Here is a copy of the pre-approval we received yesterday for Caleb’s adoption.  Of course, it is in Chinese!  Anyone who can interpret it can get extra credit!

Ok, so we are adopting another child from Asia.  This time, we are adopting Caleb, a great little boy who is special needs from China.  The only reason we are allowed to adopt him (we have too many kids to adopt a non-special needs child from China) is because he is missing part of his left arm.  But he is awfully cute, don’t you think?

For some reason, child number 8 has caused people to question our sanity at a much more frequent rate than seven did, so let me answer the “why” question right here at the beginning.  First, why not?  He is a great kid that needs a home.  Why would you say no?

Second, at the beginning of 2009 our church put forth seven “unexpected expectations” for the year.  These were things that our church’s leadership believed could happen in the life of our church but were beyond what could be reasonably expected.  Through this process our church challenged individual families to develop seven “unexpected expectations” for themselves.  Kelly and I had talked before about the fact that as Mia (www.xanga.com/journeytomia) grew up, there were going to be times when she might feel different, being the only “asian” kid with six caucasian brothers and sister.  We had felt all along that having another child that looked like her would be beneficial. 

So, one of our family’s “unexpected expectations” for 2009 was that, if God wanted us to have another adopted child, he would have to drop that child in our laps.  We were not going to actively search out a child.  And, God was also going to have to provide the finances.  Almost two weeks ago, we received an email from an adoption agency asking if we would be interested in Caleb.  We had 48 hours to decide.  It didn’t take that long!  We were in!

Today, we received our pre-approval from China which means that, unless there is something highly questionable in our paperwork, Caleb is coming home.  Because we were not actively looking to adopt, we now have to scramble to get all of the stuff done that normally would have been down.  We are working on our homestudy and sare making copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates, financial statements, etc. 

Since Caleb is special needs, the amount of time that is going to pass before we go get him is much shorter.  Originally, Kelly and I were thinking that we would be heading to China in February or March.  But our agency feels like we may be heading out as early as January.  So, stay tuned and I will update this as we go!  It will be a wild ride, but God has already answered many prayers early in the process.