Hello All!  We are going to be tracking our adoption journey to our sweet Hope- waiting for us in Wuxi, China!!  We have a LID (Log in date) of November 14, 2007- that starts our official wait.  Now we wait for our LOA (Letter of acceptance) that is our Golden Ticket- it means that we are officially Hope' parents and we just have to wait for travel approval!! We should be hearing something in the next month or two!!!(Hopefully!!) 

For those that don't know us, here is some info about us....

Darrin and Amy

4 Biological beautiful, wonderful kids...Hannah 9-12/24/98,Joseph 5, 8/14/02, Caroline 3,1/16/04 and Charlie 1,1.17/06

Why adoption?  Well, ever since I lost my own (Amy) parents at a young age- I thought that it would would be a wonderful thing to do!! After having 4 kids quickly- I began to doubt that it would ever happen.  This past Spring, my enthusiasm was renewed.  We have so much- in so many different ways to offer- including a tremendous amount of love....why could we not share that with another child??? Darrin- took some convincing....after a few months of adoption research, prayer, and a few tears, we decided TOGETHER to adopt! Darrin chose China- mostly after researching orphanage conditions- Darrin has such a love for little girls and wanted to help! 

We decided to go the NSN(Non-special needs) route b/c of our full plate at home with the others.  However- after much research into the "Waiting" children or special needs program we discovered that there were so many kids w/ minor/ correctable needs that we decided to pursue it!!!

The rest is history...........we at 1st declined to review Hope's file b/c she was only 4 months apart from Charlie in age- then after hearing her file read to me over the phone- my heart skipped a beat- she was so much like my other children in personality- smart, beautiful(of course!!haha) obstinate, extroverted- I knew that we had to see her!  We were overnighted her file- upon seeing her face, Darrin immediately said "let's do it- she's our daughter!!"  I felt the exact same way!! She is a million miles away....but she is already sealed firmly in our hearts and family!!! 

Hope's special need is that she has a few fingers shorter than the others and webbed toes.  We were lucky enough to receive a video of her and if I can figure out how to download it- I will share!!  You will be able to see that her hands are such a non-issue that you barely notice them!!  She does walk on her tip toes- we are not sure what that's about- but we will tackle it when she gets here!! We just cannot wait to love and care for our little princess!

Please follow our progress....we would love to share this incredible time with you......

 

All our love...Darrin and Amy

Here is a photo of Hope's brothers and sisters waiting for her!!!