PART I: So what's the big hurry anyway??

It's not just that we are excited and anxious to meet Ava-Yin. To finally have her in our arms. To learn who she is and how she responds to us, her parents, and to Caleb, Briton (oh my!), and Zoe (double oh my!;)). It's not just all of that.

It's this:

" A well-tended child is fed, cradled, and soothed when she cries from hunger and crankiness. This scene plays out hundreds of times in the first month of life alone...Deprived of a caretaker who touches and cradles her, the growing child cannot learn to bond with other people or even process sights, sounds, and sensations...without vital sensory input, a child's brain circuitry becomes impaired. Children who were neglected early in life so often display delayed learning, social ineptness, attachment difficulties...Isolation is more damaging to an infant than early mistreatment."

The Connected Child by Karen Purivs

Ava-Yin has been in an orphanage since she was found at the gate of a gas basin factory when she was three days old. In her orphanage there are 105 beds occupied by 96 abandoned infants. 

96 infants!!??!! How could a caregiver possibly give all of those babies the love and attention they need?

They can't. And that's one reason why we're in such a big hurry. Three years is already too long to not have a soothing voice to comfort her cries, a loving voice to reassure her that she's safe, loved and cared for. It's been too long to not have a family to call her own. It's just been too long. It's time for her to come home.

There's also another reason...

Update from China!!

Once we were matched with Ava-Yin, we were allowed to ask the orphanage 10 questions to give us an idea of her likes, dislikes, personality, etc.

I am pleased to announce she is NOT a picky eater!!! FINALLY...I will get a baby who eats!!!!

However, what scares her are cats and dogs...hmmmm...what to do with Chloe the cat and Smeagol the dog??

She likes to play with dolls and house games, and she still sleeps in a crib.

What makes her the happiest is being played with, and giving her snacks to eat...Papa-as always, snacks are YOUR department:-)...

She doesn't speak any English and she has only ever been out of the orphanage to play at the park a couple of times!

And that sums up what we know of Ava-Yin at this point. Did you see her updated pictures? Lee loves the tights!!

Hasn't she grown so much, already!
Click here to help bring her home!

http://adopttogether.org/thekirklands/

God's Signature

One thing we didn't tell everyone, was that after we issued the $2500 challenge last week, we received an email from our adoption agency telling us we owed an additional $140 fee for the matching notification.

I didn't want to go back and increase the $2500 challenge. That may be discouraging to folks;)... so Lee and I would just have to cover this amount.

When we closed out Friday's challenge we were $100 over our $2500 goal.

We received one donation on Saturday...guess how much?

$40.00

This is the first and only $40 donation we've received to date. God's Signature.

Putting the FUN in FUNdraising!

...well...we're trying to anyway! 'Tis a lot harder than I thought:)

BUT...it's been a fabulous week. We started the 180 to 100 campaign with $400 in our http://adopttogether.org/thekirklands/ account.

Donations started coming in...roughly four per day! The thrill of getting that email notice of another donation is AMAZING!!

By the middle of the week, we had received the official Letter of Acceptance, which meant more paperwork had to be filled out, and our next payment of $2500 was due. We were $580 short of making that payment.

On Thursday, we issued a challenge to our facebook family and friends...to see if we could raise enough money to keep the process moving.

The money came in. We weren't surprised that it did. God is clearly driving this process and so we knew He would provide the funding. But maaaan....whatta rush!!!

We've heard from high school friends, missionaries across the world, college friends, previous coworkers, new friends and coworkers, family, church family, and complete strangers!!

The Lord is knitting together a community for Ava-Yin like none we could ever have imagined. I hope you all are experiencing the joy of being on this journey with us. Love you!

brothers and sister

We didn't tell the children about Ava-Yin right away…just in case something happened in between us submitting the paperwork and receiving acceptance.

But, as you know, all of that happened pretty quickly.

So, we decided to have an all-day outing and pizza. After supper, we showed them the pictures of Ava-Yin for the very first time.

I'm not sure what I was expecting…but the expressions on these little faces made my heart melt.

Take a look…

Briton-"She's so cute!" Caleb- "She's perfect!"

Now..where was Zoe during all of this? Running around the restaurant behind me!

