Merry Christmas Baby Hendricks!

So I am sitting here the evening of Christmas reflecting on all our blessings.  I will admit that yesterday morning I started off a little on the melancholy side.  I had been listening to the Third Day song "Merry Christmas" and couldn't stop thinking of our little man halfway around the world.  Just knowing the family fun, celebrations and memories that would happen over these few days without our new Son finally got the best of me.  My arms ached to hold him.  That's my baby.  From the moment we said "yes" he will forever more be our Son and frankly I want him home.  But God came through for me as he always does.  Yesterday I had 3 completely separate instances where this exact same verse was put in front of me (once at work, once on someone else's Facebook post and again at the Christmas Eve service at Church).

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 


I get it, I really do, all in His time.  So onward we go.  Our fundraisers continue, we rearrange rooms and sort clothes all in preparation for this new little life that will be joining our family.  It may not be when I am ready for it, but I know that it will happen at exactly the right time b/c His plans are never wrong.  So for now Merry Christmas Baby Hendricks!  Papa, Mama, Big Brother and fur baby Baxter can't wait to celebrate Christmas with you next year and every year after.

Fundraisers!! Puzzle Pieces and Coffee

We are currently running two fundraisers.  One is at www.justlovecoffee.com/hendricksadoption   They have AMAZING organic coffee, hot chocolate, mugs and apparel.  The best part is that they have graciously offered to give a generous portion of their profits to our adoption fund.  So if you are looking for that last minute Christmas gift, Birthday gift or just a tasty cup of coffee you should stop by and check it out.

Secondly, we are in the process of doing a Puzzle Fundraiser.  We have a 104 piece puzzle.  Each piece is worth $10, and for each piece you sponsor, we will put your name on the back of that puzzle piece.  If you sponsor 5 pieces you can also pick a favorite quote or Bible verse to be included with your name.  This puzzle will be a cherished family heirloom, and will hang in our dining room.  It will be mounted so that the boy's can see both sides of the puzzle and the names of the people who had a hand in the life story God is weaving for our family.  The picture we chose was important as it was taken on our first trip to China.  This s a way to represent both our Son's adoptions as well as our love of China within our home.  Are you still looking for Christmas, Birthday or Anniversary presents?  What about just saying Thank You to your parents?   What better way to honor them then by sponsoring a piece in their name!!  Please email us at hendricksadoption@hotmail.com if you would like information on sponsoring a puzzle piece.  Also don't forget to join our Bringing Home Baby Hendricks Facebook Page!

Here is what the puzzle looks like put together.  Only 79 pieces left!!!!

An UPDATE!!!!!

So we are on day 25 of our LOA wait.  Unfortunately these seem to be taking somewhere in the 70 is day range right now so we are not even halfway there yet : (  On a good note, we got an unexpected update today.  He is now 25 inches and has 2 teeth!!!!  He looks like he is getting great care with his Foster Family and we are so grateful that he is with them and can get more one on one attention.

AHHHH, the cuteness is just too much!!!  He is adorable!  Love!!  I can't wait to get ahold of those cheeks.

THE CALL!!!!!

Monday November 3, 2014 started out like any other day.  Mark left for work and I took Konnor to Preschool.  That is where the day starts to vear off course.  I had no sooner clocked in at work and my phone started ringing.  The school Nurse said I had to pick Konnor up b/c he had fallen (running, imagine that : ) and hit his head.  Let me start out by saying that Konnor was perfectly fine.  So since we were stuck at home that day we decided to go exploring.  It was a perfect fall day so we went to the walkway and started on a beautiful fall walk complete with sticks, mud, leaves and bugs.  Now I should say that I knew our agency was expecting a few files sometime that week, but honestly it was 1100 and I thought they surely would have called by now if they were going to so I put it out of my mind.  At least until my phone started ringing at 1130 am.  In a surprisingly calm voice I answer to hear my caseworker tell me, "this is the call you have been waiting for."

I really can't explain how I felt in that moment.  I swear my heart just stopped.  Something in me just knew this was the file (we have already reviewed 2 files this year only to find they were not our child-but they did find their families so all is good).  I just KNEW!, but with our past experiences this year I just held myself in check.  I couldn't let myself get to excited, b/c then what happens if Mark doesn't feel the same way or something is going on with the medical that we don't think we can handle.  Regardless, Konnor and I piled into the car and drove to Mark's work to show him pictures of what could possibly be his next Son.

