Isn't she adorable?! She is 2 years old but by the time we travel to get her she will be about the same age as Lila was when we were first met her. She has Down's Syndrome. She lives in a province just a little north of where Lila was living so we will get to see a different part of China for the first week of our trip.
Some of you may be interested in how we actually got to this point, I know some may remember that when we started this second adoption we talked about adopting an aging out girl, a girl who was 13. When we first decided to pursue a second adoption we fell in love with a sweet girl on our agency's list. Her file was very outdated but showed a beautiful girl who was 13 and who had unrepaired club feet. As some may know, our youngest son was born with bilateral club feet so this was always a sn that caught our attention. We requested an update and received wonderful answers to our questions! We also were put in contact with a woman who runs a foundation in this same orphanage, who had traveled to China in June and had met this girl. She provided us with more pictures and video and the confirmation that she was a sweet, loving girl! We had several discussions with our placing agency and decided to move forward and bring this girl home.
But God's plans are not always our plans. After contacting our homestudy agency here at home to begin updating our homestudy, we were told that they would most likely not approve us for an aging out girl and that they had a policy that there must be 1 year between adoptions. To make a VERY long story short, we tried everything in our power for several months to make this work, we appealed, and appealed again and again and again, we called all the other agencies in our state, we waited countless times for someone to "take a look" and get back to us. The answer was always the same, no. In the end we had to acknowledge that God had a different plan for our family and for this dear girl! Please pray that in the few short months she has left a family will step forward and adopt her!
So in mid December we finally began working on our homestudy update which was completed at the end of February. During those few months we prayed about who God would have us adopt, the needs are so overwhelming sometimes it seemed impossible to know which way to turn. We also decided during this time on a name for our new daughter, we hadn't seen her yet, but we decided we were going to name her Tessa. Then one day, our case worker texted me and asked if I had looked at "Tessa" on one of their special focus lists? Well, no I hadn't really, and her name is Tessa? Now, it's only the American name that the agency gives her to make advocacy easier, but still . . .
We looked at her file and decided to request an update and some new pictures and video. The update didn't take very long but due to Chinese New Year we waited several weeks for a video, something we really felt was important to view before moving forward. The day that video came, we knew, Tessa was ours! Joyfully, we submitted our Letter of Intention requesting that China pre-approve us to adopt this beautiful child and on March 4, they said yes!
We are now ready to file our I800a paperwork with Immigration. Once that approval is received we will be able to send our dossier to China and begin the final wait for a Letter of Approval. If all goes well, we hope to travel late Summer/early Fall to bring Tessa home.
The immediate need we have now is for the funds needed to file our immigration paperwork, approximately $2000. Once this done, we will need another large sum in order to submit our dossier, about $4000. We have been busy applying for grants and doing lots of fundraisers, however we are still quite a ways off. Would consider partnering with us to bring Tessa home? We are so grateful for each donation! Donations can be made using our YouCaring page or via Paypal (www dot jjmasse @ sacoriver dot net - please use the Friends option).
Thanks for sticking with me on this long post. We are so excited and humbled to see how God has worked and provided so far and are eagerly looking forward to "the rest of the story!"
But God's plans are not always our plans. After contacting our homestudy agency here at home to begin updating our homestudy, we were told that they would most likely not approve us for an aging out girl and that they had a policy that there must be 1 year between adoptions. To make a VERY long story short, we tried everything in our power for several months to make this work, we appealed, and appealed again and again and again, we called all the other agencies in our state, we waited countless times for someone to "take a look" and get back to us. The answer was always the same, no. In the end we had to acknowledge that God had a different plan for our family and for this dear girl! Please pray that in the few short months she has left a family will step forward and adopt her!
So in mid December we finally began working on our homestudy update which was completed at the end of February. During those few months we prayed about who God would have us adopt, the needs are so overwhelming sometimes it seemed impossible to know which way to turn. We also decided during this time on a name for our new daughter, we hadn't seen her yet, but we decided we were going to name her Tessa. Then one day, our case worker texted me and asked if I had looked at "Tessa" on one of their special focus lists? Well, no I hadn't really, and her name is Tessa? Now, it's only the American name that the agency gives her to make advocacy easier, but still . . .
We looked at her file and decided to request an update and some new pictures and video. The update didn't take very long but due to Chinese New Year we waited several weeks for a video, something we really felt was important to view before moving forward. The day that video came, we knew, Tessa was ours! Joyfully, we submitted our Letter of Intention requesting that China pre-approve us to adopt this beautiful child and on March 4, they said yes!
We are now ready to file our I800a paperwork with Immigration. Once that approval is received we will be able to send our dossier to China and begin the final wait for a Letter of Approval. If all goes well, we hope to travel late Summer/early Fall to bring Tessa home.
The immediate need we have now is for the funds needed to file our immigration paperwork, approximately $2000. Once this done, we will need another large sum in order to submit our dossier, about $4000. We have been busy applying for grants and doing lots of fundraisers, however we are still quite a ways off. Would consider partnering with us to bring Tessa home? We are so grateful for each donation! Donations can be made using our YouCaring page or via Paypal (www dot jjmasse @ sacoriver dot net - please use the Friends option).
Thanks for sticking with me on this long post. We are so excited and humbled to see how God has worked and provided so far and are eagerly looking forward to "the rest of the story!"
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