Gilbert, party of 4!

Finally!
Last Monday, December 1st, we received word that China had translated our dossier and approved us for our kids!
They are officially ours... now we just need to go get them!

I spent the majority of last Tuesday finishing up their immigration paperwork and got that sent in. We are currently working on travel documents and have our appointment set for our vaccinations in January. There is still a bunch of paperwork to fill out, but it's all in steps. (Can't do anything until the immigration is approved, and then can't do the next step until that previous step is approved...)

We still do not have travel dates, but they are estimating we will go early February. (Easton's birthday is Feb 18th, so pray we can get to him before that!) If we can't travel in early Feb we have to wait til March because Chinese New Year is Feb 19th.

Now the part you all have been waiting for... pictures! We are finally allowed to show their pictures. The pictures we have are not super current; we have requested updates so hopefully those will be coming soon!

Introducing: Easton Bai Gilbert

Introducing: Phoebe Ping Gilbert

Our hearts are full and we can't wait to meet them!
Until next time...

An Adoption Education

Dear Friends and Family,
We would like to take a moment (or 5) to share with you SOME of our views on the differences between positive and negative adoption language, the attachment phase, regression, and a few other topics specific to adopted children. The point of this post is not to be snarky, but to prevent any hurt feelings in the future.

LANGUAGE
Positive                                                                      Negative
-Parent(s)                                                                    Real parent(s) (we are real)
-Your child                                                                  Real child (they are real too)
-Your child                                                                  Adopted child
(no matter how you look at it, these kids are OURS, being adopted doesn't define them)
-was, were adopted                                                      is, are adopted
(it happened, it's not on-going)
-placed for adoption                                                   given up
(does any one need to hear they were given up?)       
-special needs                                                              handicapped or disabled
(frankly all adopted children have special needs)

As the kids get older and start to understand English, please refrain from telling them how lucky they are for having been adopted. Luck had nothing to do with it and we would really like to strive to treat our kids as 'normal' as possible. Our goal is for all of us to treat them just as if they were biological children. They were not 'lucky', nor were they 'saved.' God handpicked them to be in our family- period. 

ATTACHMENT
When babies are born, they are inherently attached to their mothers. That's one of the beauties of childbirth! Our 2 little ones had that attachment broken and when we bring them home the attachment they have to their nannies will be broken as well. That is a lot of heartbreak for someone so young!! It will take time for them to attach to us: to learn that we are their parents and trust our love. We understand that everyone will want to see them and meet them, we do! But you must understand that these kids are mostly likely not going to 'like' us very much the first couple months and we have to do everything in our power to make them feel secure.
So, what does that mean?
1) We will not be having a welcome home party.
2) We won't be taking them anywhere- for awhile.
3) Visitors are welcome: in small groups. But, please don't be surprised if the kids are scared or shy. They are barely going to know us so please try not to have any high expectations of excitement at meeting you!

REGRESSION
Most adopted children regress in one or more aspect of life. There is a fancy formula that involves the child's chronological age and the amount of time they've spent in an institution to come up with their 'real' age (or the age they will act like).
So, what does this mean?
1) Easton is being currently being potty trained. We expect him to need at least pull-ups, especially while in China: mostly because I doubt he wants strangers taking him to the bathroom!!
2) Easton can feed himself but may require we feed him 'like a baby' for awhile after we get home. It's possible that he won't but don't look at us funny if he does! Ha! (Also, that's a good form of encouraging bonding, so we may do it anyway.)
3) We don't have a good handle on Phoebe's needs so I don't have many examples for her. The only one I can think of is that she may regress to bottle feeding, especially at night.
Who knows? These kids may just amaze us and not have as many issues as most would expect. However, I'd like us and those closest to us to have an idea what the possibilities are.

THEIR STORY
Their placement stories will never be public knowledge. We will share all the details of their stories with them when we feel like they can understand them. However, we are not going to sugar coat anything. If they don't hear their story from us, in a loving environment, they will discover it on their own... that could be potentially devastating. If the topic should ever arise, just have them come talk to us! We won't hide the fact that they were adopted- I mean they're Chinese, they'd figure it out sooner or later. However, we won't be emphasizing the fact that they were adopted either.