Of course we both thought the little was cute as cute can be so we started sending his file off to our medical professionals.  The agency had mentioned that this little guy had a cleft lip/palate and was a little anemic, but what Mama found upon obsessive Nurse Mama reading of the file was that he was also a preemie weighing somewhere between 2.5-3 lbs at birth and he was more than a little bit anemic.  Our first medical reviewer got back to us that night.  We talked a lot about the prematurity and what to expect and where he was based on our given information, but overall things looked pretty good.

Tuesday was a big deal b/c this precious little one who I was obsessively thinking about turned one year old on Tuesday November 4 (Happy Birthday Little Man!!).  Of course the Mama in me wanted to send our letter of intent to adopt on his birthday b/c seriously what better birthday present, but we were still waiting on our International Adoption Dr. to get back to us and it really is best to make sure you have all the informations (says my practical husband : ).  So we waited.

On Wednesday we got 14 more pictures !!!!!!! and 3 more videos!!!!!!!  Ahhhh!!!  The way they do things now is different from when we got Konnors referral and there is a lot more information available.  For Konnor we only had 6 pictures the entire times.  This little guy we already have 20 pictures and 5 videos.  Anywhoo, he looked so much bigger in the new updated pictures.  We also found out that he was moved to Foster Care which is huge b/c he will learn how it is to live in a family setting and get much more one to one attention.  We still hadn't heard back from our IA Dr. but based on the new information we felt comfortable moving forward and as I sat down Wed. night to write an email to our agency explaining that we wanted to proceed with the adoption when we got sucker punched.  We got an email back from our IA Dr. stating that she had a couple concerns with the file and was going to consult a specialist colleague of hers and get back to us.  I will be honest.  I sobbed and sobbed.  Mark tried his best to comfort me, but if what she was suspecting was accurate we would not be able to proceed with the adoption.  It would be way out of our wheel house of needs we would be able to manage.  I just KNEW this was our baby.  I knew without a doubt that this sweet face was our Son.  It was a rough night.  I reached out and found some adoptive Mama's who have children with this need and our agencies advocate was able to contact our agencies in China coordinator to ask a couple key questions about this little guy.  I have to tell you that being apart of the adoption community is like nothing else.  The support from other adoptive parents, some of whom we have never even met except online, is absolutely phenomenal.  I was also able to get in touch with a specialist to review the file separately from our IA Dr.'s colleague.  (yep, I am a little crazy over information gathering anal)

So Thursday dawned and we were blessed to get a some information back from the in China coordinator and from the specialist I had reached out to.  It was all good.  That evening the IA Dr. personally called me to review his file.  How awesome is that!!  She explained in great detail the conclusions they had come to and why they had come to those conclusions.  Once again it was good. Like any child, whether biological or adoptive, there is always the unknown.  There is unknown with our own health.  That being said, with the information we have we feel truly like we are capable of dealing with whatever may happen, but even more importantly we know this is our Son and we would go to the stars for him.  So on November 7, 2014 we sent our Letter of Intent to Adopt to our agency and received Pre-Approval to adopt.  We are now waiting on our paperwork to be translated and final approval so we can proceed with the next steps of the adopt.  We are hoping to travel in March to bring this little guy home.  So without further ado, here is the newest member of the Hendricks family (don't ask me his name b/c just like with Konnor it is probably going to take us months to agree on something).

One Day

Have you ever thought about what a difference a day can make?  I mean really thought about it.  One moment you are a daughter/son/friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/coworker just going about your daily life and then suddenly you are a Wife/Husband/Mother/Father/In-Law/Boss, etc...  and all of a sudden your entire life course is taking a turn.  Maybe a good turn, maybe a less desired turned, but you are altered regardless.  It isn't always the big monumental moments that will change your course either.  Sometimes it is the little things.  The patient that hugs you and says "I Will Miss You" that makes you realize that it's not just a job.  Holding the door for an older couple and being reminded to be grateful for every day with your spouse.  These may be small moments, but they can have big impacts just the same.

In our house there were a lot of moments this week.  Giant Big Ones and small ones.  It has been a week that truly brings new meaning to "What A Difference A Day Can Make."  So I encourage you to embrace today.  Love every single moment of it.  I know I will.

