Outnumbered
I'm sure many of you are thinking, I can't believe they are adopting again...yet here we are beginning adoption #3, and we couldn't be happier. Things have progressed very quickly, and while Paul and I had talked and laid out plans for this year, God quickly changed that around (yet again!), and we have set our sites on China.
In the Fall of last year, we were very certain we would try to get pregnant this year. Everything made logical sense, yet I still didn't feel completely settled going this route. Earlier last year we had discussed the possibility of our next adoption and what that would look like. After a good amount of research, we narrowed down what countries and agencies we were comfortable working with, and I subscribed to many waiting child lists. Every week I would get an email sent to my inbox with a list of waiting children who were available for adoption based on our demographics and needs. Every week I looked over them and prayed, but nothing was strong enough to make us take action. But then in December, the same e-mailed I got every week, showed the picture of a little girl...and for the first time we felt a tug on our hearts. We requested her file from the agency on December 28, and while things should have felt scary, we both felt peace right off the bat. Over the next couple weeks, we asked lots of questions, prayed and talked through every scenario, but things continually just felt right. On January 4 we put her file on a 2-week hold to help give us time to make a decision. During this time, we met with many doctors to discuss her medical needs, and also asked God to give us clear signs if we were supposed to move forward with her adoption. God definitely came through, and things were confirmed for us in 3 very specific ways. Even though our talks with the doctors should have made us run the other direction, we continued to feel capable to love this little one through her needs, and answer the call to give her a family. Only with Jesus, friends.
After our 2 week hold, we only felt a stronger connection to our little girl, and we officially said YES on January 18. We also submitted our first round of paperwork the same day for the agency to look over. They approved us 2 days later and sent our paperwork to China on January 20 for pre-approval. As a complete 180 from our Uganda process, China sent us our pre-approval paperwork on Thursday, January 26...only 4 days after we submitted...which means we can officially move forward with her adoption! YAY!
At this stage of the game we have submitted our home study paperwork and are beginning the initial stages of our social work visits. I am also simultaneously working on our dossier paperwork, which we will submit after our home study is complete. So in the waiting and never-ending paperwork, we pray over her life and her healing.
We will be naming our sweet girl, Olivia, which is a name that has been meaningful to me for quite some time. She is 17 months old, and will turn 2 in September! When we see her picture we can't help but smile, and she has already stolen our hearts in more ways than one. Olivia has been diagnosed with 2 possible syndromes. The first is Sturge-Weber syndrome (3 different types) which includes a port-wine stain on the face, glaucoma, and a possibility of neurological symptoms including weakness on one side of the body and seizures. We know she has the port-wine stain and glaucoma in her left eye, however she has no neurological involvement at this time. Every doctor we spoke with here in the states has said it can only be a confirmed diagnosis with an MRI of the brain, which she has not received. So at this time we have requested that one be performed (if possible!) to try to get a better picture of what this could look like down the road.
The other diagnosis she could potentially have is called PPV (phakomatosis pigmentovascularis). This is characterized by a bluish hue on the skin and could be accompanied by glaucoma, skeletal abnormalities and neurological involvement. Both diagnoses are rare, but since they have some overlapping features it's hard to know if she has both or one vs. the other. She does have the blue hue on her upper body, but we have also requested some full body pictures to see the extent of the staining. While we know this will be a long road, medically speaking, we are trusting God every step of the way, and we know He won't let us down. We have clearly been called to adopt, and despite our yearly plans of what we think our lives should look like, God continues to uproot our belief system, only to push us closer to Him and His plan for our lives. While we don't have the financial means or full capacity for what this will look like 9 months from now, we are working hard to simply say yes to God and know that He will work out the details as we go.
