The True Story...

Now that Courtney is home with us, I believe it's safe to share the truth about how everything really came to be... not that it's anything crazy, just slightly different.

Last July we went on a vacation to the mountains for a week. While there I received super exciting news from my friend, Laurie. She had just received her daughter's referral!!! I was so excited for her and couldn't wait to follow her journey to China to bring her sweet daughter home. After getting home from the mountains, I started wondering if we would adopt again. I started thinking about what it would be like to have a second daughter, and what it would be like for Katelyn to have a sister.

I spoke with Scott about my feelings, and he never said "no," he just simply said we needed to wait for a while. He did tell me to go ahead and find out what the costs would be for a second adoption with our agency (as there are some adjusted fees) and what the time frame would be if we wanted to adopt another child with Spina Bifida. So, on July 17, 2009, I emailed one of the ladies that works in the Waiting Child Program to find out the details. We talked more about it over the weekend, and then received an email back from our agency on Monday the 20th. We were told that there aren't many families considering adopting a child with SB, so our wait would likely be very short, and we would likely be matched before our Dossier was complete.

Now I need to back up just a bit... after bringing Katelyn home, my heart ached for the children there that had SB. The care they received was not adequate, and many orphanage staff did not believe SB kiddos were "adoptable," so they didn't even file their paperwork. It wasn't long before I learned about a foundation that was trying to change this. The Baobei Foundation was helping to provide surgery and after-care for Chinese orphans with neurological and gastroinstestinal issues. They were also working with the orphanages to help make the babies "paper-ready" (getting their papers ready so they could be adopted). I began emailing with one of their founders, Tingting, who had just moved from China to the USA. She and I had lots of great emails back and forth and had started working on putting together info for adoptive parents that are interested in adopting a child with SB. Although we have never met in person, I consider her a dear friend.

Now back to 2009... Tingting and I had been emailing about our little SB project and I mentioned that we were considering adopting again. I also mentioned that, if we did adopt again, we would want to adopt another child with SB. She was very excited for us. She then told me that a Baobei's (a child cared for by the foundation) file was probably going to be sent to our adoption agency very soon. She told me where a picture of this child (Baby Yang) was on the Baobei website. I went to the website and stared at the picture for quite some time. Of course, I also searched the website for more pictures of this sweet little girl and found lots of info about her. My heart immediately knew that this was our daughter.

Later that evening, Tingting sent me more photos and some additional info. You see, this wasn't just any child... Tingting had a connection to this child. In April 2008, she had gone to one of the orphanages to bring back two girls who were in critical need of SB surgery. Unfortunately, one of the little ones passed away before they were able to leave. Since they had enough funds to do two surgeries, she decided to bring Yang back with her as well (her SB did not warrant immediate surgery which was why she wasn't originally supposed to go to Shanghai at that time). Her surgery in Shanghai went very well, and she remained there to receive castings for her club feet and the care she needed.

Of course, now I had to explain to Scott that I just found our daughter... even though I wasn't supposed to be looking yet! After lots of prayer, and a LONG sleepless night... Scott agreed that this was our daughter and I began the necessary steps to bring her home! It was another week before we were officially matched. I was a wreck that week... I didn't know if we would even get to review her file. Maybe there were other families "in line" before us that wanted to adopt a child with SB. In that case, we may never get to see the file at all. I emailed our agency daily to make sure everything was in order, and to let them know we were ready to proceed quickly should we get the chance to be matched with Yang. We were accepted into the adoption program (again) on July 28th and received our "match" on July 31st. I actually received "the call" when I was down at my parents' house. I hadn't even told them we were planning on adopting again... imagine the surprise when I showed my mom a picture of her new granddaughter!

Our journey had many ups and downs from that point on, but Courtney is home with us now, and we are so blessed to call her our daughter. A year ago tomorrow was when I saw Courtney's face for the first time... just like the day I saw Katelyn's face for the first time, it'll be a day I'll never forget.

my first look at Courtney

Courtney's referral picture

Courtney playing dress-up a couple of weeks ago