Monday, March 15, 2010

Happy Forever Family Day, Lilly!

What a difference a year makes. March 16th marks the one-year anniversary of Lilly joining our family. From the very first moment we laid eyes on her till now, it has been an incredible journey filled with miracles, challenges, love, and massive amounts of joy. I have been working on this slide show to encapsulate the past year--it has been wonderful to look back through all the photos and reflect on all that God has done in our hearts and in Lilly's life in such a quick year. It feels like just yesterday that she became ours, and yet it also feels like there was never a day that she was not in our family. I know before long it will be hard to remember "did that happen before or after we got Lilly?" because it will all begin to blur together. Our hearts are knit together, by the grace of God. May He get the glory.

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3 comments:

taylorfamily5 said...

Wow, I just watched your beautiful montage and I cried with tears of joy. Lilly is amazing and she just grabs my heart. I'm so glad the Cathy, Maya and I got to meet all of you in China. Thanks for the powerful memories. I look foward to seeing how God heals Lilly. Give hugs and a hello to the family from all of the Taylors.

shane

March 16, 2010 at 5:22 PM
trina said...

What a wonderful story! Lilly is so beautiful and has the sweetest smile. I'm praising God with you for such an amazing little girl.
Our Hudson was placed in our arms on March 19, 2007 so we will soon celebrate his big day as well.

March 17, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Unknown said...

Truly the joy and contentment expressed in her smile says it all. The Lord has touched our hearts through this precious gift, Lilly.

We will be praying for her regarding upcoming medical visits, and God's perfect timing.

Mary W

March 22, 2010 at 8:14 AM

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Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007