Introducing.....Lily Hope!!!!!!!

We are SO PROUD and PLEASED to FINALLY announce the referral of our daughter from China...

Lily Hope Jiatong Stanley!!!!!!

(Scream! AAAHHH! Shout!)

Our little Ladybug

Look at those PRECIOUS eyes!!!! ( When I see this pic..I can see into this girl's soul!)
Pretty in Pink!!! (This was our first glimpse of our sweet daughter. The moment I saw this pic, I KNEW she was ours!!!!!!

We are STILL in total disbelief that we received our referral from China. After waiting over 3 years, you just wonder every now and then if you will EVER see the face of that little girl that God put a hole in your heart for. I cannot believe the journey of Faith we have been on. I can honestly say that this journey has brought me closer to God than ANY other thing in all of my life. I am so grateful that God made us wait. I know this sounds crazy because it hasn't been easy. But, what has been easy is knowing our God is in CONTROL of EVERY minor and major detail of our lives. He has shown us in BIG and LITTLE ways throughout this process that He is SO REAL, PEOPLE. If you wonder if there is a God, if he hears your cries, if He sees your pain, HE DOES. But we must remember he is molding us for HIS PURPOSE, NOT OURS. He set the lonely in our hearts for a child, when we felt complete at one time. His plan is to set the lonely in families, but not for a child from our womb, but HIS, on HIS terms, in HIS timing. You see, when we first began this process, we thought we wanted a "girl, 0-12 months, no known special needs". God knew we weren't ready for what He had in store for us, so SLOWLY but SURELY He began to mold us according to His PURPOSE, HIS CHARACTER. Teaching us to love and see through HIS eyes, with HIS heart. He knew that there was a little girl in Ethiopia for us that needed us first. He knew that he needed to remove the scales from our eyes...little by little, bit by bit, piece by piece. Taking away our tunnel vision, broadening our view. He knew we needed to go to ETHIOPIA, AFRICA to see the poor, the needy, and the BEAUTIFUL people. He knew we wouldn't be able to come back to America unchanged and has challenged us to DO SOMETHING about it. He also opened our eyes to the many children who reside in orphanages with special needs. He knew He had to teach us many things before we were ready to open our eyes and hearts to a child with known special needs. We submitted our medical checklist to our agency in Feb. 2009. I told Doug I just couldn't turn it in unless we checked cleft lip and palate. I just knew in my heart that this was something God had led us to. I even told Doug I hoped that was her need. We recently received the email with the information about our daughter. I first saw her name. (Jia means Happy and Tong means GOLDEN HOPE!!! and we had picked our name over 3 years ago!!!) Next, I saw her birth date... 8-25-09!!! What??!! She wasn't even 9 months old??? We had said we would accept a child up to 36 months so we were totally blown away by this! I then saw the words, "cleft lip and palate" and smiled....and finally I clicked on the picture of her in the pink! At that very moment, I was looking at my daughter. We are SO over the moon, the boys are SO IN LOVE, and Lola Joy says Lily BOPE and laughs!:) GOD IS GOOD! I wish I had the time to share all of the times HE showed up in this process in a very real way through circumstances and people and rainbows, names, etc. I am going to have to put it into words at some point. All I can say is...if you have any tiny tug on your heart to adopt...DO IT! Step out of the boat like Peter did and FOCUS your eyes on the ONE who will walk with you EVERY step of the way guiding you, molding you, providing for you, and CARRYING you. I DARE YOU!
Thanks for your love and prayers. We have about 3-5 months before we can see our sweet daughter face to face, so keep us all in your prayers. I will update soon with a "what's next" post.
Overwhelmed to be CHOSEN to be Lily's forever family,
Julie

For those of you in the adoption world that knows what this means...

we have sent our LOI and today we received our PA. Waiting for three letters LOA...then TA. And by the way, Happy 9 months old sweet Lily Pie.:)