Yesterday Jason & I travelled to Louisville to be fingerprinted and turn in our I-600A form. This form is an application to be able to bring an orphan back into the US. We had to bring our form, birth certificates for each of us and our marriage license. We also had to bring a cashiers check.

Well, we got there and made it right on time. We went in, handed the worker everything and she said, do you have your $830 check? According to our agency paperwork, the check was supposed to be for $684. We did not have our check book as we were told it had to be a cashiers check. Thankfully the woman let us leave and get a new check and then come back. I was so worried she would make us schedule a whole new appointment! Jason had taken off work and everything.

So we found the national city headquarters downtown and walked there. It was a beautiful day! We got the new check and made it back to the office. All our paperwork was correct and we then were able to be fingerprinted! Now we just wait for the government to send us back what a form and then we are able to send our dossier to China. This usually takes a few months, but we are praying for a miracle!

After all that we were starving! We went to one of our favorite places - the Cheesecake Factory!! YUM! Their lettuce wraps are the best ever! We also got a piece of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake to go. Wow. Chocolate heaven! We are now one step closer to getting our little boy home!

We thought you would like to know a little about our Silas. He is 15 months old and has bilateral microtia. Both of his ears are deformed. We think he can hear based on the information we have, but he will still probably need hearing aids and speech/language therapy. Plastic surgery will hopefully repair the cosmetic issues. He is in an orphanage in China.

When we decided to have a third child, little did we know what God had planned for us. God had been speaking to me and leading me towards adoption for about 6 months. I had done some research on-line and came across the special needs waiting children page at the A Helping Hand adoption agency. When I first found it, no children were waiting, but I kept on checking. One day there were children! I eagerly looked through each child and fell in love with "Silas" ( ). I showed him to Jason who quickly stated he was not interested in adopting at this time. A few months past and I kept checking to see if Silas had matched with a family. Much to my surprise he was still available! I mentioned it to Jason again and he was still not in favor of adopting. I just knew this was God's plan for us and prayed that God would quickly speak to Jason. Well, a couple days later I was getting ready for work and Jason came into the bathroom and told me he could not get Silas out of his mind and he thought we needed to move forward with the adoption! I was excited beyond belief! I immediately e-mailed the agency to see if he was available and what we needed to do. Then I went to work. As soon as I got home I check my e-mail. The first message said he was still available, were we interested. Then the second e-mail said the deadline had passed and another family was already interested in him. I was so upset. Why had God made it so clear this was his plan? We e-mailed the agency and said that if anything changed to let us know. The next day, I was out with the girls and Jason checked my e-mail while he was working. We had an e-mail from the agency stating the family had changed their mind, were we still interested?! I immediately called and told them we did want Silas!

We are now knee (rather, ear) deep in paperwork and praying for God to continue to open doors for us. We are close to finishing our home study with our social worker and today I turned in our LOI (Letter of Intent). This is a packet of paperwork that goes to China stating that we want to adopt . We still have to prepare our dossier, do education requirements and finish lots more paperwork. Then comes the waiting!

Please pray for patience, finances and for our precious son.