"The desert will rejoice and bloom like a Wildflower"
Isaiah 35:1

We KNOW who SHE is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We still can NOT believe it, we are IN SHOCK and in awe of God blessing us with our sweet baby girl!!

So how did this all play out?? Well, the night of July 4th I got an email from my agency director (who is just wonderful) telling us they just received an updated agency list and she asked us if we would like to review the files of two little girls who both had un-repaired cleft lip and palate.

MY JAW DROPPED!!!! IN DISBELIEF!

Were we REALLY being asked to see two files, and could our little girl be in that file??

OK… I RUN UPSTAIRS….ASK BRIAN

He told me “ABSOLUTELY WE WANT TO SEE THESE FILES!!!”

So we opened each medical file first before looking at the pics. We had agreed that this was how we were going to do it, so we could be non-emotional (if that is possible) in assessing the medical file. So, after reviewing the files everything looks wonderful and there are NO red flags that we see. So, here we go and we open the photos. Both are precious beautiful, sweet girls, but something super-natural and amazing happened when we looked into the eyes of the second photo…..WE KNEW WE WERE LOOKING AT OUR TAHLIA!!!!

It had been our prayer request that God would make it abundantly clear to us when we come across our daughter, and HE did! We just knew it!

The next day we prayed to be able to get a trained doctor’s eye to look at the file and give us the green light that all was ok with her blood work and to see if there were any red flags. We waited for a couple hours trying to find a doctor who is familiar with this need.(in the meantime, I had to call my mom and share the news, I was busting at the seams! I also knew she would be praying!) Through an amazing turn of events, I was actually able to get the doctor who is on the “Cranofacial team” at AI Dupont Children’s Hospital to review it! This is the same doctor who we will be consulting and who will be performing surgery to correct her clefts. Getting his proffesional approval was an answered prayer!

We then got the green light we had been waiting all day to hear!

So, I immediately emailed our agency director to let them know that we are OFFICIALLY ACCEPTING THE REFERRAL!!! (did I really just write that????) WE STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT!! (and, YES, I am SCREAMING!!!)

Who is she? Her orphanage gave her the name Nan Xiu Xiu. Nan is the surname given to all babies coming from this Social Welfare Institute, and Xiu Xiu means Beautiful Beautiuful! I can’t post a photo yet :(. She is 14 months old and weighs 17 pounds, and is petite but very healthy. She has a sweet round face, dark trusting almond shaped eyes, soft wispy, downy thin brown hair, chubby little cheeks….. ahhhh, trust me she is PERFECT in every way and we are so crazy in love with her already.

Where is she? She is living in an orphanage in the Maonan District of Maoming City (Southern China)…its warm there all year!!

When was she born? She was abandoned when she was just 4 months old. When I think about that, I think wow, she got to be with her birth mom for four months. When I think of what her birth mom went through to selflessly have to give her up, I feel like I am punched in the stomach. I can NOT imagine.Then I think of how hard that was for our sweet baby girl to be ripped from the one who gave her life and provided for her every need for those first four months, it makes me so heartbroken. I have much respect and gratitude to her birth mom for what she had to do,for whatever reasons she had to make the best decision she could for her baby. My heart aches for her. Since our baby was abandoned, as mostly happen with orphans in China, they don’t know an accurate birthday, but they estimate it to be about April 10, 2010. So, we’ll celebrate it then, we don’t have any April birthdays in the family so that spot was reserved for her! 🙂

What is her special needs? When looking at the date on her file, we realized that her medical papers were drawn up the exact day we were first being reviewed by our social worker. So, we were all being reviewed at the same time…God’s timing is so perfect! He was getting all of us ready and approved at the same time to be united in the months ahead! We are so thankful because she has no health concerns and her only special need is an un-repaired cleft lip and palate. Sometimes China will fix their lip before they are sent home. However, we are completely ok if they don’t because we’d rather have her receive her first surgery at home, where she has a mommy and daddy waiting for her when she gets out! I don’t want her to go through that w/o us :(.

Her file says that she is active (she will fit in well here), outgoing (sounds familiar), has a ready smile and is not afraid of strangers. She is very attached with her nanny and bonded well with her. This is another answered prayer, we had been praying for our baby to be especially bonded with a caretaker because it means she knows “how” to attach and it will make bonding with us easier, hopefully!