DISCIPLINE AND COMFORT
This may be one of the few areas where we would need to treat them different. Adopted children have had so much tragedy in their lives at such a young age, they have a hard time controlling their emotions. There are way to many differences to list here but probably the biggest 2 involve time-outs and bed time crying. It is strongly advised to not put adopted children in time-out so as to not instill the fear of being abandoned again or of being unworthy. The preferred method is time-in: bringing the child in close and have a short conversation about what happened and staying with them until they calm down. Then, offer them the chance for a do-over.
Then comes the issue of letting them cry it out at night. These children have had to self-soothe their whole lives and have never really had anyone to count on. We are encouraged to be there, especially during night crying, to earn their trust and to prove to them that we are here for them.


Hopefully this was helpful in some ways, and hopefully it didn't ruffle too many feathers. It's no secret that it will be difficult when we get home and mistakes will be made. I'm sure Brian and I are going to slip-up too! Questions are always welcome and while there is a good possibility we won't have an answer, we will find one!

Still waiting on our paperwork to get translated... and then we have to get their immigration paperwork complete before we get travel arrangements. We are still hoping to have traveled and be home or at least be there for Easton's birthday in February.

Please pray for a quick turn around time and that the financial situation will work out!
Thanks for all the love and support! 

Lots to talk about...

I have to lots to talk about today, so I'll try to go about it in chronological order:

First:
I was lucky enough to be considered a 'new mom' at the Little Bird Lane consignment extravaganza and got to shop at the pre-sale. I was allowed to bring 1 guest, so I took Brian's mom Barb. We had a lot of fun buying for these 2 little kids and came away with a lot of stuff for not a lot of money!

And there are clothes behind us too!

Second:

It was time to start sending the agency money. I got an early morning email from our family coordinator with this picture:

One of the checks we had sent got mangled in the mail. However, the mail carrier or someone put it in a baggie saying they were sorry this happened and delivered it anyway. Needless to say she couldn't do anything with it. (I overnighted the new check... didn't want to take any chances!)

Third:

At about that same time, I had sent our last 2 documents to Chicago to be authenticated at the consulate. I gathered up the rest of our dossier documents and sent them off to our agency.

This is what I sent to the agency!

The currier dropped those last 2 documents off at the consulate on Monday, 9/15, picked them up Thursday, 9/18, and overnighted them to AWAA to arrive 9/19. 

Fourth: 

While waiting for documents to be shipped from one place to another, I got a not-so-great email from Kelcey (our family coordinator). Our home study approves us for 2 children from ages 0-36 months; however, Easton is currently 43 months and could potentially be 45 months by time we get him. This poses an issue when getting travel arrangements made... for some reason. I'm frustrated because I brought this up a long time ago but it was brushed off. I'm doubly frustrated because our home study was supposed to be reviewed some 2-3 times once it got to the agency and no once caught it then. I'm triply (yes, triply) frustrated because this 'mistake' now requires an addendum be made to our home study and then sent to USCIS to update our immigration paperwork; which will cost US another several hundred dollars for a mistake we didn't even make.

The silver lining?  Even though all that was very frustrating, it doesn't effect our timeline. As long as it's corrected before we travel, all will be well. (All had better be well!! Ha!...)

Fifth:

In another email from Kelcey, she explained that they were still waiting on the pre-approval for Phoebe. She expected it to come in some time next week, but that she wouldn't be able to send our dossier until the approval came in. 

This was good and bad. Bad because that meant more waiting. Good because our dossier would completely bypass the Healthy Department, since we've been matched Special Focus, and go straight to the Waiting Child Department. Hopefully, that would result in a quicker turn around time.

Well, God answers prayers in his own (nail-biting) time...

I was at work yesterday when I got the emails.

Phoebe's pre-approval came in yesterday and Kelcey processed it quickly because our last 2 documents arrived at noon. She got everything processed and shipped them off to China! WE ARE OFFICIALLY DTC!! (DTC= Dossier to China)

No, we still do not have a travel date yet.

From my understanding, this is how things will move from here:

1. China receives the dossier and will log it into the system. We get our LID (log in date)

2. The dossier gets translated. We are told this can take 2 months or so.

3. The dossier gets approved and we get our RA's (Referral Acceptance) for both children.  (They are officially ours)

4. Then we start talking about travel.

I've been told we will not hear anything from China regarding the process between LID and RA. As soon as I know something, I'll let you know!

