I didn't know you were planning on adopting again

That's what most people said to us when we shared our news. And well...we didn't really know either. It just kind of evolved. We had talked about if we would ever adopt again, and we never ruled  it out, but we never thought it would be this soon either. I was obsessesed,  I would check Reeces Rainbow almost daily while Gary was deployed. I loved to pray for the children and see who got families. I would read the blogs of those adopting RR children and slowwly I started envisioning myself in their shoes. Occasionaly I would send Gary a picture of a little girl that I thought "maybe" we "might" be somewhat interested in adopting. I even emailed RR about 2 of them. For no reason what so ever that's as far as it went.
When Gary got back from his deployment, the nudge to add to our family got stronger. The really odd thing is he was the one to bring it up. He even said he really wanted to add a younger child to the family. Our children are 6.5, 8.5. and 9.5
I had seen Ella's picture on RR and had offhandedly showed it to Gary once. But we really thought what would be ideal would be a 4-5 year old. Right before our family trip to Ohio RR posted a new picture of Ella, she had just turned 2. I showed the picture to Gary, and immediatley his face lit up. Over the next several weeks Andrea with RR tried to get us more information, like does she walk, does she talk, at that point all they knew was that she had CP. Gary and I would talk about it a little, then avoid the subject. He was under the impression that it would cost as much as our Russian adoption. I told him, that it was ONLY half, and that I had crunched the numbers and we could do it, by doing the same thing we did with Anastasia, take on the debt and pay it off as we could.
So finally, one day I asked him. We need to decided if we are intersted in adopting her, so we can stop torturing ourselves. He said, "i think we both already know the answer" YEAH!!!!

ONE of the huge God things in this: I could never understand why noone had committed to her yet, she was young and cute, and her disabilites seemed mild, she is sitting straight up and using both hands. Several people have told me that they inquired about her with RR, but for some reason they just knew it was not their daughter. One of these women is adopting the one of the 2 little girls we had inquired about.

ANOTHER huge God thing is: we thought we needed more information, it seems crazy to just committ to a child off of 2 pictures and 1 sentence. Over those weeks, everytime I looked at her picture, something happened that only an adoptive mother can explain. In that picture I saw my chosen chld. Not the child we chose but the child God chose for our family. I told Gary, "I know she is ours, when I look at her picture I can feel her in arms" Several days after we committed to her, I got an email from Andrea saying she had gotten more information. The information basically said: she follows directions, talks, seems normal cognitively, can walk holding onto someone's hands.
The funny thing is, it was nice to have that information, but God didn't make it available to us until we let Him lead us blind, to commit to a child that He lead us too. It was like him saying, "see my good and faithful servant, I could have given you this information, but why?"

To say we feel blessed to be adopting again is such an understatement.

Well..hello there!

Man, technology just moves way too fast. I was so lost trying to get this thing set up. So an awesome blog friend helped me out big time. Are you even allowed to call yourself a blogger if you don't know how to set up your own blog!
Well, first things first. I'll do a little intro of our future daughter today, then tomorrow I'll tell you more about how we got here!

We have decided to name our daughter Ella Nicole. The grandmother my son Cooper is named after is "Eleanor Cooper" When I was pregnant with Cooper they told me at my ultarsound that he was a girl, so that is what we named him. They told us several ultrasounds later that he was in fact a boy. So instead of naming him Ella after Eleanor, we used Cooper.
We've been running over names for 3 weeks, with nothing sticking. Then all of a sudden it hit me. Why are we trying to figure out a name that sounds good, when we have a name that means something. I have a sister that I was not raised with, her name is Sara Nicole, Gary's middle names Nicholas, and one of my very best friend's name is Nicole.
Ella turned 2 in June. She was about 2 pounds at birth. They think she has CP, though it appears that it is mild. Her caregivers say she talks and follows directions and seems to be on target in that perspective. They say she can walk if someone is holding her hand. In her picture she is sitting straight up and using both hands, those are really good things. Is it the same type of CP as Anastasia? We do not know, and may not know till we meet her. The fact that she will have intervention so early in life is great!
We cannot tell you in what country she is, although we can say she is in Eastern Europe.
Here are the 2 pictures we have of her.
The one where she has a bonnet on her head, she was somewhere between 12-18 months. The 2nd picture was taken just 2 months ago right when she turned 2. Isn't she just precious!

I'm trying to get this blog set up

Sorry, I'm trying! It wasn't this hard last time.