LID LID LID!!!!

Our caseworker emailed that as of today we are LID (Log In Date)!!!  Yay!!!  That means that as of today China officially has our paperwork and will begin the translation process.  We are officially just waiting on The Call about our little one.

In celebration of this huge step we are going to up the stakes on our Polar Express Ticket giveaway (please see below post for specific details, visit the Bringing Home Baby Hendricks Facebook page or email at hendricksadoption@hotmail.com )  From now until 8 pm tomorrow 10/28/14 we are offering double entries for anyone who purchases tickets!!!!   That means:
$5 = 6 entries
$10 = 14 entries
$20 = 30 entries
$30 = 60 entries
$50 = 120 entries (That is crazy!!)

Ready........Set.......Go..........

http://www.mrym.org

ALL ABOARD!!!!

Polar Express Tickets!!

A raffle will take place on Thursday November 6 at 7 pm with the winner to receive 4 Polar Express Tickets. These tickets are for the Saturday, November 29, 2014 6 pm Polar Express Ride at the Monticello Railway Museum. (value $120).

**A second place winner will receive a NEW 50 piece Thomas the Train TrackMaster set with one TrackMaster train. A perfect Christmas gift for your little train enthusiast. (value $45)

-Chances may be bought in the following increments with Cash, Check (bounced checks will result in a forfeit of chances), or Paypal-email us for address as it is different from the address below.
$5 = 3 entries
$10= 7 entries 
$20 = 15 entries 
$30= 30 entries 
$50= 60 entries

ALL PROCEEDS from this raffle will benefit the Hendricks Family Adoption fund. Please contact us at hendrickadoption@hotmail.com  for entry information, you can also visit our FB page Bringing Home Baby Hendricks.  When emailing please include first and last name, phone number and email so that we may contact you if you win.  We can email you payment information once you have contacted us.  

We Are DTC!!!!!

My caseworker emailed me this morning and right at this very second our documents are on their way to China!!!!  Yay!!!!  This has been 10 months in the making, but it all feels like a blink right now.  I can't believe we are finally Dossier To China (DTC).  Our agency anticipates that China will give them confirmation of receiving our documents in about a week which is called a Log In Date (LID).  Yes, there are a lot of acronyms in the adoption world : )  Getting a LID is exciting, but essentially right now we are just waiting on THE CALL, I mean the one where my caseworker says she has pictures of the future baby Hendricks.  We have had so many setbacks along that way that I was starting to lose my excitement for this whole process, but now it is back in full swing and I am mentally decorating a baby room.  I will keep everyone posted.  Keep an eye out b/c we have a very exciting fundraiser starting later this week!

It's Out Of My Hands, EEK!

Hooray, the Chinese Consulate in Chicago accepted and authenticated all of our documents.  Whew!  So our documents were to be returned to us on Wed.  I am so thankful that I have recently adjusted my work schedule so that I can take Konnor to Preschool or there would have been a major catastrophe waiting when I got home that day.  So as Konnor and I walk out the door for Preschool at 755 I see our newly delivered documents on our front stoop.  Our wet, b/c it has rained for 2 days and is going to rain all day, front stoop.  Thankfully only the package was wet and a little crinkling to the tops of the documents, but no water stains.  Can you imagine if they had sat on our front step all day (mind you if the delivery person had walked another foot the documents would have been on our large covered front porch).  I just can't even think about it.

So Wed. night I copied and stapled until 11 pm.  This morning I handed 10 months of blood (ok maybe just a few paper cuts), sweat and many, many tears over to a nice man at the post office.  Side Note: you may spend to much time at the post office when the staff notices that you are anxious when sending documents away.  I mean I was seriously shaking.  Unless you have been through the process it is hard to understand, but at this point in time that pile of paperwork is my family.  That pile of paperwork will be my next child.  I am not carrying them around inside me protecting them, and so I have to hand over these life altering documents to a stranger and pray that they take care with them.  IT IS HARD!  I really just want to drive them to my agency myself, then fly them personally to China and put them directly in the hands of the person that will translate them and give the thumbs up.  Instead I put my faith in God to prepare the way for our next child to come home.

