It's A GIRL!!!!

BIG NEWS!!! HUGE NEWS!!! We have a refferal!!!!

That's the part you expected. Get ready for the part you didn't expect!!! She's six years old!!!

She is beautiful and precious and I just know that you will all fall in love with her just like we have!!!

I know. I know it's not exactly what we were expecting but we are so excited and feel so good about this little one as a match for our family. I'll tell you all about it. Here are some of the questions I bet you're asking.

Had you been thinking about an older child?

Russ and I have been very open to an older child adoption. We have done EXTENSIVE research into bonding etc... Our main concern in adopting a child older than Kaitlyn was that we needed to have significant knowledge that this child had bonded with people in the past. Research shows that a child who has bonded in the past will most likely bond again.

How did you decide that this was your little girl?

A month or so ago I was reading the news on the internet about the horrible devastation in Guatemala due to the mudslides. I told Russ that I thought that maybe our little girl would come to us through this tragedy. He told me to call the agency and check it out. So I did. I asked them if any children had come available for adoption due to the mudslides. Our case worker told me that it was very unlikely that it would happen anytime soon. So I dismissed it and went on.

So Friday I got an e-mail from the agency saying that there were several new waiting children available. "Waiting" means they are ready to be adopted but have not found their forever family for some reason. In this little girl's case it was most likely because she is a bit older than most children adopted from Guatemala. I immediately looked at the pictures and shared it with Russ.

All weekend Russ and I prayed and talked and wrestled with whether this was our little girl. By the end of the weekend we were feeling that maybe this was right but we didn't know much about her yet.

Monday I called and e-mailed asking for information on the little girl. The director of Guatemalan adoption said that they had not recieved all the information on the little girl yet as she was a very new referral. She would e-mail the Guatemalan agency but said it may take till the end of the week. Russ and I just prayed.

Three hours later I recieved her information!!! Just another little miracle. What's more amazing is what was in the information.

This little girl is from a very poor family. Her mother loves her sincerely. When the hurricane hit their village it was wiped out. They lost what little they had. Their home and their harvest and any hope of having a harvest next year. This was the final straw in a series of many things (which we will keep private) that had caused her mother to consider adoption.

Her mother placed her in foster care and told the agency if she wasn't placed immediately for adoption she would come get her. She wanted her to have a good family. The mother came back to get her after two weeks but the little girl told her how well she being treated and that an American family would come get her soon. Her mother felt that this was the best thing for her daughter. The little girl says that she wants to be adopted.

I know that this is probably an extremely difficult situation for most of us as Americans to understand. We can't fathom what these people face on a daily basis. Guatemala is a beautiful country and full of wonderful culture and people.

It is an extremely impoverished country. Many people live in corrugated tin houses with no running water or heat and mud floors. Education is a luxury and food is not always readily available. Many babies die from malnutrition. This is life in a third world country.

I think of it as the show survivor but it's real life. No games, no million dollars and no medical team standing by.

This mother and child are faced with a decision to have her stay in a situation where she may not have enough to eat or even a roof and she may be unsafe or come to America. They know she will be well clothed, well fed, educated and loved. I can only pray that I would be as unselfish as this mother if faced with making that decision for my child. She is beyond amazing and noble in my estimation.

She came to us through the mudslides just like I thought. She was well loved and bonded with her mother. As soon as we read her story we knew she was ours!

We called the agency immediately and told them that we would like to accept the referral of this little one. Adopting out of birth order requires special permission from our social worker and a panel of Dillon social workers. We were approved today by both!!

What do you do next??

A LOT OF PAPERWORK!!! Don't expect to see me around much for the next couple of weeks. I will be busy working on getting my baby girl home from Guatemala.

In the next week or so we will hopefully turn in our dossier. (a collection of documents that represent you in court in Guatemala) Then we wait and wait and wait for our slow government and their slow government to process a million things. We will get to bring her home sometime between March-June. We are praying for March but will trust God for His timing. In our waiting time we can go visit her in Guatemala. So we are planning to go a couple of times while we wait. It looks like we may have some proud grandparents coming too!!!

We will send her scrapbooks, letters and whatever we can to help her feel more comfortable with the transition. We will also send letters and pictures to the birth mother so she will know who we are. We can only pray that it will give her some measure of comfort and peace. If the birth mother wants to meet us we would love to do that. We are told that many Guatemalan mothers feel too ashamed to do that right away. We will pray for her.

Can the parents change their mind?

The parents have the right to change their minds and parent their birth child until the time we bring her home. However, it is extremely rare that this happens. If the parents make this decision we will be fully supportive of them in every way. We would love to help them in whatever way we can. It would be very difficult for us but we would rejoice for them. Then our home would be open for another child who needs a home. We would be given a new referral almost immediately and incur no extra cost. (except the cost of extra visits) To us this wouldn't be a failure but another part of God's plan.

What will your little girl do now?

She will stay with the same foster family until we come and get her. She is already bonding very well with them. We are so grateful for wonderful foster mothers who give their hearts to care for these children.

Will you change her name?

Her name is Mirna Aracely. We will most likely change it to Krysta Zoe but we want to speak with her first. Many adoptive children want to change to an American name so they will not feel different. We may consider making it a second middle name. Krysta Zoe Mirna Weir. Then she can choose what to go by as she gets older. We'll see.

For now I'm calling her Zoe cause' I just think she looks like a Zoe!!! What do you think???