She doesn't understand what is going on…but she's cute, so I had to share a pic of her too!!

WE JUST LOST ANOTHER MONTH!!!!

Holy Cow!! I can't keep up!!! Our phone just rang again with another update...our paperwork is already back from China!! It didn't take 2-4 weeks~it took 4 days. FROM CHINA!!??? How is that even possible???!!!

I know it appears I may be slightly freaking out. I'm not. At all. Well...maybe...just a little!!!

God has got something big going on!! That's all I know...He specializes in the impossible.

Please! Just keep praying and giving. We need your help, and we need it now!

180 to 100 campaign begins

Thank you! Thank you! for all of your wonderful supportive comments! Ava-Yin is truly going to bless all of our lives!

On Wednesday we got the news that the rest of the adoption process has changed up a little bit, and instead of 6 more months before travel, we could potentially leave in 3-4 months!

We are beyond excited at this news. Two weeks ago we didn't even know who our daughter was going to be...and now we are in fast forward mode like crazy!! I gotta get this house cleaned!!

So, this weekend, we kicked off our 180 to 100 campaign. We are asking 180 people to donate $100 to our adoption fund~the link on this blog~over the next 30 days. Reaching this goal would mean bringing Ava-Yin home as soon as we can get her! Will you consider helping us?

Just look at that face;))))

Introducing Ava Yin Kirkland

And here she is. Ms. Ava Yin Kirkland (well...almost:0)

Ava Yin is three and a half years old...just 4 months older than Zoe. She sleeps well, eats well, plays well. She can talk and count to 5!

She was found at the gate of a gas basin factory when she was 3 days old and has been in an orphanage ever since.

We are so incredibly excited to show you these photos of her. She is just too, too precious!!

The Timeline...sorta', kinda'...

After the paperwork you wait. That's it. For a long time.

Our goal, this summer, was to get logged into China's database system, and then our agency would work with China in getting us matched with a special needs girl between the age of 0-4 years old. That matching process takes approximately 3-4 months.

Then, it takes two weeks to get pre approval, then 90 days to get a letter of acceptance, and then 2-3 more months before we travel to go and get her.

On July 12, we were officially logged into China's database! YAY! Only one more year left to go of the process. Now begins the 3-4 months of waiting to find the amazing little girl who will become a part of our family! Maybe we'll know something by Thanksgiving?!!

But less than 3 weeks later, the phone rings, "Heather, we have the file of a little girl we would like for you and Lee to consider for adoption, would you take a look?"

We did take a look. And we fell in love. We had less than 48 hours to make a decision. It wasn't that hard.

I think you'll understand why~

Who We Are. What We're Doing.

So yesterday I was telling you all about the deeply intellectual and spiritual thoughts I was experiencing right after Lee told me we had been called to adoption:

Errrrr. Ummmmmm. HUH???!!

Fortunately, Lee married a calm, quiet, rational girl, who seldom speaks her mind before processing her thoughts (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA)!!! Actually, I did pretty well, and decided to wait this out. If it was a true calling, then I would trust Lee to lead the family, and I would willingly help him in any way I could. AKA: I wasn't bringing this up again!!

Side Note: It's amazing how much more gets done when I sit back and keep my mouth shut!

That very next week Lee began making phone calls, began researching adoption agencies, and signed us up for an informational meeting being held at our church.

And that's how it all started. We've done home study, interviews, on-line computer classes, readings, paperwork, paperwork, oh! and more paperwork!

It's actually gone very smoothly, and we've not run into any major glitches. Just moving happily and steadily along the timeline...I'll share the timeline with you tomorrow. That's where things start to get REALLY interesting!

Who We Are. What We're Doing.

So there we were sitting in a Marriage Conference. It was  October of 2012, and a presentation was given by a mom who had adopted several children from Uganda. It was a really neat story. I listened and nodded my head like I usually do, and moved on to the rest of the conference.

Enter Lee. You know, the guy who is really quiet and never says too much in a crowd? The one who prefers behind-the-scenes support roles? The likable, take it easy, let's not ruffle feathers or make too many changes- Lee? Yeah. Him. He tells me that he was really impacted by the adoption presentation and knows clearly and beyond a doubt that our family has been called to adopt.

Errrr. Ummmmm. HUH???!!!