![\"Dang](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Dang-Jia-Qi-10.15.14-4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSome of you want the facts and some of you want the details, so we\u2019ll do facts first: \u00a0Our daughter\u2019s name is Jia Qi, and she is 23 months old (she\u2019ll turn 2 on February 2nd). \u00a0She is currently living with an American foster family in China, but we don\u2019t know much about them other then that. \u00a0We do know that she has an older foster sister though, which is kind of awesome! \u00a0We really hope to stay in touch with them after she is adopted, but it\u2019s unlikely we will be able to contact them before due to the rules and regulation regarding adoption in China. We also don\u2019t know if they speak to her in English or Chinese, but we\u2019re hoping she will at least know some English before we get there. She has a postoperative heart condition (that was repaired in China) that will need followed up with a pediatric cardiologist, but otherwise, she is healthy! \u00a0Her paperwork says that she is learning things at \u201c150 miles per hour.\u201d \u00a0We \u00a0could not be more smitten\u2026 isn\u2019t she beautiful?! \u00a0We feel so lucky to get to be her parents!!!<\/p>\n
Now, for the details! \u00a0I received a call from CCAI on December 12th, sitting at work. \u00a0I saw CCAI come up on the caller ID, but I had been waiting on a phone call back about a dossier question, so I was pretty surprised to hear the person on the other end say \u201cwe have a file for you to review!\u201d \u00a0Our CCAI contact went through the basic contents of the file and then asked if I was still interested. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t say yes fast enough! \u00a0As soon as I hung up the phone, I started crying\u2026 mother\u2019s intuition? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. \u00a0In any event, I waited for the info to come through in my email, and called Josh to tell him. \u00a0Because she is with a foster family, we were lucky enough to get lots of extra pictures, which was so awesome. \u00a0I looked at those pictures and that was pretty much it for me. \u00a0I honestly didn\u2019t care what the paperwork said. \u00a0She was ours from the minute I saw her. \u00a0I started looking through her paperwork, and emailed it all to an international adoption clinic doctor with whom we have an established relationship and asked her to look at everything. \u00a0And then, because it was a Friday\u2026 we waited.<\/p>\n We heard back from Dr. Ottegen on Monday who reviewed all of the paperwork we had and confirmed our feelings that Jia\u2019s medical situation and prognosis were excellent. \u00a0She also consulted with a pediatric cardiologist and he also give us a good report. \u00a0So we were left to make a decision that had the potential to totally change our lives.<\/p>\n Of course, this all happened during one of the busiest weeks of our year\u2026. \u00a0I had a late work event, Josh had late meetings and activities, my mom and I went to Columbus (and, by the way, I did not breathe a word of this to anyone\u2026 so imagine me, the worlds worst secret keeper, having to spend 4 hours with my mom, to whom I tell just about everything, and not being able to talk about the only thing on my mind! \u00a0It was rough, y\u2019all.), and by the time we had a minute to really sit down and hash things out, it was Thursday night at 10:30 and we had to make a decision by the next morning. \u00a0Making a decision like that feels like holy ground, and we certainly didn\u2019t make it lightly, but it wasn\u2019t a hard decision in the end. \u00a0I think we both knew nearly from the minute we saw Jia that she was our daughter. \u00a0So our conversation was more \u201chow did we get so lucky?\u201d then \u201cshould we say yes?\u201d. \u00a0We had said yes in our hearts a week before, it just took a while for our brains to catch up.<\/p>\n So, the next day, we called our agency, and said \u201cshe\u2019s ours!\u201d. \u00a0We had to fill out some additional paperwork, write a letter of intent stating that we understand her medical needs, and have a plan to care for her, and submit some basic family information. \u00a0Once we sent that in, her file was \u201clocked\u201d which means that no one else could see it or request it, and then all of that information was submitted electronically to China. \u00a0We were told to expect not to hear anything back from them until after the new year, but the day after Christmas, we got our Letter of Acceptance and it because unofficially official (it will become really official once we have our dossier to China)!!<\/p>\n As far as what changes, our process is now quite a bit expedited, and we are expecting to travel no later than August. \u00a0That means we\u2019re working like mad people to get all of our documents to China and our dossier completed, we\u2019re trying to figure out our\u00a0fundraising plan on an expedited timeline, and we\u2019re are nearly out of our minds with excitement about getting to meet our sweet Jia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, that\u2019s what\u2019s been going on behind the scenes, friends\u2026 \u00a0what a ride!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first started this blog, one of the posts I was most excited to write was the one that started \u201cWE\u2019RE MATCHED!!\u201d and here we are, months sooner than we planned and more delighted than I could have imagined. \u00a0Friends, please meet our beautiful daughter\u2026. WE\u2019RE MATCHED!!! \u00a0\u00a0 Some of you want the facts Continue reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n