I am so glad that we asked you all to pray concerning our agency, Lifeline Children’s Services, giving us permission to adopt two children concurrently! The leadership team met today and discussed our request. We received the disappointing answer that, no, they did not give us permission to pursue adopting a second child on this same trip to China. We really felt this on our heart and wanted to follow through on it, but with so many praying that the leadership at Lifeline would make the right decision, I am resting in the idea that this must be what is best and that God is sovereign in this situation. This is an encouragement to me! They mentioned that in part, they felt that Sparrow would be best served by coming home alone as she is an “older” child. Our social worker explained to us that any child over 3 years of age is considered to be an older child. They also mentioned that since this is our first international adoption, they felt a single adoption would be best. We appreciate them being so thoughtful in this situation and looking to what is best for our new daughter! Thank you again for your prayers, we appreciate you!

For now, we are excited to continue on our journey to bring our Sparrow home! Our I800A was submitted last Tuesday on February 4. Typically it is a 2-3 month wait to receive that approval from US Immigration and during that time, we will be fingerprinted again and also finish our Dossier so it can be sent to China. The Dossier includes our medicals, criminal clearances, family pictures, passport photos, birth certificates, marriage license … and finally we will add our I800A approval when we receive it.

We plan to send some pictures of our family to Sparrow this week and appreciate your prayers that God would be preparing her heart to join our family and become a sister and a daughter.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

1 John 5:14