The beginning of this journey

As some of you know we wanted to do two adoptions while we were waiting to bring Kaleigh home. As the wait grew longer and longer we started giving up on the hope of a second child. The completion of our journey to Kaleigh and the beginning of our journey with her really opened our eyes to special needs adoptions. We read so many stories of people who did sn adoptions and the children came home with almost no issues or issues that were so easy to correct. Then we went to China and found out that healthy referrals do not mean there will not be issues. Our precious wonderful Kaleigh was severely delayed physically and she has struggled to catch up with her peers, but she is a very determined little girl and she will get there. Some of the other children we saw in China ended up having major health concerns as well. So for anyone out there who is considering adoption just remember that just like having a child you don't know for sure what you are getting until you have it.

So we started looking at special needs list and talking to our social worker about the sn process. We looked at a few files and some were obviously not right for us, older, not sure if we could handle the needs of the child. A couple of the ones we looked at were matched with someone else first. Then comes this cute little girl with a cleft lip and palette. There was something about her eyes and the thick hair on her head. So we requested to see her file. She was only 2 1/2 months younger than Kaleigh (we almost switched to twins while we were waiting) and was developementally right on track. While at a Halloween party for Kaleigh the pediatrician called to let me know that she looked good other than her obvious special needs. I called the agency and said we want her. They said we think someone may have just placed her one hold let me check and I will call you back. That was a LONG 15 minutes and then they called and said she is on hold for you and this is what you need to do to request Pre approval. On November 2nd, I sent in the paperwork that China needed to show that we were qualified and that we had a plan to care for this little one. On November 30th, I got the email that said China had approved us. Now we have a deadline to get the next part of the process completed, but Pan Li to be known as Courtney Grace will hopefully be coming home to her forever family in 9 to 12 months.