WE FOUND HER!

On January 30th, I saw this picture on the website of another agency. We are not allowed to switch agency's, not that I'd want to, so I muttered to myself, "Why couldn't she be on my list, Lord? I'd snatch her up!" I mean, look at those cheeks and that face! Well, He heard me! The next day I was checking out our agency's list because they posted that they got a few more "Hard to Place" children added to the list and THERE SHE WAS! I screamed for Paul to come look and I explained what had happened. Then I fumbled with the computer keys to get a request form filled out. I wasn't fast enough though because one other family beat me to her. But, I was pretty sure we would still get the chance and sure enough on February 6th the agency called to see if we were still interested in looking at her file! We got the file that afternoon and scrambled the next day to find doctors that could help us figure out what her medical file meant. Paul had to fly to Atlanta that afternoon for a National Sales meeting so we were in a hurry to get some answers. He made as many calls as he could and left me to wait to hear back from the Doctors. The nurse from our pediatrician's office called to say the PA had looked and he gave us a long and daunting list of all the issues this child may face- everything from hydrocephalus to tethered cord syndrome to Chiari II Malformation. It was a very clinical conversation void of much emotion for this child but, it was something we needed to hear. Later that evening another Doctor called me and this conversation was much different. She began to look over the file while she was on the phone with me but only the good things seemed to jump out at her. She even said she was having a hard time looking at this from a clinical point of view. She kept looking at the picture and saying how good the baby looked! It was not what she was expecting. All of the sudden she stopped and asked if she could pray for us right then. She did and we talked for a very long time about all the possible outcomes for this baby. Later she was able to sit and look at the file clinically and emailed me a list of definite and possible issues. I'll get into all that later. What is important to know is that while I was listening to doctors tell me what could be wrong, Paul was in Atlanta praying for God to tell him what to do about it. Late that evening, God spoke to Paul and made it clear that this was the child we had searched for and we were now to trust that He would provide us with the resources to care for her. Just before midnight he called me. On February 8th I called our agency and began the process of requesting this child to be placed with our family! Our Letter of Intent was submitted to the CCAA at around 10pm EST on February 11th and amazingly we received PA (pre-approval) from the CCAA within 38 hours instead of weeks or months!