What a week!

Paul and I received wonderful news this past Tuesday! Our adoption agency emailed us to let us know that we have been moved from the 'waiting list' to the 'active list,' and we are now awaiting a referral for our child. We are moving forward in the process!

On Tuesday I was checking my email at school and noticed that I had a message in my inbox from Children's Bridge. My heart leaped and I couldn't breathe as I read the message. I think I must have read the words "...moving your family to the active status" about ten times before I could truly believe that our adoption journey was finally and officially underway! I couldn't stop the tears....it was such an overwhelming feeling. I quickly shared my news with my students, who then started to clap and cheer. :)

Paul and I have been working towards this adoption for quite awhile now. In fact, we are almost finished our home study. Our home visit with our adoption practitioner is this Tuesday and then our file can be sent to the Ontario Ministry for approval. We have also started attending PRIDE, a course that is government mandated in order to complete our home study and adoption. We will be finished the courses by this Sunday and have learned a lot about parenting an adopted child.

We are now waiting for about three to five months for a referral of our child. After that time, we will wait about another five to six months before we can travel to China and bring our child home. I cannot wait to find out if our child is a boy or a girl....what he or she will look like...about his or her likes and dislikes. Somewhere in an amazing country called China awaits our son or our daughter. We send out a prayer for his or her safekeeping every evening and will continue to do so until the day we are able to hold our child in our arms and become a forever family.