Please continue to pray for fast turn around times and that we will be blessed with the grant we are applying for. Also, please keep our kids in your prayers that they stay safe and healthy!

Blessings from Facebook?

The other night while perusing our adoption agency Facebook group, I came across a post about a family getting their child from Shantou City. In my excitement, I left a comment about how our little girl is from Shantou City and that we hoped to get her later this year...

About an hour later, a woman private messaged me to see what orpahanage our daughter was in. After exchanging tid-bits of info, we found out that this woman had been to Phoebe's orphanage in July! When we told her our little one's 'website' name, she knew exactly who we were talking about and then sent us a link to the blog she had written about Phoebe just a month or so ago!! (We will share the blog once we are allowed to electronically share info about the kids)

How awesome is that? I read it out loud to Brian but could barely get through it without crying. (I'm pretty sure he got a little teary eyed himself) It was amazing! Later, she gave us her phone number and we made plans to talk tonight!!

Yesterday, while on Facebook, I read a post, from the same woman, that another missions group would be going back to the same orphanage that she had gone to earlier this year. That means that another group would be visiting Phoebe in November!

I contacted the woman and she passed me along to the lady that's leading the new group. We 'met' today and she said should would look for Phoebe while she's there and try to get some pictures and video for us!! AND she asked me to text her a picture of Brian and I so she could show it to Phoebe!

What a relief to know that our little girl might get some extra attention before we can scoop her up, but it does make me sad for Easton. I hope that they told him a family has selected him and that he understands he is wanted!

I can't wait to bring this process to a close and begin the journey of FAMILY!

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8

And then there were 4...

They said it wouldn't happen. They said we should just focus on wrapping everything up and look forward to bringing Easton home.

What they didn't know was that we never stopped praying... and God answered our prayer.

WE FOUND A LITTLE GIRL!!!

Now, let me back up and tell you the whole story...
A while back I posted about how the likelihood of us finding a girl was really slim because we had found Easton on the Special Focus list and they don't like to make those children wait. Typically, girls get snatched up so quickly, so the wait time can be pretty long for them.
We were fine with that. We knew that Easton was to come home with us and we started really focusing on him: getting his bedroom ready, buying clothes, and wrapping our minds around raising a little boy.

Well, one weekend, we received an email from an advocacy group in China about a little boy (cute as can be!) who needed a family so he could have the heart surgeries he needed. We felt lead to learn to more about him but had to jump through a few hoops because he was not in our agency. We were getting so excited to learn about this little boy and the thought of having 2 little boys! Wow!

But, by time we jumped through all the hoops, he was already under review with a different family. God had closed that door- what felt like, right in our faces! We were disappointed but knew that he just wasn't meant for us.

So, we basically just stopped looking. They said that if we were to find a girl (which is what we'd been hoping for- a boy and a girl), that she would have to fall in our laps. One day I was bored at work and decided to look at the agency website. She was there, right there in front of me! I sent her info to Brian immediately. He wasn't 100% at first. I think it was just nerves, but by the time I got home he had come around and told me that if she was still available the next day, we should request her file.

Obviously she was still available or I wouldn't be writing this post!!

We requested her info and she is just beautiful. Again, we can't share any information yet, but we knew (again) that she was ours. She actually has a real special need: low muscle tension with some motor delays. She's 2 and not walking and we think not talking yet. Our hope is that with some extensive PT, OT, and speech therapy she'll be running circles around us and talking our ears off in no time!

I'm sure you're wondering... her name will be Phoebe! Ah! I love it!

Then we found out we will have to stay in China an extra week! 3 weeks in China! Holy cow! I'm already stressing about that! But it will be worth it in the end and that's what I have to keep reminding myself. No, we do not have a travel date yet. We are finally sending our dossier to the agency this week and I will post again when I hear anything.

So, we need your prayers.
Prayers that China receives our dossier with open hearts and officially approves us for both children.
Prayers that God will provide and we will be able to raise the remaining funds necessary (2nd child fees! Whoa!)
Prayers that we are awarded the grant we are applying for.
Prayers that we will travel safely and that all 4 of us will remain healthy.
Prayers for wisdom when dealing with Phoebe's condition.
Prayers for strength: going from 0 kids to 2 toddlers... it will most definitely take an act of God to get us through that!!

We will be holding 1 more fundraiser as soon as we get the official approval! Stay tuned.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for all the love and support thus far. We really could not have made this journey without the gifts, donations, and prayers along the way.


