My first post

I am new to blogging so lets see how this goes!......
Our family is about to grow! Tom and I have discussed adopting a child for years and have now decided that it is the right time to do it! So here is our story!

I started looking at adoption websites (again) and researching the possibility of bringing home a little boy that is Deaf around the age of 7 - 10 years old. I found many children that were 3 or 4 and a few that were 13 but no boys that were Deaf in the age range we were hoping for. Then,on February 18th 2010, a friend of mine emailed me a photo and short blurb about an adorable 9 year old boy that was Deaf and needed a family. Tom and I opened the email and both gasped.. He is absolutley the cutest little one ever. We knew right away that this was the child we have talked about for years. I contacted the agency and told them we were interested in this little one. His name is Xin Hai but the agency called him "Boyd". February 22nd we put Boyd on hold to have his records looked at by an international adoption specialist. On February 24th I got an email from the agency saying that his file had been returned to China (along with many others) as China had changed some policies and had taken many children's files that had been on individual lists for awhile and planned to put them all on the shared list. The agency told us they would look for his file to show up on the shared list and if he didn't surface that there were many other children out there. We decided we didnt want to look any more for another child and if Xin Hai was meant to be ours then the Lord would keep him safe until we could find him. We spent quite awhile praying and waiting and then on March 19th I got an email from the agency that his file had showed up on the shared list! Yahoooo... only problem being that China's new rule was that you had to have LID (We did not at the time) to lock in a child on the shared list, but if the child was still there in 30 days a non-LID family could try and be matched. SOOOOO we waited.. and waited.. it felt like forever. Then on April 19th 2010 we received an email from our agency saying they had locked him in and sent all paperwork to China for matching. April 22nd 2010 we were official matched (PA) with Xin Hai. We are so excited, we just wanted to run around screaming! I actually did some skipping and running down the halls of where I work.... couldnt help it! This is only the beginning of our incredible journey, we are working on our home study and that shall soon be complete! YAHHOOO. I will try and keep posting as we take this incredible journey to our new son!