FINALLY!! WE GOT OUR NOC TODAY!!! :-)

Hello family and friends,
It has been 5 months since I posted here. This adoption process has been very discouraging, and it has been hard keeping our spirits high in the midst of so much disappointment. We were told that when our dossier was sent to India on June 23 - it would be an 8-16 week wait to receive our NOC (Non Objectionable Clearance). It has been over 29 weeks!!!
Just today (before I got the news), I was sharing with the ladies in my Bible study what's been going on in my heart. We were talking about what it means to have Faith. It really hit home when we were reminded that Noah was told to build an ark - in which he built for 110 years!!! Not only did he build for 110 years, but he did so in an area of the world that had rarely if ever even seen rain!! He trusted the Lord for 110 years that His plan was "higher" than his own. Even when he didn't understand, he kept his faith, plugged onward, and in the end, he triumphed. Wow - putting that in perspective, we have ONLY been waiting for just over 3 years!!
Though we have now been "approved", our file has to now be approved in the Indian court system. It usually takes them 1-2 weeks to file for court, then it takes another 8-16 weeks to be approved through the courts. That is merely a formality, our real approval was our NOC clearance, but with our court approval - our little Kahlia will officially be ours. Then it will be another 3ish weeks for the approval here in the states. Once that is approved - we will be cleared to make travel arrangements to finally pick up our little girl.
To give a little update, Shakti (Kahlia) turned one on September 25. We received our last update right around her birthday, and she was only 13 pounds and barely sitting up. She is very weak, and very much in need of heart surgery ASAP!
Our kids pray for her literally every day, it has been such a blessing for us to watch our children grow in their own faith as they go through this heart wrenching process right along with us. Makenna will be 7 in a few months - she was only 3 when we started this adoption journey.
Now that we have HOPE, there is real progress moving forward, I will be more active in my posts so all of you can stay "updated" on our progress as we get closer and closer to bringing our little girl home. Thank you all for your prayers and support. What a blessing to us!!! :-)
Love,
Michelle

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! :-)