received the electronic file. I called Tim immediately and asked if he could come home quickly straight from work. I shed tears of joy with my aunt and walked around the house for an hour or two in a daze before I went down to help my cousin get set up for her booth at the show. It was a night I will never forget. I could hardly eat, sleep, or believe this was really happening.
Since our referral in February-we have been filling out loads of paperwork for our travel and visa. We have been working with the travel department at America World to learn all we can before we go in 2 months! They are anticipating our dates to be 2 weeks in July but we will not know those dates until a few weeks before. We have sent one care package to Baby Belle on her first B-day which is in Feb. 22 and we are about to send our second care package with lambie's and toys and a translated letter from our family. I hope she gets it! We are dying to be with her-the weeks have felt long waiting to pick her up BUT we feel so close now! We hope you will pray for her with us. I feel all of 8 months pregnant emotionally right now and ready to have this new child. Pray that someone is rocking her. Pray that our travel arrangements and childcare arrangements will fall into place. Tim and I plan to leave all the kids home with grandparents and sitters/friends but that will be a long time to be away from them. I want to soak in each moment with Tim and this experience when we are in China. thanks for joining the journey with us!
Tim and I have been attending adoption meetings, conferences, and had our atennae's up for the past several years-mostly just gathering information and walking alongside and learning from friends who had gone before us. We finally decided to take the plunge last year and in faith-at least start the "home study" phase. We had learned about a wonderful gal/social worker at Catholic Charities that several of our friends had used for their home study and so we jumped in and began with the meetings/process. For most of the summer-we plowed through gathering information, ordering files, going to the doctor, and having several meetings with our social worker. At the end of this time-it was time to declare a country and make a decision as to what Agency (out of hundreds) we were going to use. This all felt very overwhelming to me because there was so much to learn and we did not have clarity for months. We are thankful that as we researched and talked to others-it all began crystal clear. The Pereira family was feeling more and more of a nudge to pursue China Special Needs (we had begun looking towards Central/Latin/South America and several doors closed there). We knew there was a huge orphan needs in China but we also looked at the various factors involved with having 4 other small kids at home (like how much time required for travel and how many trips). It has been such a joy to hear the kids get super excited at the thought of having another sibling-Anna Caroline can hardly wait to have a sister she can play dress up with(and smear makeup on!)
In September of 2010-we began making our application to America World and we were accepted into the Special Needs China Program (average wait time for a referral was about was a few months). We hit it off with our family coordinator over the phone and we began the long grueling process of the dossier. In the beginning-it was like reading Greek and we did not have our system down yet. I truly thought I was going to pull my hair out! Then-I talked to several experts who helped me get a good system for keeping track of the paperwork and get the system working. Thankfully-Tim was a champion at helping me locate records, going down to get fingerprinted, and mulling through the paperwork. Our pediatrician was amazing at helping us fill out the medical needs part. We prayerfully had a lot to consider. Our goal was to get the dossier done by the holidays and we turned it in officially before Christmas! Whew-that was a load off for us! Then-the WAITING PERIOD began. WE could NOT believe it! Just 60 days later on Feb. 15-our family coordinator called one afternoon and I was NOT expecting the call at all. It was a time a crazy time of the day when all of this kids had just gotten home from school and mayhem was about to start in the kitchen with after school snacks. The COOL part is that my cousin and Aunt had just driven in the day before to Nashville for the Antiques and Garden show so they were here when i got the call and received the electronic file. I called Tim immediately and asked if he could come home quickly straight from work. I shed tears of joy with my aunt and walked around the house for an hour or two in a daze before I went down to help my cousin get set up for her booth at the show. It was a night I will never forget. I could hardly eat, sleep, or believe this was really happening.
Since our referral in February-we have been filling out loads of paperwork for our travel and visa. We have been working with the travel department at America World to learn all we can before we go in 2 months! They are anticipating our dates to be 2 weeks in July but we will not know those dates until a few weeks before. We have sent one care package to Baby Belle on her first B-day which is in Feb. 22 and we are about to send our second care package with lambie's and toys and a translated letter from our family. I hope she gets it! We are dying to be with her-the weeks have felt long waiting to pick her up BUT we feel so close now! We hope you will pray for her with us. I feel all of 8 months pregnant emotionally right now and ready to have this new child. Pray that someone is rocking her. Pray that our travel arrangements and childcare arrangements will fall into place. Tim and I plan to leave all the kids home with grandparents and sitters/friends but that will be a long time to be away from them. I want to soak in each moment with Tim and this experience when we are in China. thanks for joining the journey with us!
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