We just received some more updated pictures of little Shakti. 2/3 of the pictures she had flies on her - one on her lip, ear, forehead, etc. - yuck! I'm still not sure if I can post her pictures here on the blog, so until I know, let me know if you would like to see her picture and I will make sure that you do! :-) She is adorable.
Though we have received 3 or 4 sets of updated pictures, we have not received any new updated medical information which I would very much like to have. She is 10 months old, and still all pictures taken of her are her just laying on her back. She must be too weak to be able to sit up. I just read 2 days ago that 25% of babies with her heart condition (Tetrology of Fallot) die within the first year of life if they have not had the necessary heart surgery. Once the surgery is done, they will have a normal or close to normal life expectancy. 40% die by the age of 4 with out the surgery. I emailed our agency and asked if there was any way we could get a medical update, and she said she would ask their contact in India. Just heard back yesterday that he plans on getting us some info. the next time he goes to the orphanage. Yea! We just need her to hang on for another 6+ months - which is how long we still may have....
The waiting continues - haven't heard anything from the courts - we just keep praying, and hoping. We pray that she is held often, received lots of TLC, and that she feels totally and completely loved while we are unable to be there for her. But our prayers are still reserved as we are still not certain that we will be approved to be her family. If you are reading this, you are interested in our journey, and we are so greatful for the support we have felt from family and friends. Keep praying! :-)
Love, Michelle

Well, as always, things never go as smoothly as we would like. Yesterday we got an email from IFS saying that our contact in India needs another copy of our guardianship letter (who would take our kids in the event that both Scott and I die at the same time). It needs to have their address on the letter. Apparently this is something that they haven't had to do before - it has to do with the new Hague requirements. Anyway, all that to say, we had to have a new letter written, notarized, apostilled through the Secretary of State, sent back to IFS so they can send it on to India. It will be at least a 2 week delay in our process...grr...but, God is good, and He IS in control - that we know full well. It's cute - our kids pray every day for Kahlia's "heart and mouth". :-) She is being well prayed for during this time....

For those of you who do not know the "history" behind our adoption process - this is for you...a brief run down of where we have been, why it has happened, and how God has continued to be faithful to us even when we didn't understand.
Our story began at Family Camp Labor Day weekend of 2004 - when the speaker that weekend was Christian Fiction writer Karen Kingsbury. She was there with her family - husband and 6 children - in tow. They have 3 birth children, and 3 children adopted children from Haiti. God started working on Scott's heart - much to his dismay that weekend. He literally fought with God for 2 weeks - never saying a word to me. Adoption was the last thing he wanted to do, and it scared him TREMENDOUSLY. On our anniversary - Sept. 11 - he tearfully told me what he had been feeling over the past few weeks. Of course I was VERY excited, but told Scott not to worry, we don't have to start right away, our David was only 3 weeks old! As months passed, the "fire" that God had put in his heart began to fade, and it would be another 2 years before we even started the adoption process. August of 2006 we began our paperwork to adopt a little girl from China. We went through the agency PLAN (Plan Loving Adoptions Now) because that was the agency I worked for at the time (just a few hours a year). Our homestudy was done through International Family Services because it would be a conflict of interest to have a home study done by my employer. Fast forward - our dossier was logged in the China Center for adoptions April 13, 2007 - that is our official log in date. Since that time, we have done nothing but wait, renew fingerprints (like they are really going to change), renew our homestudy 3 times, and wait some more. It was a VERY frustrating time for us! China adoptions has all but come to a complete halt. At their current rate, we probably wouldn't get a referral for 10+ years! I would ask Scott every once in a while if he wanted to consider changing countries, but he never ever felt led to do that - and so we just kept waiting...fast forward to October 2008. We got a call from a local foster mom, whom we knew casually from another church, wanting to know if we might be interested in a little baby that had been in her care since the day she was born. At the time she was 7 months old. After praying, we thought, the door was opened to us - we will proceed and see what happens. We found out the beginning of March that we were not selected for little Hailey, and the state not only sent us a rejection letter, but sent one to International Family Services too - since that was considered where our social worker was. Even though I wanted a little girl SO bad, I felt a total and complete peace about the decision. I just knew that God was in control, and I didn't want anything to happen that was not in his will or timing. At the time, I was really irritated that they even sent them the letter - personally, I felt it was none of their business that we weren't selected for a little girl through the State! But, as we find out so many times, our plans seem to never line up with God's - his are even better! The very next day after IFS (International Family Services) received that letter from the State, they received Shakti's referral from India. Rachelle Staley (now the youth superintendent for the NWYM of Friends) was still working at least a little with IFS. She knows a few of my sisters, and thought since we had opened our options other then China with the State, that maybe we would be interested in her. Before she even called us, she sent our homestudy to their contact in India to see if we would be considered and approved. After a "yes"response, she called us out of the blue the evening of Thursday, March 26. Wow - talk about a change of plans!! It just felt right - right from the beginning. So, another HUGE amount of paperwork, doctor approvals, a million notaries, another updated homestudy, it never seemed to end that paper work!! But, finally, we completed it, and the dossier was sent Tuesday, June 23. There you have it - a very brief over view. My next post I hope to go into more detail about Shakti (Kahlia) and her medical prayer requests - but, that is for another day - thanks for all your prayers! :-)
-Michelle