What is next??  Our agency will get our all completed documents on Monday, probably Tuesday or Wed.  they will be on their way to China.  Once China accepts our documents we will be issued an LID (Log In Date) and our agency will officially be given permission to match us will a child.  Our agency is hoping that they will have a match for us within a month so fingers crossed.  Until then I will just jump every time my phone rings so don't be offended if I sound disappointed when I answer the phone : )

Don't forget to stop by our fundraiser for organic coffee and hot chocolate, mugs and shirts   www.justlovecoffee.com/hendricksadoption    and stay tuned b/c we have a great fundraiser that will be starting very soon for all those train lovers out there.

Authentications

Now that we have our Immigration approval we need to get our paperwork authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.  This is the last step prior to being Dossier to China.  So last Thursday, like every other adoptive parent to be, I was quadruple checking my paperwork before sending it off to Chicago on Friday, you know, like checking that notary dates match the dates on the letter, there are no smudges on the notary stamps, notary names are spelled correctly, etc, etc, etc....  Yes, we really do have to triple check this stuff.  Don't ask me how I missed this the first 800 times I checked my paperwork, but I realized at 9 pm that night that some our of documents were close to expiring.  I mean like days away from expiring!  The Chinese Consulate in Chicago requires that certain forms, ex: medical forms, marriage certificates, etc..., be less than 6 months old.  HOW DID I MISS THIS!!!  Had all our paperwork gone as planned (or even remotely close to as planned) we would have been Dossier to China in August.  Most of our forms were done prior to our first home study visit the first two weeks of April, which means they will be expiring the first two weeks of October.  I just had the August dates stuck in my head and didn't factor in all the paperwork delays we have experienced.  AHHHHHH!!!!

So I raced to ask the question on a Facebook group, "will they still accept my documents or do I need to completely redo them?"  Just thinking about having to redo about half our paperwork had me more than a little upset.  I got some very good advice and promptly emailed the courier we use in Chicago. I detailed what each document was and the date it was issued.  She responded quickly on Friday morning and said if I could get her the documents by Saturday (don't even ask me how much that shipping fee was--Yikes), then she could submit them on Monday and she felt like we would be okay with the forms.  So Friday morning I raced to get the last two forms certified, then made copies, then Mr. UPS was so helpful when I said "this HAS to be in Chicago tomorrow."  Mind you it was about 1230 on Friday already.  Bless his sweet heart, he looked at the stack of paperwork, then at this harried Mama and said " adoption paperwork?"  YES!!!  Someone who gets it, Thank You Lord for this small miracle.  So he took care of stuffing my 1.3 lbs of paperwork (yes that is how much it weighed : ) into a small little envelope and getting everything ready so all I had to do, besides corral a 3 year old who was not amused that Mama wouldn't let him play on the conveyor belt, was sign on the dotted line.  Phew!  And you know what???  Our package was delivered to the courier at 810 am on Saturday.  Worth every stinkin penny!  She emailed me this evening and said she dropped everything off at the Consulate and will pick it up on October 13th.  So now we are just offering up some prayer that they will in fact accept all our almost expired documents.  Almost there, almost there, almost there.....

APPROVED!!!!

I know I haven't posted much lately.  There is a two part reason for that, 1) there really wasn't much to say since we were just waiting on immigration approval and 2) I was crazy stressed and struggling with my attitude.  For a couple weeks it just felt like we were being attacked on each tiny step of this process.  All of our paperwork and approval's seem to take longer than anyone else's and every time I thought I had all the paperwork I needed I would find out that we needed yet another thing printed, notarized or certified.  To say I was very frustrated would be an understatement.  I know that really it is just a stall b/c our baby is not ready for us yet, but I really needed to move on to the next step to feel like we were making progress.   I was also feeding off of some other people's negative attitudes and letting it affect me which I usually try really hard to avoid. No worries though since I have completely realigned my outlook and attitude (trust me Mark and Konnor are VERY grateful for my new calmer self).  So now it's time to move on to the really good news.....

Our I-800a (Immigration Approval) came in the mail today!!!!  WhoooHooo!  This is the last piece of paperwork needed before we can send all our paperwork to the Chicago Chinese Consulate for authentication.  I will be doing this later this week and then the next step after that is Dossier To China (DTC)!  That means that all our paperwork will be headed to China and they will start the translation process.  It also means that our agency will start looking for the next member of the Hendricks family!   Stay tuned as we will have more frequent updates in the coming month.

Moving along....

