We're offically "expecting!"

With great joy and excitement, Avery, Ally, and Annalyse announce the adoption of their little sister...


ASHLEI MEI!

For many of you , this will be the first time you've heard anything about this! So, here's our story....

For many years now we have been thinking/talking and praying about adopting a child from China. Over the course of the last 4 months we know that God is telling us, "it's time!" Let me say that we were thinking this would be something we would do in maybe 4-5 years, so this is defiantly in God's time line not ours. The Lord has confirmed this to us in so many ways, really too many to list here. We are excited, scared, and elated all in one! Here's how the process works:

We have been approved by our agency (American World Adoption). Next we will begin a homestudy process and gather many documents that China requires (birth certificates, marriage cert, passports, physicals, background checks, etc....). This process should take about 6 months to compete. Once we have everything together (our "dossier") it will be sent to Houston to be translated to Chinese and then sent to China.

Then, we wait for our "referral" or, ASHLEI MEI! We'll receive pictures and updated health information. We are requesting a girl,(very few boys available in China) 0-2 years old. This is the hardest part, waiting for the referral. It could take anywhere from 3-24 months~!

After we receive her referral, we'll travel to China for 10-14 days. Jay and I will go without the girls, and we'll get Ashlei about 48 hours after arriving in China. The remainder of the trip will be spent bonding, sightseeing, and getting the China end of our paperwork done. As soon as her feet hit US soil, she'll be an American citizen! Jay is really hoping to travel next summer because the Olympics are in China! We'll see!!!

Please keep us in your DAILY prayers as we begin this journey. This will prove to be the biggest faith journey our marriage has been through in the last 8 years! We are so humbled that God would choose our family to experience adoption as a way to build our family. He has adopted us as His children and we are in awe if His love for us and for Ashlei. Our desire is that HE get all the Glory and that this is not about us at all.

Now, GET READY FOR THE RIDE AS WE GO GET ASHELI MEI!!!