And our journey continues. While waiting to get information back on our little guy with the cleft lip, we were not feeling too optimistic. Again, we felt maybe it just wasn't meant to be. On October 18th, we received another email from our agency. They had another little boy just come available - another family had just pulled out their LOI (Letter of Intent) on this little guy - he was just 12 months old, and had a rough start to his life. He had been operated on when he was about 6 months old to remove a cyst on his forehead. One look at his photos though and we were smitten. He had the biggest grin and a twinkle in his eyes. We still needed our physician to review his file of course.
Our physician discussed with us the potential risks related to the surgery he had, but also indicated that he appeared to be developmentally on target and cute as a button. In the meantime, we also received the updated information on the other little guy as well. His updated photos, measurements, and video showed that any concerns our physician had about him were no longer concerns. So we had a tough decision to make.
Chris first brought up the idea of adopting them both. I thought he was crazy, and said "absolutely not". That only lasted about 24 hours. After some real soul searching and praying, the choice seemed simple - they were all three suppose to be our children, and we wondered if China would even let us adopt all three children. We are certain that God had a hand in bringing these two little boys into our lives.
Well, it took a lot of work, but after submitting our request, providing supporting documentation as to the benefits of adoption into our family, and busting our tail to get our dossier completed, we finally received the go ahead by the Chinese government to adopt three children. And we had committed to getting our dossier logged into China by November 21. We had alot of work yet to get done - getting all of our documents notarized, then certified at the Secretary of State, and finally sending them to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to be Chinese Authenticated.
With a hug sigh of relief, I overnighted our dossier to our agency on November 12 - given them plenty of time to get it reviewed, and in the courier to China on November 17. So the waiting continues - we should hear something in a week or so.
A bit about the Himsels
In July 2011, we were drawn to a posting by our adoption agency of a little girl that was soon to "age out" of the orphanage in China, and they were hoping to find her family before her birthday in February, when she would no longer be eligible for adoption. After reviewing the information, giving it alot of thought and prayers, we knew she was to be our daughter. So we started the paperwork chase to bring her home. But God had a bigger plan in mind for the Himsels. Along the way, we decided to pursue adopting a little boy, and that journey actually led us to two little boys, who are 18 months and 14 months old. All three children are located in the Guizhou province. We are excited to be so close to bringing home Ella (Jinglan), William, and Ethan, and we hope you follow along with our journey.
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