and the family grows–big adoption news

No, Kim’s not pregnant.  But this has been a remarkable week for the Sublett family in PA.

Last week, Kim got an email from our adoption agency about kids who were waiting to be adopted.  We don’t usually get these emails, so Kim began to read the bios and look at the pictures.  One picture took her breath away–a nine year old girl in China.

“Do you think this could be our Annabelle?”

We prayed a lot about it this week.  Kim was busy on the phone/email with the adoption agency.  They gave us 10 days to get her medical records reviewed by a local doctor, spend time in prayer, and get back to them with our answer.

“Do you think this could be our Annabelle?”

Several years ago, Kim had a dream about a little girl, probably 5 years old.  She was Chinese, couldn’t understand English, but was standing with her arms reaching out to Kim.  She kept calling out, “Mercy!”

We committed to pray about it as a family.  We talked with a few close friends to get some wisdom.  We talked to doctors and other adoptive families.  A nine year old girl?  I’d never considered changing our adoption plan.  I had my heart set on a baby that we had been praying for, loving without knowing, calling Annabelle.

“Could this be our Annabelle?”

I had the chance to spend some time with a 15 year old girl who was adopted from China just 2 years ago.  She was with us this week at our camp (Summer of Service), and God spoke to me through her.  She asked me a few insightful questions:

You’ve been trying to adopt a girl from China?
You’ve been waiting 4 years?
This girl wants to be adopted, needs a home?
Why don’t you want to go get her?

This is our Annabelle!

After a message to the agency to tell them that we’d love to bring our 9 year old girl home, we received an email with a tentative travel date, and tons of paperwork to be completed.  Kim’s been working furiously to get all the paperwork done.  We got our fingerprints taken Saturday, and have to get a physical tomorrow before we try to get out of town for a little vacation.

There have been lots of tears (of joy) this week.  I’m still overwhelmed when I stop to let it sink in.  We’ve got a lot of work to do, a good chunk of money to raise, and probably more than a few unexpected obstacles in the road (Do any of you speak Chinese, cause my daughter doesn’t speak English!)  We’re still waiting for the final approval from the Chinese side of the adoption, but the bottom line is this:

This is our Annabelle!