For He chose us in Him before creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will- to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.
Ephesians 1:4-6

Until next time...

When you know, you know...

I've hesitated and gone back and forth on what to post for a couple weeks now.

It's not that I didn't want people to share in our experience or our excitement, but nothing is set in stone yet and I don't want to have to come up with an explanation if things fall through.

That being said...
We've been matched with our son and he will be 4 in February. I'm sure some of you are shocked to see we are going to have a SON! We kind of were too. We had intentions to pick out a girl under 2 years old. But once we saw his face, we knew he was ours.

Our original plan was to get 2 children, a boy and a girl, but because he is considered Special Focus we will only move forward with him. Once a Special Focus child is matched, they don't like to make them wait and try to expedite the process!

We can't share any pictures or his real name online. We also can't (and won't) share his 'story.' His relinquishment is something that we will have to talk to him about in the future and it's his business if people know that about him.

What we can share is that we will change his name to Easton and he is albino. What's sad about that is albinism is considered a special need over in China. We've reviewed his file with our doctor and have steps in place for when we come home. We speculate we will travel around the beginning of the year... we are really just hoping to have him home before his 4th birthday.

We just have a few more documents to get authenticated in Chicago and then we can send the dossier in. Once that gets turned in, it has to be translated and then sent to China for review. Essentially, we are just waiting on the OK from China that we can bring him home.

Prayers for a quick turn around time!!!

There's Always Hope!

Last week (Wednesday) I had this feeling that I needed to go through our adoption binder and just 'look' at all our documents and the info again. I took the binder to work with me on Thursday and when we finally had a lull in patients I began reviewing our list of documents to be authenticated. I immediately started to panic when I saw that some of our documents were notarized in December. I remembered reading something on the Facebook group I belong to about documents with notarizations over  months. I scrambled to find that post and discovered that the embassy in Chicago will reject any documents that the notarization is over 6 months old.

FULL PANIC MODE

We had documents that were going to expire June 9th! As soon as I got home from work Thursday night, I started working on getting everything ready to ship to the courier, There's Always Hope!, in Chicago so she cold take them to the embassy. Brian had to go to the bank and the post office for me on Friday because I was going to be working 7a-6p, so I had to write out all the instructions and make sure everything was perfect.

NOTHING IS EVER PERFECT

1) Because documents were about to expire, we had to pay extra for a faster turn around time at the Consulate. No big deal, wasn't going to let that get me down. I transferred money from our adoption saving account into our checking account and wrote a big fat check for Brian to take to the credit union where we have a savings account to get a cashier's check. They wouldn't authorize it because it was over $100. Our primary bank doesn't have a branch in Lafayette, so Brian had to drive all the way to Crawfordsville to get the cashier's check! (I felt really bad about that!)
Then he took everything to the post office and sent it Priority Express Mail to be delivered Saturday. We were feeling pretty good.
2) Yesterday, Memorial Day, I get a phone call from Denise at There's Always Hope! She informed me that the Indiana Secretary of State has misspelled the name of one of the notaries but that that particular notary had notarized 2 documents and they are 2 of the few that will expire soon!

WOO-SAH... IN THROUGH THE NOSE, OUT THROUGH THE MOUTH
Actually, let me stop and say that Denise is amazing and she took charge of the situation before I could start to panic... too much.

First, she said she see's this all the time; which made me feel better because I thought I had double checked all the spellings!
Second, not all the documents HAD to be expedited. So, she pulled those out and will get them done at the normal turn around time. She is going to us e the leftover money to ship the 2 documents back to the Secretary of State to get fixed and have them shipped back. She even said she would mail us back whatever was left!

So, there actually is nothing for me to do and nothing for me to stress about. Denise is taking care of it all and I have to do is wait to get our documents back! I am so thankful to her and the service she provides adoptive families in our region!


AND....
Another answer to prayer: We received a decent refund check from our Infertility Specialist out of the blue the other day! It's been over 6 months since we've been there... who woulda thought?!?


Until next time...

Slow going....

I have no news about the actual adoption. We are still waiting for our social worker to finalize our home study report. I know she is a busy lady, but it's really hard not to get frustrated. I think we've been waiting for about 3 weeks and we can't move forward without it.

