What is waiting like?

Terrible! You sometimes feel like you're waiting for your life to begin. And knowing that it will take some time to get to know our daughter and for her to feel comfortable, we are anxious to start the process. But we did some practical things. Now that we knew there was room for one more in our hearts, we had to start to figure out how to fit one more into our house.

First the bedroom – we added bunks and shelving to Anna’s room so two can fit. We bought two chairs and moved out a lot of stuff! And in the, kitchen, we had to find a few more chairs. Then we had to figure out how to make some space in the bathroom that Brian has had almost exclusively for himself. Added a medicine closet, towel bars, painted the room and I think we may actually fit all the kids in there now. We’ve emptied shelves other places too so GuoHua can have some places that are her own. And just for good measure, we created a waterfall between our two ponds and replanted flowers...Yes, I suppose you can call it 'nesting'...

And of course I’ve done lots of reading and praying and generally just trying to get ready.

How we got started again

Last December, we got an email from my sister with a provocative question. Her family had adopted their 12 year old daughter, GuoYuan from Heilongjiang Province last August. Someone had contacted her about GuoYuan’s best friend, GuoHua, who was also available for adoption. Bob and I immediately felt the Lord telling us that was our daughter. Here is her original referral photo when she was about 9 years old. (Like Anna, Guohua has a repaired cleft that will be easily adjusted later)

So we started the “paper pregnancy” process again. This time it was much faster and we were asking for a specific child. We submitted all our paperwork and it was logged into China on April 30th. And since then we’ve been waiting….

Our First Trip

Almost exactly six years ago, we were in China bringing home our first daughter. Anna is from Huanggang City in Hubei Province. She came to us at 19 months old.

That trip was a wonderful experience for all of us and becoming a family of two cultures has been incredibly enriching.

So here we are

We are just about to welcome our new daughter, Guohua (pronounced Gwo Hwah), to our family. She will perfectly fill the hole in the middle of our family. We have two older boys, Eric (20) and Brian (17) and then Anna (7). Guohua will come right in the middle at 12 years old.

As a special bonus, Guohua knows my niece, GuoYuan. They are best friends from the same Children’s Welfare Institute in China and had been together since they were babies.
This is our second time going to China as we have chosen to build our family both thru birth and adoption.