Waiting Children - Precious Children

A new list (with pictures) of waiting children was posted on the CHI (my adoption agency's) website. These are children that currently have medical issues, or had medical issues that have been repaired. These are precious children who are considered 'special needs.' In the U.S., most of these situations are not considered special needs, and are just situations that need to be dealt with before going on with a normal life. On this list, most of the children are babies, many with cleft lips/palates that still need to be repaired; there are several with congenital heart disease that has been repaired, or eye conditions that have been repaired.

There are four little girls that 'speak to me' on that list. I have completed applications on them. These girls range in age from 1 1/2 to 4 years-old. One little angel had a heart defect repaired, another was just born premature, another had an ovarian cyst removed, and the last had a cleft lip/palate repaired. They are all beautiful girls and I would be blessed to have any of them.

Now I wait to see if my name will be 'drawn' from the pool of applicants for each child. If my name is drawn I will be notified immediately, then will have seven days to review her medical file. I have applied for several waiting children before, and my name has not been drawn. So, I'm waiting to find out if this is God's plan for me to have have one of these girls. Caroline, are you on this list?

It is so hard not to get attached to these children, even from a picture. It is so hard not to get your hopes up that your name might be drawn. This is what I'm facing. I go to the website and just stare at the little angels, and hope that one of them might be Caroline. I just have to wait it out, and wait for God to reveal his plan to me.

I'm proud of these kids

My children's choir, 'The Heart of Indiana Children's choir' performed with the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra on Dec. 8. They performed four John Rutter Christmas Carols with the orchestra and did a terrific job. We are gearing up for our next performance at the Indiana Music Educators Association State Convention on January 19. I just had to share.

Happy New Year

I received an email today informing me that Children's Hope International (my adoption agency) just received 6 China referrals (adoption placements) - six girls ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 4 for adoptive families with a log-in date of Dec. 19, 2005. This is a good way to end 2007. That's the positive spin on things.....the negative spin on things is that in the year 2007, there were only 3 months worth of referrals, meaning that for example, referrals (or placements) only occurred for people with log-in dates from say Oct 1, 2005 through Dec. 19, 2005. For someone like me with a log-in date of April 13, 2007, this means that I'm in for a very long wait.....that's the negative spin. The positive spin is that each day that passes is one day closer to Caroline. For now I'm going to stick to the positive spin on things.