Big News!!

Well... we have some big news! We have officially received and accepted a referral for a little girl in China! Her name is BeiLei Song and she is 15 months old. Our family could not be more excited! God is AWESOME!

On Sunday, May 1st at 9:15pm my cell phone rang. It was our agency rep. Our facilitator had found us a match. My heart sank into my stomach and I started shaking! I started waving at Josh who was on the sofa watching the breaking news about Osama Bin Laden. It was quite a moment. We could not believe that in just 4 short months since we switched to China - we would see a photo of our precious daughter. That moment seemed to last forever!

Laidyn was found abandoned near a railroad in a pavilion at the crossing of two streets in Hangzhou, China - that is our understanding. We are hoping to get some clarification on this in the future. She was estimated to be four months old when found and was given the birthday February 28, 2010. We have received information on her growth at 4 months, 7-9 months and a small bit of info at 14 months. She is a chunky monkey weighing in at 20 pounds sometime in early April. Wow - she's growing! Based on all of her medical charts and the opinions of the doctors we consulted (and there were many) they all think she is growing and developing beautifully!

Laidyn's Special Needs: you all know that the program we are in is a special focus program. Laidyn was placed in this pool of children for two reasons. She has a very light strawberry mark on her belly. The mark does seem to be superficial and is lighting up each month. :) She also has a minor heart defect. This is why it took us a few days to gather all of the info, have dr.'s review and make our decision. After consulting with three pediatricians, two nurses, and three cardiologists - they all had the same diagnosis - NOT A MAJOR HEART ISSUE! They were all confident in the fact that she is a healthy little girl! We will see our pediatric cardiologist as soon as Laidyn is home to triple check everything. Please pray that Laidyn stays healthy and we get to her soon! So... on Josh's Bday - May 3rd we accepted the offer to adopt this precious angel!

Now the emotional part: There are so many things that took place from April 26th - May 3rd! On April 26th I had a breakdown in my bathroom while alone in the house. I had been praying a great deal that week and it continued that day. I was to the point where I didn't understand why this was taking so long, why these precious angels have to wait to join loving, caring families. I cried and cried and asked God to just help me to understand. I told Him that I knew I was a strong and faithful person but that I was getting to my emotional breaking point. I was as honest in my prayer as I have ever been and I truly felt like I could not go one more day with this on my heart. The next night Noah and Brennan were putting something up in Laidyn's room and we started talking about the adoption. Of course I started to cry. I told them I didn't know when Laidyn would be here and I didn't know why it was taking so long and Noah stopped mid-step, turned and looked at me and said "Mommy, she'll be here in God's time" and then walked out the door. Wow - what a moment! Two days later we received the call from the agency.

The next 48 hours were tough! Trying so hard to get enough evaluations on her condition to make sure we made the right decision. We honestly felt like she was our daughter the moment we opened the file, but our need to protect the boys and to make the best decision for a child who is half way across the world weighed on us. To make things worse, our pediatrician was out of town and there was no way to get in touch with her. I asked the nurse to forward Laidyn's file to another dr. my friend Julia uses. We were very upset that our trusted pediatrician would not be able to help. We only had 48 hours left to decide. The rest of Monday went by with no word. I cried myself to sleep because I felt lost and didn't know what to do. I woke the next morning and while getting ready in the bathroom I started praying - I basically asked God to slap me in the face with the answer and that I needed to know what he wanted me to do. At 7:15 am my cell phone rang and it was Betsy (my cousin in law and dear friend)... she was calling to tell me that her sister had literally run into a cardiologist at the hospital she works at and had him give her his opinion on Laidyn. For some reason, precious Gina called her sister Betsy at 6:30 in the morning to make sure Betsy forwarded me the info. God answering my prayer I think!

One hour and 40 minutes later my cell phone rang again. On the other end was Dr. Reed - our backup pediatrician. I thanked her desperately and apologized that she had to take time to help us since our pediatrician was gone. She said "Oh no problem - I'm actually glad she's not here." I was confused. She went on to tell me how both of her daughter's were born with minor heart defects. How they are both thriving at 14 and 16 years old. She had contacted her kids cardiologist and reviewed the file with him. She told me how she believes God puts things into place just as they should be and that her being the person to review the file was meant to be. Wow! I, of course, began to cry! We accepted Laidyn's file 20 minutes later!

I cannot begin to explain the humbling feeling I felt to stand in the presence of God's work! I have always felt blessed in my life - but this was so very different. There were no words, no thank you enough, no gesture I could make to show HIM my thanks. Just tears and more tears! I felt so unworthy to accept His amazing gift. We are thorns in His crown, but He loves us anyway. No words could be more true! Our family is a living, breathing example of God reaching down into our lives and working His wonders! Not by answering our prayers in our time and in the way we thought - but in His time and in His way! And wow - it's so much better!

Now we wait! Our estimated wait time until we travel is anywhere from 2 to 4 months. We do have some paperwork to do now but mostly we wait. We will try to get updated pictures soon and send Laidyn a care package 1 or 2 times before we travel. We ask for all of your prayers that everything goes smoothly from here on. God IS with us and IS watching over our daughter! Thanks to everyone for everything - your support and well wishes mean more to us than you will ever know.

Love - Kel, Josh, Brennan, Noah & Laidyn