We have received our PA or pre-approval from China to adopt Cole. For anyone who understands the process of adopting from China you know the significance of the A's, there is
LOA - letter of acceptance - this is what we sent to China to say we wanted to adopt Cole
PA - pre-approval - China sends us
RA - referral acceptance - once China reviews all our paper work they send us this, and we can finally post his picture on here.
TA - travel approval - China telling us it is time to go get our boy.
So how much longer for all of the A's???
There is no exact time frame, but we are estimating 6 months from now - some days my heart can't bear it, other days I know we need this time to be ready - all in Gods timing!!
For those who have been asking, and have missed our adoption news here is a brief catchup on our journey to Cole so far. I know I have been slack in the blogging department over recent months, but life has been exceptionally busy, so not only has there not been time for laundry, there has also not been time for blogging - more of that in another post, and also an important Lily update coming tomorrow.
So back to Cole
It has now been almost a year (February) since Chris and I sat down in PF Chang's and seriously talked about adopting again. It was something that had been tugging on our hearts for several months - we knew God was calling us to step out in Him again and grow our family through adoption.
Of coarse we discussed all the fears we had, the reasons we shouldn't - cost of adoption, adding more busy to our lives, Lily's medical needs - this is not something to enter into lightly and we don't. Although all those things were valid reasons to not do it, we still knew this was what we wanted to do, desired to do, were supposed to do - our family was not complete. As soon as we made the decision to say "Yes" - sitting there at PF Chang's, Chris opened up his fortune cookie - we could not believe what it said
"do not be afraid to take the next step"
This statement has been a source of strength over the last year as we have navigated the ups and downs of the adoption roller coaster ride.
Within a few weeks we fell in love with a little boy in China, the journey began, and the paper chase began - background checks, physicals, fingerprinting, references, social work visits.
Then in August things came to a crashing halt - the little boy we had hoped to adopt, was no longer available for us to adopt. We were sad, we had been looking at his picture for 6 months, praying for him every night. It is complicated so I won't even try to explain, but he has been adopted and has a family - which for us is the most important thing. If he was not to be ours, at least we know he is being loved.
We decided to take a step back, and give ourselves some time to regroup.
Then in October we saw Shan Ji Lin "Cole" - and immediately felt a connection. We spent the next few weeks finding out more about him, asking for updates from China, and to our amazement we even got video clips of him - once again our hearts were falling in love. Sometimes it amazes me at the capacity we have to love a complete stranger, who we have only seen in a picture, or video!!
In November we said Yes to adopting Cole.
He is being named Coleman - for Chris's great grandfather, Walter - for my grandfather. He is 4 and will be 5 by the time he comes home.
I so wish I could show you a picture - he is a cutie - we are all so excited.
We appreciate all of your love and support of our family and this journey, keep checking back for updates, and fundraising opportunities if you would like to help bring our little man home.