In other news...
Our agency (AWAA) has made a policy change regarding the Eternal Family Program. This is a program where donations can be made on behalf of the adoptive family through the AWAA website. The changes are as follows:
          Effective May 30, 2014 an administrative fee of 5% will be charged to each contribution made. While this is  not a significant fee in the grand scheme, it will help us to ensure the continued growth and effectiveness of the Eternal Family Program.

A second change that will be effective May 30, 2014 affects cases where families raise more than their adoption costs. In such cases, the excess funds will be retained by America World and go directly toward furthering our ministry to orphaned and vulnerable children.

Lastly....
The Origami Owl fundraiser my cousin Melissa put on was a huge success! Her commission for the party was over $500 and she gave it ALL to us! We are so thankful for all the love and support from everyone so far!
These are my 2 necklaces. My sister-in-law bought me the first locket with carriage, feet and cross when we were going through infertility. That's the beauty of these lockets; they can grow and change with you!

This is my adoption locket. We hope to get a big and a girl! 

Did you know ladybugs are good luck in China?

This one is all Brian and I.

Until next time... Hopefully I'll have some real news!

Pretty gold seals...

After only 1 hiccup, we finally got our 2 Ohio documents and 1 Pennsylvania document authenticated at the New York Chinese Consulate. They arrived via FedEx yesterday! (FYI: we used www.legal-eaze.com for the currier service and they were fantastic!)

 

Authentication Seal

AND last Wednesday I traveled down to the Indianapolis Government Building. After wandering around for a while and finally finding someone to direct me to the certification office (in the basement, FYI), I got 15 documents state certified. I still have a couple more Indiana documents to get certified before I send them to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for authentication. Thankfully, Indiana doesn't charge for this service and I was in and out in about 30 minutes!

Indiana State Seals

In other news:

Our social worker thinks she will have our home study typed up and ready for review by the end of the first week of May! Moving right along!

Also, we have looked at the website exactly 1 time since we've been told we could. It is very intimidating and a little sad to look at all those faces. There was one boy that kinda tugged at my heart a little bit. When we requested more info on him, we found out that we can not receive additional info until our Special Focus Child Application had been approved. 

We are patiently waiting for that to go through and have decided not to look at the site again until we have full access to everything. 

That's it for now... this waiting stuff is for the birds!

Minor Setback...

Thankfully, I belong to a Facebook group for people adopting from China through our agency. Why? Because yesterday I learned, through another couple's frustration, that the Chinese Consulate in Chicago will reject notarized documents that do not have a written 'notary lingo.' The signature and stamp or seal is not enough. It must also say "Signed before me on..."

I won't lie, I had a mini melt-down today because I was planning to go the State House tomorrow to get our Indiana documents certified. However, 6 of our documents have to get fixed; so that trip is postponed for now.

Bright side? I found out BEFORE we sent them to Chicago. I would have been devastated to have our documents rejected. I know that there is still that possibility, but I'd like to think we have everything taken care of- now.

More good news?
YES PLEASE!!
We had our final Home Study meeting on Monday. It went really well. Our social worker is confident we will get 2 kiddos! She also said we could start looking at the website of the children. We haven't yet... we are terrified. How are we supposed to look at all those faces and only pick 1 or 2? What if the ONE we pick gets adopted while we are still working on this process? Lot's of unanswered questions.

She also said that traveling this year isn't very realistic; her estimation is the beginning of next year. Honestly, that isn't that bad considering we just started in October.


There will be ups and downs... I just have to keep remembering that.

A Wee Bit of News

Not much news but some...

I spoke to our social worker yesterday and we do have to meet with her again. Our final (hopefully) meeting is next Monday the 31st, basically just to wrap up loose ends and to verify that we have Brian's firearms locked up properly.

A little update on trying to adopt 2 children: to get the second child we have to adopt from the Special Focus Children group. From my understanding, these are children that are a little more difficult to adopt. SFC typically are boys, so our plan is to adopt a girl from the Waiting Child program and a boy from the SFC program. We finished up the application (10 pages!) the other day and sent it to our social worker for review. Hopefully we won't hit any snags and it can get pushed through to our Family Coordinator!

We found out we have to get fingerprinted again for our federal background checks and then we will have to get fingerprinted AGAIN before we travel. So, I'm in the process of getting that set up.

