A New Life. A New Family.

It started Sept 11, 2006. It ended Sept. 6, 2010. The long journey to our second adopted daughter from China, Grace Li. I think some of our friends thought we were crazy for waiting that long but now I think they think we are crazy for bringing a 2 year old into our somewhat stable family of 3. We adopted our first daughter from China in 2003 and she has lived up to her name (Joy) and beyond. We wanted to expand our family when we got her, but weren't ready to jump into the pool again right away. Little did we know it would take us 4 years to complete our family. The truth is we would STILL be waiting. Thanks to the Waiting Child Program at Holt International we received Gracie's information in January of this year and brought her home in September!!! If only we would have known earlier! But then... we wouldn't have gotten our Gracie!
The Waiting Child program has children of all ages and all special needs. After seeing all the wonderful children that were in our group, I can say that if anyone if considering this option but isn't sure about it, that they should really consider it. Each child in our group was a gift and they all fit so well with their families. We were all blessed to bring one of them home.
Our Gracie was in the orphanage for 2 years. No foster family. She had a cleft lift and a cleft palate. The lip was fixed in China and we will be fixing the palate next month. There are sure to be developmental issues, but we can handle them together. All the little girls who were with us were just starting to blossom as we began our trip home. Watching this process for the second time reminds me of how blessed we are to have not only "Joy" but God's "Grace" as well.

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