Monday, August 31, 2009

Stepping out in faith


Mia's surgery is one week and less than a day away (not that I am counting or anything). Mia was born with tetralogy of fallot and will have surgery on September 8th to repair her heart. I have to be honest and say that I have never publicly shared Mia's specific heart condition on my blog mainly due to the need I felt to protect her privacy. However I have been blessed by parents whose children have been born with TOF and shared their blogs and I felt the need to share Mia's story in hopes that it might help other families.

Dan and I did not plan to adopt a child with a "major" heart condition. Nope. This was God's plan. The week before we received our referral call we had been considering making some changes to our medical checklist. As I began to pray I felt that God wanted us to trust Him and "step out in faith." A dear friend had just received a referral for her beautiful daughter with TOF days before we made the change. She encouraged me that we could do this! With God's leading and her encouragement we "stepped out in faith" and told our agency that we would consider "major" heart conditions on a case by case basis. We made the change on a Thursday and over the weekend I felt a different kind of peace about our adoption process. I felt like because we had obeyed God that our wait was coming to an end and that very soon Mia would be revealed to us. Still I was guarded and didn't want to get my hopes up.

On Monday as I returned home from walking with my mom, there was message on our machine from our agency saying that they had a question about the recent changes that we made to our medical checklist. My heart started to pound as I knew in the back of my head that they had a child in mind for us but were trying to see what our comfort level was. After we talked, she said "can I put you on hold for a minute?" I responded "okay." What was probably all of 20 seconds felt like 20 minutes. As she got back on the phone she said "well the reason I was asking you all of those questions is because we do have a little girl in mind for you. She is 14 months old and has unrepaired TOF." As soon as she sent us Mia's file and I saw her face I knew she was our daughter. At that moment it didn't matter what her condition was. It wasn't that we didn't take her condition seriously, we just knew. Here in front of us was the face of the little girl we had been waiting for.

A bigger step of faith came when one of the international doctors that reviewed her file labeled Mia "severe risk" due to lack of her medical history, her heart condition, and a smaller head measurement. I was devastated when this report came back. I scoured the internet and adoption boards for "inaccurate head measurments" as this is fairly common in China adoption. It amazed me at how many families had small head measurements for thier children and they are perfectly fine. I then researched, in depth, her heart condition and though it was and still is scary we still felt a peace about it. Of course with certain heart conditions also comes the risk of associated syndromes so I got myself into a panic researching this. What I learned is it is good to have the information about the possible outcomes but sometimes there is a such thing as "too much information" and it isn't always so good thing especially when it causes you to get into fear. Fear can distract you and get in the way of what God wants you to do. Sometimes you just need to rely on the feeling of peace from God and to trust His plan.

Stepping out in faith and accepting Mia's referral has been one the greatest blessings of our lives! I am blessed to call this little girl my daughter and thank God everyday for the peace He gave us that April day!


Tuesday, August 25, 2009

First day of school

How I wish the lazy summer days would last a couple more weeks. I really was not ready for school to start again but here we are and the first day of school is here. Sigh. Ethan is in sixth grade which = middle school. Double sigh. It does not seem possible that he is in middle school. Where oh where does the time go?

Enough of that.....the first day went off without a hitch. They all had a good first day back. They were happy to see their friends again and all liked their teachers. Though I was not looking forward to the first day of school I must admit I am looking forward to getting back into some sort of "new" routine again. Maybe just maybe I will find more time to blog. Hey I did do two posts in a day today. That's progress, right?










Fun in the truck

Just when I was about to get rid of all of Christian's Tonka trucks that he never plays with and make room for kitchen sets and dolls the boys have found a new use for the trucks. They push Mia around in the back of the dump truck and she loves it! She seems to fit perfectly in the back and laughs as they give her a ride around the house. She sure has her brothers wrapped around her finger!












Wednesday, August 12, 2009

One month ago

One month ago you were place in our arms. All of our hopes, dreams, and prayers were realized in that moment.

We were thrilled to get some smiles!

We are so blessed to have been given the incredible gift of you! Happy one month together baby girl! We love you!

The number 17


When we submitted our medical checklist I had a feeling that the number 17 would somehow relate to our adoption process. I know is sounds strange but I really felt like the number 17 held some significance to our adoption. Not in a weird way, I thought it probably meant that when Mia was referred to us that she would be 17 months old. Or maybe we would wait 17 months? Nope we surpassed that waiting 18 1/2 months. Would we get the call on the 17th of the month? Nope we got the call on the 27th of the month. When we finally got the call and Mia was 14 months old I could not figure out how the number 17 fit into our adoption until our travel call came. We received Mia on her 17 month old "birthday." It all made sense and finally the significance of "17" was revealed!





Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Presents for Mia

Mia has received quite a few presents since we have returned home. As the gifts started arriving a sadness fell over me and I wondered if she was ever given a present before. I am not sure the answer to that question but Logan helped her and she seemed to know what she was doing. Of course like any typical toddler she loved the wrapping paper and bows more than the actual present. I guess she doesn't find a piggy bank and clothing all that interesting. I love looking at all of the girly clothing that she has received and I am starting to feel a tad jealous of her stylish fall/winter wardrobe. It is going to be tough to keep up with this girl! I think Ann Taylor Loft is calling me!













Monday, August 03, 2009

Beautiful brown eyed girl












I bought this shirt at Target over two years ago in hopes of my daughter one day wearing it. It says "everyone loves a brown eyed girl." While waiting for our referral, I looked at countless blogs with beautiful little Asian girls sporting this cute shirt and couldn't wait for Mia to wear it. Oh how I love this little brown eyed girl!