So, how are the kids reacting to the news, you ask? They are still screaming in excitement! Our kids are just beside themselves with joy and happiness to finally know who their baby sister is, there are pics of Tahlia taped all over their bedroom walls! 🙂 They love her already and they want her home!

How about the extended family? The cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles are all head over heals in love and their hearts are melting to get her home too. They are so very excited!!! She was meant for our family, we all knew it as soon as we laid eyes on her! She is fiercely adored already!! She has two little girl cousins just about her age ready to play with her!:)

So when is she coming home? We should be able to get her in 4-5 months. (TOO LONG!)

So what’s the next step?
Ok, here are all the steps in the adoption journey, and where we are in the timeline. We are asking for prayer warriors to please PRAY US THROUGH to get to her quickly!!!

General Steps in the Process (copied from another site)

1) Select your adoption agency. 2) Begin your homestudy and start collecting all your dossier documents. During this time, you will want to begin notarizing, state certifying, and and authenticating your dossier.

3)Apply for I800A approval. Make sure to finish up authenticating your dossier! (WE ARE STILL AWAITING THIS, probably a week more)

4) Certify and authenticate your USCIS approval, then send your dossier to your agency. You are now DTC (Dossier to China!)

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5) A few weeks after your dossier arrives in China, it will be logged into the CCAA. The day your paperwork is logged into the system is known as your LID.

6) Sometime during this process you will be matched with a child.. When you and your agency have identified the child you wish to adopt, you will submit a LOI (Letter of Intent) to the CCAA stating your intention to adopt this child. (We did this today!)

7) Once China has reviewed your LOI, they will issue you a Pre-Approval (PA) to adopt that particular child within 1-4 weeks.

8) You will then begin waiting for your LOA (Letter of Acceptance). This can take anywhere from 1-5 months, with 52 days being the average. Once your agency receives this document, you will sign it, copy it, and return it to your agency.

9) You must now file Form I-800 with USCIS (different than the I-800A you filed earlier). It will take approximately 3 weeks to receive I-800 approval.

10) Once you have I-800 approval, your officer will forward your approval to the NVC (National Visa Center). NVC will upload your approval into their system and cable (send) your approval the US consulate. Then the NVC will issue a letter stating they have done this. It takes about one week to be cabled, and another week to receive the letter.

11) Once you receive the NVC letter , send it to your agency immediately! They will deliver this letter to the US consulate in China. 12) Once the consulate has your NVC letter, they will issue your Article 5 in 2-3 weeks. The Article 5 is the consulate pre-approving your child for an immigrant visa. Your agency will have a courier pick up the Article 5 and take it to the CCAA.

13) Once the CCAA receives the Article 5, the Travel Approval will then be issued. This takes around 2-4 weeks. At this point, your agency will make travel arrangements for you to go to China and adopt your child!

Oh my, still a long 4-5 month journey ahead of us…praying it goes fast! I just want to get to her!

How can you pray?
We would be so grateful to have many of you praying for her, specifically for….
Prayer requests:
1) that Tahlia would continue to be well cared for, cuddled, nurtured, and thrive in the orphanage
2) that our 1800A approval would come to us (should be this week or next)
3) that the long dreaded wait for the LOA would not take 5 months, but actually 1 Month (it is possible, they say it can be 1-5 months) praying we are one of the fortunate ones…we REALLY want her home by Christmas!
4) that all the paperwork from here on out would be processed quickly and accurately!


Our hearts are so filled with gratitude to God for blessing us!

Our arms ache to hold her, Our sweet Tahlia.

0 thoughts on “We KNOW who SHE is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

  3. Woo Hoo!!! God is good!!! Can't wait to read more and see pictures of your sweet baby girl. I'll be praying.

  4. Congrats on your sweet girl!! That is so awesome.
    We are in the process of bringing home a cl/cp baby girl too! She is 20 mos old.
    We also hope to travel by Christmas!
    Can't wait to see a picture! Rejoicing with you!

  5. My dear friends, first of all…how we miss you so much, secondly… I could not be happier to hear to wonderful news of your new addition! God is good, ALL THE TIME! I often think about doing that & how our family is not complete yet. I don't know where the Lord is leading us yet but someday we will see. I will put you on our prayer list@church & I will be praying for you daily with the family.
    In His love,
    Connie Whalen
    Philippines 4: 13

  9. Congratulations!!! How wonderful to add a precious girl to your already beautiful family. May God continue to give you increase…all that you need for your journey.

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