Well, we have been busy here at the Fischer house! We are expecting our baby boy in just over 3 months. He now has a name....Timothy Isaac. We will call him "Timmy." Andrew approves of this name so we feel like we had to seal the deal while we had him on board. He hasn't agreed on too many names that we have thrown out there. Matthew still thinks his baby's name is Emma Grace. The poor child is so confused. Timmy's room is all cleaned out and ready for him. His dresser is full of all of his clothes that I am PRAYING will fit him for at least a few months! Our other boys have always been so big. Matthew was wearing 3-6 months clothes when he was a month old. If Timmy grows like that, we will have a major clothing deficit! Since this will be our last boy, I am being a little stingy with clothes buying. I don't want to accumulate anymore clothes, but if we have to, then we have to. My goal is Christmas... if he needs clothes at Christmas, then we will stock up a little bit. Matthew was wearing 18 month sleepers when he was 6 months old.... so, I really have to think ahead here as far as what clothes I have, seasons, etc.!
Everyone knows we are expecting our little boy, but very few people know about our little girl that we are expecting. Last month, Rick and I made the commitment to adopt. Rick knew before we got married that I wanted to adopt one day. He was always in agreement if it was something that fit our family at the time. We feel so strongly that a girl is missing from our family. I have always laughed at people that said "we felt called to do something..." In my head I always thought, "yeah, right." But, once we found out Timmy was coming we both felt a very strong urge that this was something we HAD TO DO. I remember the day.... Rick and I had been talking for a few weeks about the possibility, where we would adopt from, would we do domestic or international.... then one day I just felt something come over me and I knew what we needed to do. I feel so strongly about this adoption. When I dream at night I can picture our little girl with our 3 handsome boys. There was a moment when Rick and I thought we might try one more time for our girl but we both decided against that quickly. I honestly think if I tried 1o times that I would have 10 boys and God would be sitting up there with the angels laughing and saying "when is she going to figure this one out?" We have prayed for Emma Grace for years. Our prayer was that God would lead us to her if she wasn't meant to be carried by me. Well, guess what.... our prayer was answered. She isn't supposed to be carried by me. That isn't part of our plan, and we are fine with that. She will be our daughter just the same. We are adopting from China and we are so excited we can hardly stand it!
So, after careful research and many questions, we decided on the agency. We are using FTIA which stands for Families Thru International Adoption. They are wonderful. You know me, I have to be so organized and control every last detail. Before we committed to this, I called them almost everyday asking different questions. They were so helpful and their website (www.ftia.org) was by far the best site I came across in my research. When we first started, all of the paperwork seemed OVERWHELMING. But, since I had asked so many questions in the beginning, when it was time to start collecting documents, it was no big deal. We have now collected ALL our documents except for 2 items that are out of our control. We are missing the home study report, which we will be finished in August. After our home study report is complete, we have to do our CIS approval, which is basically to make sure we are not criminals. This goes through the federal government, so you can imagine how long that will take! Our coordinator, Betty, is very impressed with how speedy I have been with these documents! Then, our final piece of business will be Rick's birthday. He has to be 30 before we can submit our work to China. We will be finished with our dossier (fancy word for paperwork) well before then. So, ON RICK'S BIRTHDAY our dossier will be on its way to China. What a great gift!
Once our dossier is in China, we will have a very loooooong wait! At the moment, wait time is 38 months. It could get faster, and we were told that is a very real possibility. But, we don't want it to be too much faster! We have Timmy on the way, and it is important we focus on him for awhile. We have requested a healthy female infant between the ages of 4-15 months. Because we will be the youngest couple in the "waiting" room, we will be matched with the youngest baby in the waiting room. I tried not to be too picky on the age... I believe whole-heartedly that God knows exactly who our little girl is and he will give her to us when he is ready. If she is 2 years old, then we will get a 2 year old. Andrew is so excited about his sister in China. He wants to go to China so bad to get her. We keep reminding him that he will be 7 when she comes, so that he doesn't get too excited or disappointed!
So, with all of that being said.... we have some specific prayer requests. First, we ask that you pray for her birth mom. We are praying that she will nourish her body and take care of the baby. We are also praying for a safe birth. We are praying that Emma Grace is taken care of and loved until we can get to her and we are also praying for a baby as young as possible. Again, these are prayer requests, but we will willingly take what we are given. We also ask that you will pray for our boys. We want them to understand that she will look different, but that it doesn't matter. We don't want their heads filled with negativity about her looks, or where she lived, or anything else pertaining to the adoption. We want them to love and appreciate their sister for exactly what she is. We know that not all people will be as accepting as we are, and we hope these people do not influence our children. We are so excited about the changes in our family! I am so thankful for this little boy growing inside me right now. If it weren't for him, we might never have realized how important it was for us to adopt.
Rick and I have been watching a lot of You Tube videos about Chinese adoptions and we have come across some bible versus that we love. Here are a few:
Psalm 139: 13-16 For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you
John 1: 12-13 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Mark 10:14 Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these
Isaiah 43:5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.
James 1:27 Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here I am, send me!"
