FINALLY time for an announcement a year in the making!

FINALLY time for an announcement a year in the making!!! WE ARE EXPECTING ANOTHER DAUGHTER! She's 3 1/2 years old, completely deaf, and completely precious, and SO loved! She lives in China and we are Lord-willing going to China to adopt her and bring her home to us FOREVER this April. Meet our princess, Katie Grace Xiatong Becker! We got our long-awaited official Pre-Approval from China today. She doesn't know any sign language yet but we do!!! We started going to a Sign Language class and we live 4 miles from one of the best deaf schools in NJ. Cara is THRILLED to be a LITTLE SISTER and this is our dream come true-- a dream a decade in the making!!!! 

:) Whew, been holding in that secret for over a year, since we made the decision and started saving up! I'll give you the basic timeline and facts and THEN go into WHY in the next post.

ADOPTION Timeline of EVENTS

Winter 2012- Completely weaned off my medicine for my gastroparesis, a condition in which my stomach's digestive nerve became paralyzed because I have celiac ( the medicine wasn’t safe for pregnancy)

May 2012- Got the “okay” from my GI doctor that we could try to conceive Becker child #2

July 2012- Decided to against adding maternity insurance to our policy and instead to follow our longtime dream to ADOPT (see the next post about WHY). Met with our Adoption Agency in PA and submitted application, we decided on CHINA, "special needs adoption"!

September 2012- Started my in-home babysitting of Joey, (a four-year old boy), full-time, in order to save up for adoption. Saved up the first $7000 in contract/ Homestudy fees.

February 9, 2013- Saw 4 year old Qingge’s picture for the first time. Doug and I fell in love with her sweet smile! Started researching arthrogryposis, her condition. Spoke to orthopedic surgeons, interviewed physical therapists and a school, and ordered a detailed report from the orphanage through an interpreter. She was in a wheelchair. 

March 1, 2013- Received the video of Qingge: we want her!, informed 

our Adoption Agency

 that we definitely wanted to request her to the Chinese officials- CCCWA. We officially contracted with both 

our Adoption Agency

 and with our state Homestudy agency

March 2013- Sent out reference letters

March 18, 2013- First Homestudy meeting with social worker

March 25,2013- Discovered that although 

our Adoption Agency

 had asked China for Qingge, another family had somehow intercepted the file and were trying to decide whether they wanted her.

April 2, 2013- Homestudy, social work home inspection

April 11,2013- Found out the other family chose Qingge. We no longer could have her as our daughter. We were HEARTBROKEN and grieved losing her, as if it was a miscarriage.

April 15, 2013- Started online adoption education for Homestudy

May 13, 2013- Found out our Homestudy was almost done BUT the Homestudy agency would not release it until we paid all our post placement fees first- an additional $2500 to save up.
May 22, 2013- Doug's birthday: Jamie first saw a video of Xiatong, a 3 1/2 year old deaf girl, and wept the whole way through the video.

July 2, 2013- Fingerprinted for criminal clearance for the Homestudy
July 2013- started specifically praying for 3 children on the waiting children list: Xiatong, Shane, and Yukun, and asking God for wisdom in which to pursue

July 22, 2013- Paid the last $2500 to the Homestudy agency so they would release the Homestudy, it is complete, drafts waiting on final review
August 14, 2013- We received our signed, sealed, and approved Homestudy (our approval to adopt, from the State of NJ) We immediately asked to read Xiatong's file, which a different adoption agency had, applied for our USCIS approval (approval from the U.S. to adopt), and sent out our application for a financial grant from Lifesong for Orphans. Lol: FedEx/Kinkos was my second home that week!
August 15, 2013- We prayerfully made the HUGE decision to choose to adopt Xiatong specifically and the next wrote up our Letter of Intent to adopt her and we also had our social worker at 

our Adoption Agency

 request that China transfer her file to us.

August 30, 2013- We got confirmation that Xiatong's official file was LOCKED to our family and that we could send our Letter of Intent to China the next day to wait for Pre-Approval.  An hour later, we ALSO got a call that Lifesong for Orphans had expedited our application (which they rarely ever do apparently) and had awarded us both a $2000 direct grant as well as a $4000 matching grant, the highest amount ever rewarded! Hallelujah!
September 11, 2013- WOW WOW WOW! We got our Pre-Approval Document from China. Statistically, there is a 99.5% chance that Xiatong is going to be OUR DAUGHTER! She will be Katie Grace Xiatong Becker. We will now announce our adoption pursuit and start fundraising to finish paying the adoption fees! Our travel to China is estimated to be this April or May, Lord willing!
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