So this week Mark and I both walked into the St. Louis immigration office and had our new set of fingerprints done.  Now that USCIS has our fingerprints we are just waiting on the official approval letter to come in the mail.  This is very exciting as it is the last piece of paperwork we need before all of our paperwork goes to China.  Yipppeee!!!  We are hoping to get approval in about 10-14 days.  Then we will send all of our paperwork to the Chinese Embassy in Chicago for authentication and it will be off to the agency.  At that point we will officially be DTC (Dossier To China).  Once our paperwork is in China our agency will start looking for baby Hendricks!!!!  Ahhhhhh!!!!  That means we could be seeing pictures of our little one in a month.  Wow, that really caught up with me.  Thankfully with a 3 year old already at home I haven't been able to obsess with this adoption as much as I did with the last adoption so it seems to be going faster in my mind.

On another front we also found out today that whatever issue there was with Mark's birth certificate seems to be resolved, b/c they picked his up from the Embassy today and had no difficulty at all getting it authenticated.  I just can't even begin to tell you how big of a relief it was to get that phone call.  So this weekend I will review all our paperwork once more before taking several items to get state certifications next week.  It is hard to believe we are getting to close.  Now if only I could get Mark to start talking baby names : )

Immigration, part 1

On Thursday August 7 we received confirmation that USCIS (Immigration) had received our application and would begin processing it.  It seems that this step of the process is taking anywhere from 30-50 days right now.  We are waiting on a letter from them that will tell us to go down to St. Louis and get fingerprinted.  We are hoping to walk in early for the fingerprint appointment, but it really all depends on our schedules since Konnor will be starting preschool next week.  Really nothing to do but wait for the approval at this point.  The immigration approval is the last piece of paperwork we need before we can be Dossier to China and possibly see pictures of our precious little one.  Hoping it goes quickly.

On other news I talked to a courier in D.C. and they are having difficulty getting Mark's type of birth certificate approved through the Embassy of China.  Sigh....I was hoping we wouldn't have to deal with this again.  We just received Mark's new birth certificate from the Dept. of State in the mail this weekend and I am sending it to the courier today so they can start working on getting it authenticated.  We have a back up plan in place if we can't get the form approved (basically the same as we did with Konnor's adoption), but we would prefer to just get the correct form authenticated and move on.  It will be the end of next week before we hear anything on this front.

Lastly, I am working on getting all our paperwork certified and authenticated for our dossier.  The hope is that we can get this all done in the next few weeks so that once immigration approval comes we can expedite that form and get our paperwork sent off to China for approval.  Baby steps.

Approved!!!

3 months to the day after our last home study visit and we FINALLY have an approved home study by the State of Illinois!!!  Yay!!!!  Can you feel my excitement.  I mean that wait was awful.  Apparently there was some wording that needed changed and our awesome social worker emailed and faxed everything needed (all while on vacation).  Seriously we love our Social worker, she is awesome!  So that means that tomorrow morning Konnor and I (Mark will be at Guard) will take our home study and completed I-800a immigration forms to the post office and have then sent off to USCIS.  Currently this next step is taking anywhere from 30-60 days.  In a couple weeks we will go get more fingerprints done, this time for immigration b/c you know we haven't already had 2 sets of fingerprints done and 3 background checks : )  Ok I am being a bit snarky, but really I am just so excited to be able to move on to the next step.  This week was hard for me as I was starting to get very discouraged by our lack of movement on this adoption.  I just keep reminding myself that all these little setbacks are just God's way of making sure our paperwork is ready when our baby is ready  for us (It's possible He knows I am impatient and would jump at the chance to have any of the little ones I see people advocate for as a son/daughter so he is finding ways to stall my enthusiasm a bit : )  Regardless, we are on to the next step now and will (hopefully) be seeing pictures of the next baby Hendricks in 6-8 weeks.

Yay!!!! Happy Friday everyone!!

Sigh.....

So not really much to report.  I called to check on the status of our home study and I could tell our poor Social Worker was reluctant to tell me.  Apparently the one she sent with ours came back almost 10 days ago and a couple she sent after ours has already come back approved.  No idea why ours is still waiting.  She sent an email to DCFS to check the status, but she hasn't heard back yet.  Maybe I will get the approval letter in the mail today?!?!  Hey, a girls gotta dream right.