YEA!!! A big step for us today!!! Our dossier was sent to India TODAY - June 23, 2009!!! It was 27 months ago that our dossier was sent to China - we'll hope for a faster process this time around... :-) This time, we have a specific little girl that we are praying for, so it is an entirely different process. Please keep us in your prayers...the waiting begins.

Yesterday, we celebrated both Scott's birthday and Father's Day. We drove home from my parents where we arrived the night before. We went camping for a week with my entire family, and we all had a wonderful time!!! I was so busy with the end of school and getting ready for our camping trip, that I forgot to mail in a few very important items to finish off our adoption paper work. So, here we are - back from vacation, and I just sent off our final paper work (at least I hope it's our final paper work!!) We sent in our big # program fee (yikes!), our child acceptance agreement, plus 2 other pieces that needed to be signed. Wow - the paper work never seems to end. But, they are ready to send our dossier to India - they are just waiting for our agreement and money to reach their Texas office before they can actually send it off. Wow - we are so close!! Thanks for your prayers - I'll let you know that exact day our dossier is sent to India!

We received Kahlia's CSR!

Yesterday, June 10, we received Kahlia's official CSR for us to sign!! Today, I have to take care of some final paperwork, copy her official picture (she is adorable), and tomorrow before leaving on vacation, we need to notarize the documents. This is it! Over our vacation, Scott and I are going to hopefully get one of our two course works done that have to be completed before we travel to India. It's called With Eyes Open Wide. It is a workbook for adoptive parents to help them understand and get a better picture of what the transition will be like for the little one as they leave everything they know, to a new culture, new smells, new people, new food, new surroundings, and actually receiving consistent love!! I am SO very excited!! Please pray that Kahlia will feel loved, that her health will stay consistent, and that there will be no hang ups as our dossier is being reviewed and processed in India. Thanks for praying! :-)

June 5, 2009
Wow, I've never blogged, nor do I know really how to blog - but here I go! I decided to create this so our friends and family could follow our adoption process as we go! Though we have been on this journey for almost 3 years, I finally feel like we are seeing a small glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. We received a COPY of Kahlia's CSR (Child Study Report) on Wednesday, June 3 via email. We now know she was born to an unwed mother, and is now in an orphanage in Pune, India. It is south west of New Delhi, India. We received a very comprehensive medical report which we already knew the results of. Our little Kahlia will have to endure 2 very extensive and painful surgeries soon after coming to America. First and most important, she will need to have heart surgery. She as a heart defect called Tetrology of Fallot. With out surgery she would most certainly die at a young age. Not only will we be amazingly blessed by a new daughter, but she will be blessed with the gift of life - what an amazing story for all of our lives. After her recovery from heart surgery, she will then need to have surgery to correct her cleft pallot (the roof of her mouth). We were told in her CSR that milk often comes out of her nose when they try to feed her. Makes sense since there is a big hole in the roof of her mouth! Poor little girl - I can't wait to hold her and tell her everything is going to be ok.
We are hoping to officially sign the orginal CSR in the next week or so. They haven't sent it to us yet. Once we sign it, we are officially accepting her referral. International Family Services (IFS) will then send the CSR along with our completed dossier to the Indian government where it will likely take months for her to get a passport and have all the paper work done for us to go pick her up.
Well, that's about it for now. Please keep us in your prayers. This has been such a long journey, we are ready to finally be done with the waiting...