In the Fall of last year, we were very certain we would try to get pregnant this year. Everything made logical sense, yet I still didn't feel completely settled going this route. Earlier last year we had discussed the possibility of our next adoption and what that would look like. After a good amount of research, we narrowed down what countries and agencies we were comfortable working with, and I subscribed to many waiting child lists. Every week I would get an email sent to my inbox with a list of waiting children who were available for adoption based on our demographics and needs. Every week I looked over them and prayed, but nothing was strong enough to make us take action. But then in December, the same e-mailed I got every week, showed the picture of a little girl...and for the first time we felt a tug on our hearts. We requested her file from the agency on December 28, and while things should have felt scary, we both felt peace right off the bat. Over the next couple weeks, we asked lots of questions, prayed and talked through every scenario, but things continually just felt right. On January 4 we put her file on a 2-week hold to help give us time to make a decision. During this time, we met with many doctors to discuss her medical needs, and also asked God to give us clear signs if we were supposed to move forward with her adoption. God definitely came through, and things were confirmed for us in 3 very specific ways. Even though our talks with the doctors should have made us run the other direction, we continued to feel capable to love this little one through her needs, and answer the call to give her a family. Only with Jesus, friends.
After our 2 week hold, we only felt a stronger connection to our little girl, and we officially said YES on January 18. We also submitted our first round of paperwork the same day for the agency to look over. They approved us 2 days later and sent our paperwork to China on January 20 for pre-approval. As a complete 180 from our Uganda process, China sent us our pre-approval paperwork on Thursday, January 26...only 4 days after we submitted...which means we can officially move forward with her adoption! YAY!
At this stage of the game we have submitted our home study paperwork and are beginning the initial stages of our social work visits. I am also simultaneously working on our dossier paperwork, which we will submit after our home study is complete. So in the waiting and never-ending paperwork, we pray over her life and her healing.
We will be naming our sweet girl, Olivia, which is a name that has been meaningful to me for quite some time. She is 17 months old, and will turn 2 in September! When we see her picture we can't help but smile, and she has already stolen our hearts in more ways than one. Olivia has been diagnosed with 2 possible syndromes. The first is Sturge-Weber syndrome (3 different types) which includes a port-wine stain on the face, glaucoma, and a possibility of neurological symptoms including weakness on one side of the body and seizures. We know she has the port-wine stain and glaucoma in her left eye, however she has no neurological involvement at this time. Every doctor we spoke with here in the states has said it can only be a confirmed diagnosis with an MRI of the brain, which she has not received. So at this time we have requested that one be performed (if possible!) to try to get a better picture of what this could look like down the road.
The other diagnosis she could potentially have is called PPV (phakomatosis pigmentovascularis). This is characterized by a bluish hue on the skin and could be accompanied by glaucoma, skeletal abnormalities and neurological involvement. Both diagnoses are rare, but since they have some overlapping features it's hard to know if she has both or one vs. the other. She does have the blue hue on her upper body, but we have also requested some full body pictures to see the extent of the staining. While we know this will be a long road, medically speaking, we are trusting God every step of the way, and we know He won't let us down. We have clearly been called to adopt, and despite our yearly plans of what we think our lives should look like, God continues to uproot our belief system, only to push us closer to Him and His plan for our lives. While we don't have the financial means or full capacity for what this will look like 9 months from now, we are working hard to simply say yes to God and know that He will work out the details as we go.
So without further ado, here is our sweet daughter, Olivia.
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She has already captured our hearts in more ways than we can describe, and our love is only growing with each passing day. It's crazy how you can love a child you've never met who lives all the way across the world, but oh how we do. Our boys are definitely struggling to wrap their heads around this new change, but they are slowly understanding what it will mean to be a big brother.
We are SO excited for our family to once again grow through adoption, and we know without a doubt, that this is what we are meant to do. Paul and I are a bit nervous to be outnumbered by our kids, but I guess that's what keeps life exciting :)
Thank you all for journeying with us once again. We hope to travel as early as September, but were told it could be as late as December or January. We will keep you posted on our timeline as we hear back. We can't wait to bring her home and embrace the title of Stevens Party of Five!
Hugs,