We are also still waiting on the Department of State to get us back Mark's new copy of his birth certificate.  No idea why that is taking so long either since I included the postage for overnight delivery and they already cashed our check, but the good news is that they did cash our check so they did process the request.  We had sent for this in May and it took them 3 1/2 weeks to send it back to us to say they wanted different information.  So we should be getting that any day.

So we still wait.  I am surprisingly calm right now.  I know from our first adoption that all these little setbacks just mean that OUR baby is not ready for us yet.  (feel free to remind me of this particular paragraph once we are matched and in the long approval wait from China--I will need it.)

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

Where are we now???

So once I finally decided to stop trying to stall this adoption I attacked the paperwork with a vengeance.  During the month of April and the first week of May we had 1 in person training session, 1 home inspection, 2 interviews at the agency office, 3 physical, fingerprints and filled out stacks of paperwork (I mean STACKS!).  We had out last interview for the home study the first week of May.  It took 3 weeks for us to get a draft to review and approve and then another 3 weeks after that for our social worker and agency to rewrite and edits and approve it again.  Currently our home study is with DCFS for approval (in Illinois all adoption home studies have to be approved from the state : )  They have had it for 2 weeks and 3 days, not that I am counting or anything.  We are hoping to get our home study back this week so that we can send off our next set of paperwork which is for immigration.

About 10 days ago I was browsing an advocacy site and found a woman talking about her birth certificate not be authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in D.C.  This raised a red flag with me, b/c  if you will remember with Konnor's adoption we had a HUGE problem with Mark's birth certificate.  Well come to find out this woman does have the same birth certificate as Mark.  Long story short, Mark was a military kid born overseas and his birth certificate come from the Department of State.  Apparently there is a disagreement between the DOS and the Chinese Embassy regarding a signature on this form.  Really!?!  You would think after 3 years they could get this issue fixed.  Anywhooo, it seems that some peoples forms are not being approved, but somehow others are getting theirs to go through.  So we are currently waiting on the DOS to get us a new copy of his birth certificate and we will immediately send it for authentication.  I am trying not to stress about this, b/c I know that it will all work out exactly as God has planned, most days this works.

So that is where we are right now.  At present we are just waiting, but things are moving along.  Feel free to stop by our current fundraiser at www.justlovecoffee.com/hendricksadoption for wonderful (and I do mean it is yummy) organic fair trade coffee, hot chocolate and apparel.

Go and Go Now!

If you had asked us last Fall our plan was that by Fall 2014 we would be baby steps starting the adoption process again.  Towards the end of 2013 we started to feel the pull to start the adoption process again, but once again decided that we just were not ready.  Emotionally, Physically and most definitely Financially we were not ready, so once again it was put on the back burner.  The beginning of January our adoption agency posted that they were offering a reduced sign up fee.  We decided to sign up (I mean in an adoption you have to save money anywhere you can right?), but still did not plan on starting the process until, at the earliest, Summer.  I filled out the form and when I got to the part where it asks for references I seriously think I had my first ever anxiety attack.  At this point Konnor was really struggling with sleep and I just couldn't, I mean ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT handle another child until we got these sleep issues under control.  If I put peoples names on this paper they would call them and then what would happen.....we would be adopting again and I just was not there yet.  So......back burner again.  This was about the 2-3rd week of January.  I prayed and prayed and prayed.  I very frankly told God that if he wanted us to do this then he was just going to have to smack me in the face with it, b/c I was not ready!  Well, let's just say it is not wise to give the man upstairs ultimatums.

So here we are just a few days before the end of January.  I am at work on lunch break browsing my email/FB and BOOM!  I saw the face of the most beautiful little girl.  She just took my breath away.  I came up with all the reasons for me to not even  read why our agency was advocating for her, 1)she is older than we were considering and would only be 1 year younger than Konnor and almost 3 by the time she came home, 2) she had a neurological condition that I could't even pronounce let alone know what it is or how this would effect her long term.  3) Hello, see above, I was not ready!!!  Despite all these perfectly logical arguments I just could not get this little girl out of my head.  So here was my failsafe plan......Call Mark and explain the situation and he can be the one to tell me "No." Well guess what his response was......."see if the agency can put her file on hold and we will get it reviewed."  Ummmm, excuse me.  You were supposed to reign me in dear Husband of mine!