I got another document certified and one in the works- woo woo! I finally have 15 notarized Indiana documents so I plan to head down to the State House soon to get them certified.

My cousin is currently running an Origami Owl fundraiser for us and it's doing fantastic! The party is already close to $600 and she is giving us her commission! She is amazing!
Here is the link: http://melissaschilling.origamiowl.com/parties/sabrinagilbert231996/collections.ashx


That's all for now!

Progress...

So far I've got exactly one document state certified: Brian's birth certificate. I have another document in the process of being state certified, but that one had to be county certified first. Ugh.

Once we receive Brian's employment letter, I have to send it back to Pennsylvania to get certified then I can send that and the 2 Ohio documents to New York to be authenticated.

I'm waiting to collect all the Indiana documents, then I'm going to make a trip to the Indiana State House to get them certified in person... that should be a fun day! Ha!
After I get all the IN documents certified, I'll ship them off to Chicago to get authenticated.

All the authenticated documents then get sent to the agency for review before they get translated into Chinese and shipped overseas. China has to make the final approval.

All in all, we're making progress. There really isn't much left to do but fill out the Waiting child Application, and wait!

Trying... Really Trying....

Today was the first time I got frustrated, I mean REALLY frustrated. I knew the paperwork phase would be long and loads of work, but I guess I wasn't prepared for the little mistakes that throw everything off.

Now is the time that I have to remind myself that when this is all over we will have our little one or ones home with us and it will have been all worth it.

Yesterday I scanned in 20 documents to be reviewed by our family coordinator. Most of them were approved, but she noticed that my vision section on my medical release wasn't filled out and our doctor accidentally put my name on Brian's medical letter. So, now we have to get those corrected.

I'm complaining, I know.  I also know that this is just the beginning and I'll have several more mistakes to correct in the future, but in the end: we will find in the journey. 

Decisions...

One question that we get asked over and over is if we will change our child's name. I'd like to say we have a definite answer to that, but then I'd be lying.

We do want to. But, it kinda depends on a few things:
       1) How old our child is when we finally get to bring them home
       2) If we can pronounce their given name

As of right now the plan is to change their name but to keep their Chinese name as their middle name. Although, I'm pretty sure that only applies to a girl because I think Brian wants to use his and his dad's middle name with a son.. so maybe our son would have 2 middle names? Who knows?

We have time to figure it all out, and even if we do figure it out, it could all change the moment we see their little faces. So, if we get a girl, her name will be Phoebe; and if we get a boy, his name will be Easton Douglas.

Hopefully we can bring home Phoebe AND Easton!

Answers....

1) We get asked all the time when we are going to China. That's simple: we have no idea. Usually I tell people that we have a ton of paperwork to get through, that we are in the 'paper-chase.'  That response is promptly followed up with "How long until you get the paperwork completed." Again, we have no idea and I'll explain why.
The paper-chase phase is aptly named.
I have to send away for specific documents that have to be certified/ notarized before they are sent to me. Once I receive them, I have to send them to the Secretary of State office (in the state the document originated) to certify that the certification/ notarization is legit. Once I get that back I have to sent it out AGAIN to the Chinese Embassy in the corresponding state to be authenticated and then wait for it to be sent back. Once ALL the documents are through that process and I've compiled the dossier, I will send it to our agency for review then it gets translated and sent to China for approval.
I've been told this usually takes 3-6 months to complete; we are just beginning this phase.

2) We had our home study on Valentine's Day. It went really well and took a long time! She was there from 10-4! Brian and I were interviewed separately and then together. After that, she walked around our house to make sure it was safe and such. We have a few timings to finish up for our social worker to make it official, but we passed our home study. She even said she would APPROVE US FOR 2 CHILDREN!! This is huge for us because we said from the beginning we wanted to adopt siblings, but siblings aren't very common in China. So getting the approval to adopt 2 unrelated children (hopefully a boy and a girl) is a dream come true!

3) What have we had to do up to this point?

This is my big binder, keeping it all organized

Get employment verification letters
Get referral letters
Get background checks and prove we are not on the sex offender registry
Get fingerprinted
Answer autobiographical questions
Fill out financial statements

Select guardians if something should happen to Brian and I

Write a special needs resource list

Get medical exams

Complete 10 hours of online training

Read several books and answer questions about one of them

Watch a 4 hour DVD

Write a disaster plan

... And all this is BEFORE the paper-chase

4) People are usually surprised when we tell them we are adopting special needs. But, special needs does mean the same thing in China.

