On This Day in History - Swain Edition

APRIL 29. This is a big date in our household. On this day in history:

1986: David was born.

1989: David received his best birthday present (unbeknownst to him). Jordan was born. Yes, we have the same birthday!

2009: David proposed, and we were married 3 months later!

2014: We packed up boxes to move into our first home. 

2016: We saw our daughter for the first time!

Yes, you read that right! The phone call and e-mail that we have been waiting for during the past year and a half finally came on our 30th and 27th birthday! We have been matched with a little girl! 

If we are being honest, she is not who we expected. We thought we would be matched with siblings. We thought we would be matched with children with severe special needs. We thought they would probably be school age, but God had a different plan. We have approached His throne throughout this process asking for His guidance and provision for our family and our child, and He matched us with Sherly (pronounced Share-lee). We could not be more thrilled, thankful, and at peace. Our daughter is 16 months old, does not have any known siblings, there are currently no known physical or cognitive delays, and is the most beautiful baby girl we have ever laid eyes upon. She lives in an orphanage in southern India, and we cannot wait to go and get her!

Currently, we only have access to one sleeping baby picture, but we have requested updated pictures from the orphanage. We are not allowed to post her picture online or send it to people via e-mail or text message, but if you come to us personally, we are so happy to show you her beautiful baby face. We are so in love with her beautiful brown eyelashes, cute button nose, tiny ears, her baby neck rolls, and precious slobbery lips. 

So, what's the next step? We wait. We are waiting for updated medical reports and measurements for the agency to add to our portfolio to submit to the Indian government. There will be plenty of paperwork in the future before we can travel to pick her up, and we will have more information as we progress in the process. We have been told that it will likely be around a year (give or take) before we are able to bring her home. It can be as early as 8 months (this is what we are hoping and praying for) but there is no guarantee.

Thank you all for holding us in the Light when we are in the valleys of the adoption process and for celebrating with us when we are on the mountains. We love you all and cannot wait to share more about Sherly as we learn more and get closer to bringing her home. 

Love and blessings,

Jordan

Quick Update: We Are Still Waiting

We finally mailed our dossier! We are officially waiting. 

Allow me to apologize. I think the last post ended something like "we will continue to keep you updated." That was in July 2015. I officially stink at blogging, but to be fair, not much has changed. Since the last post, the following steps forward and backward have occurred:

• Our home study was finalized… but not until December 2015. Yes, you read that correctly. After we had all of our documents turned in by July, it took 5 months to finalize. Do not let this be a deterrence if you are considering adoption. This is very atypical for a home study. There were some papers that had to be re-done due to specific wording that was needed for India, some of our sent-in reference letters were lost, and there were multiple corrections that needed to be made in each draft that was sent. 
• The dossier was completed and submit in February 2016. For those that don't know, the dossier is basically a large packet of all the important paperwork that we have completed during the whole process thus far, made to present to India for approval to adopt. Thankfully assembly of the dossier did not take as long as expected, and after we received the home study (needed in the dossier) it was fairly smooth sailing. 
• As of today, we have been waiting for 8 weeks. There are no papers that we can fill out. No doctors we need to visit. No reference letters to assemble or notaries to get. We are just waiting for CARA approval to adopt from India. After this happens, we have been told that we will be matched with children fairly quickly. Then more paperwork comes, and 8-12 months later, we get to go to India to get them!

 
At times the waiting is unbearable, and during those time our friends and family have done a great job lifting us up both emotionally and spiritually. Friends consistently ask about our adoption, and comically/unfortunately our conversations typically go something like this: 

Friend: How is your adoption going? Anything new? (Cue excited and encouraging smile)

Us: Slowly. Nothing new. We're still waiting. (Cue sigh and eye roll due to exasperation of the adoption process.)

End of conversation.

Please don't get me wrong, we love when you all ask us how it is going. That means that you are thinking of us and our children. We are just eagerly anticipating the day when you can ask, and we can tell you who our children are and show you a picture! 

We are so excited about the future. I cannot wait to see their little faces on my computer screen, to decorate their bedroom, to hug them and hold them tight, to buy toys and books to read them at night, to make pictures to aid in our broken communication for the first few weeks together, and to do simple things like go to Target with them in tow. Until then, we will dream and pray and talk to you all about our concerns and hopes for the future. 

Love and blessings, 
Jordan