So we placed this little girl's file on hold and consulted Neurologists and Pediatricians to get an idea of what we would be dealing with and then we prayed.  After a week and much communication with our agency we still had many unanswered questions and decided that we were not the family for her.  We agreed to revisit her file if any new information became available, but at this time we did not feel equipped with the information we had to deal with the possible long term effects of this condition.  We decided to take God's not so subtle hint and start the adoption process again, slowly.  So the application went in and when I got the contract back I sat on it for 3 weeks before even looking at it.  I was back in "I'm not ready mode."  So once again God gave me a little nudge in the way of providing a glowing update on the little girl we had previously been considering.  Oh this made it soooo hard.  I still felt very drawn to this little girl, but after much discussion, prayer and heart searching I realized that my role was to help advocate and find her family, but that I was not meant to be her Mommy.  I cried and cried.  I felt like my heart was completely broken.  I knew she wasn't meant to be MY daughter, but I just couldn't stand that she was still waiting for a family.  Then at the beginning of April we got word that a family had in fact committed to bringing her home and making her their daughter.  I was overjoyed for her.

Even though God had made it perfectly clear to me that we were to get a move on with bringing our next little one home I managed to come up with one more stall tactic.  We didn't have the money for the home study.  Many of you know we have been working diligently on becoming a debt free home, and while we are a few years away from being completely debt free we had set certain expectations of where we would be financially before we would adopt again.  So it all came down to our taxes.  We had pre-let's start another adoption, decided exactly what we would use our tax money to pay off and that wouldn't leave us any money for a home study.  Didn't I mention above that you should not give God ultimatums?  Well I had kind of put it out there that if he could just get us through the home study I would sell, trade and fundraise my tush off to get us the rest of the way to our baby.  I just needed a starting point.  Well, our taxes came back and we would have, almost to the dollar, enough to pay off the things we had previously planned AND pay for our home study.  Okay God, I can take a not so subtle hint when I see one.  So from there I got to work.  Scheduling physicals, home study visits, filling out mounds of paperwork, fingerprints, etc.... and it's official, WE ARE ADOPTING AGAIN!  I figure this is long enough so I will fill you in on where exactly we are in the process in a few days, but I will leave you with this thought, if God is pushing you to do something stop resisting and Go.  Go and Go Now!  Because His plans are always the right plans and you can try resisting like I did, but in the end you will find so much peace in just listening and obeying.

Here we go again......

As many of you now know Mark and I have started the process to adopt our second child from China.    Here is the short list of commonly asked Q&A we have received since making this announcment:
1) Your going to get a girl this time right??
-We have absolutely no gender preference for our next child.  At the end of this process we will be blessed with a child and whether their room is pink or another shade of blue does not matter in the least to us.

2) Really?!? You're adopting special needs again?!?!
-Yes, we are choosing to adopt a child with special needs.  No, we are not superheroes.  We are just average people who are pushing outside our own comfort zones a little bit.  We have discussed at great length what special needs we feel we can handle and know that we are equipped to give a loving home to a child that may not otherwise have access to the medical care they need.

3) Why China?
-I get this question on a DAILY basis.  We have carefully examined all routes of adoption and while any adoption that ends in a child having a forever family is a good one, this was the path God laid out for our family.  That doesn't mean in the future we won't add to our family through other avenues of adoption, but for right now this is the right path for us.  I am more than happy to discuss in length the pros, cons and our reasons for choosing this path for our family with anyone that truly has an interest in adoption, but if you are just being nosy then you are going to have to accept my above level headed response.

4) When??
-If all our paperwork goes according to plan (which it hardly ever does, but Hey, one can always hope right : ) we should be seeing pictures of Baby Hendricks in August or Sept.  Our hope is that we will have our newest addition home sometime between December - March.  I know that is a pretty broad timeline, but I will explain it all as we go so it makes more sense as to why we don't know an exact "when" just yet.

5) How old will this child be when they come home?
-Mark and I want Konnor to stay the "Big Brother," so we have requested a child under the age of 2 at referral.  The youngest they would be when they come home is probably 11 months, leaning more towards the young toddler age.


These are just a few of the most common questions we have gotten regarding our adoption.  Please feel free to ask any questions.  With the next blog I will fill you all in on how we came to start the adoption process much earlier than we had originally anticipated