A special needs child in China could be as simple as being older than 2. Special needs children are split into different classifications. We are adopting from the minor correctable classification. This most commonly means anything that can be fixed with surgery like cleft lip and minor heart problems. We decided that since we are blessed with such good health insurance, we should adopt children that we really and truly can help.

Not to mention it is a much faster process. It usually takes less than 2 years to get matched with a special needs child, while it takes between 6-7 years to get a "healthy" child.

It takes a village...

Throughout this whole process all we can ever ask of anyone is to pray for us.
            Pray that this process goes smoothly.           
            Pray that we'll be good parents.
            Pray for the safety and health of our child.
            Pray for safe travels when we go to China.

But let's be honest... it's no surprise that adoption is expensive and we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought we could do it alone. We have been so blessed by family and friends donating money to our agency and others starting fundraisers for us!

Words cannot begin to express how thankful we are, but I'm hoping a really awesome FAMILY photo will do the trick!

Check out how we are being helped:

Our agency provides a way for donation to be made directly to our account.

www.awaa.org

Scroll to the bottom and select 'Make a Donation'

Select 'Eternal Family Program' in the 'Designated Fund' box

Type 'Brian and Sabrina Gilbert' in the 'Designated Family' box

 

 

My cousin Dina started a fundraiser through Avon that ends 2-28-14.

http://dmgarcia.avonrepresentative.com/online_events/AFSABRINA2014

 

My cousin Angie and my Aunt Diana started a t-shirt fundraiser that ends 3-12-14.

https://www.booster.com/sweetbabygilbert

This spring my friend Heather will be hosting a 31 fundraiser for us... stay tuned for more information!

In March, my cousin Melissa will be hosting an Origami Owl fundraiser for us.

This is a picture of my OO necklace. My sis-in-law Danna bought this for me before we tried IVF the first time. Then, when we decided to adopt Melissa bought me the globe and the lady bug (they are good luck in China). I love these necklaces! I can't wait to get the tag that says 'find joy in the journey'!

From the beginning...

When the time finally came for us to start trying to have kids, Brian said that he wanted to adopt some day. Our 'plan' was to have 2 kids and then adopt when they were a little older. Well, plans changed.

After some time, we decided to seek out fertility specialists. We created a plan, started the medications and jumped in head first. We were certain, that with medical intervention, we were finally on track to becoming pregnant.

Brian preparing one of my many shots.

Brian on IVF Day

Sabrina on IVF Day

Everything went well, but the embryo's that were implanted didn't survive. We were devastated at first but knew that we would try again. After waiting the mandatory few months, we jumped in again. Meds were increased and tension was high. But we quickly learned that it just wasn't in the cards for us. We didn't even make it far enough into the process to try IVF again. I wasn't progressing quickly enough and we had to stop the medications. 

To make it seem like not all hope was lost, the doctors decided to try artificial insemination. Unfortunately, that didn't work either. 

We had been praying hard that this procedure work or that the desire to be pregnant be taken away. We knew that I wouldn't be able to handle going through this process again without KNOWING that was the path we were supposed to take. 

I'm not even kidding: about a week or so later I felt GOOD. I didn't have this cloud hanging over me anymore. I felt lighter and a little less stressed. We started really talking about adopting and then it just happened. We found the agency, applied, and were accepted. I can truly say that I'm not sad about not getting pregnant and honestly I hardly ever thing about it! 

Our hearts are set on our little one in China and we are waiting not-so-patiently until the day we get to meet him or her!

Home Study Update

After having to be rescheduled due to the 'Polar Vortex,' the first part of our home study (the interviews) will take place this Friday (2-14-14)!

It's all new to me...

I've gone back and forth a lot trying to decide if we should blog about our adoption process. After reading other families' blogs, I decided to take the leap. I think we would have regretted not creating one later when our little one isn't so little any more and we didn't have anything to show him or her about their journey to us. Plus, I'm hoping this will serve as a one-stop-shop for keeping our family up to date on all the adoption happenings!

So, keep in mind I'm new to this blogging thing, I don't have a ton of time to work on it, and it's a work in progress. 

That said, enjoy!

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if he hears us -whatever we ask- we know 

hat we have what we asked of him.

1 John 5:14-15