The kids and I were in Iowa and were keeping extremely busy with camp, activities and visiting friends and family. It was also a hard time because Mitchell was in Spain and I was eager to know who the sweet girl was that God had been readying our family for. Lisa, head of the China program for Small World and our agency representative, would be matching us with a file. She told us that more than likely she would be matching us with a little girl on the special needs list. this list is released about once every 4-6 weeks in China. Each child remains on the list for 30 days and if they are not chosen they are re-categorized as special focus instead of special needs and their file is taken off the list and given to an agency for placement. Usually the kids that were categorized as special focus had more severe special needs. Since we had specified that we wanted a little girl with only a minor special need, Lisa assumed we would be matched from the "list".

A new list had been released 2 days before we were LID (log in date), but there were other Small World families that had been LID before us, so they were matched first. When we received our LID there weren't any girls that matched our criteria remaining. We had asked for a girl with a minor special need that had been corrected, didn't need correction or the correction could be delayed (once we left Spain). We also asked that she be as young as possible, but not to exceed 3 years of age. I wanted to have at least 2 years at home with her before she'd need to go to school and I longed to have a baby again.

The wait in July was pretty tough. Having no idea who she was, how old she was or what her special need was was quite difficult. I longed to shop for her, to research her need, to read books on attachment relevant to her age, etc. A 10 month old and a 3 year old were very different. I prayed a lot during this time which helped, but the other kids being so busy was also helpful.

A second "list" was released on Tuesday, August 11. I thought we'd for sure be matched this time. Lisa was able to match one family that was LID before us and a second family who was asking for a boy, but our daughter was not on that list. That was a hard day for me. I didn't understand why God had worked so hard to get our approval done so quickly and then we had to wait. To wait through two list releases and still not know who our daughter would be. Mitchell said he was sure God was having us practice patience and reliance on Him again. I wholeheartedly agreed, but was tired of practicing. :) I started praying again for a God sized miracle for our baby girl.