The Story of ShayleeJoy: A Long Beginning

I thought I would take a few days to write about some of our journey to ShayleeJoy. Where to begin except at the beginning.

I'm sure there are lots of people out there that would say they remember me talking about another daughter soon after we came home with EK, and they would be correct. I knew the minute they placed EK in my arms in China, I would be there again!!! There is nothing sweeter than holding your child for the first time and giving that first kiss (whether it be after birth or through adoption- done it both ways) and the feeling is NO different! You just don't get over it!

We began our journey to SJ in 2007 and were LID on June 20, 2007 thinking we would only be about a year, two at the most, from SJ Day. Little did we know we were in for a LONG wait. We were waiting for another NSN child under 12 months and were ok with a little wait because we had lots to do with the other girls! It also gave EK time to secure her attachment and get completely molded into our family. I can tell you from day one, it's as she was always a part of us- now I can't remember really when we didn't have her.

Back, to SJ... as the months passed and then years, we began to see the wait was getting longer and longer with really no end in sight. During the summer last year, I began to feel God tugging at my heart about Special Needs. I talked to Scott about it, talked to my agency about it, talked to my adoption friends about it. We found a little 4 year old girl on our agency list that we were really interested in reviewing but were not able to because our paperwork wasn't current. That told me we needed to get everything in place and we began working on it. For some reason we didn't continue... then on Oct. 2, 2009 I had a dream about a little Chinese girl two and a half years old. That's all I remember about it, just an age, and I wrote down the date.

Then around Christmas, I really felt God speaking to my heart and everyone kept saying, "If God is speaking to you, He will speak to Scott too." I kept waiting for him to tell me he thought it was time to switch but he never did. I would throw around little hints but to no avail. We did make a commitment to pray earnestly about it and see where God led us.

Finally in January, we had a REAL heart to heart about SN. One morning during church, I heard a clear word from God about this. I know it was Him because I had never had this thought before and it came to me with complete clearness... "If you are only signed up for NSN, then you are telling Me you aren't willing to love a SN daughter." I went home that day completely sure we were supposed to switch. But God still wasn't speaking to Scott. Why??? It's called FAITH! More later...

Blessings,