Our Story To Mamie

So as you all know we missed getting a match from the list the month of September. But God truly used that time to teach me TONS. About trust, His love and trust again. I woke up the following Monday morning, October 3 and had an email from our social worker the night before at 10pm that said "are you up? call me!" Well in the adoption world that only means one thing... we have a file to look at! So I wait as long as I possibly can and we finally connect at 9:00am. She tells me she has a file for me, but the little girl's needs are more severe than we originally stated we wanted. Did I want to look at it? YES! But I will say, once she told me her need, I very calmly thought, I'm not sure this is our daughter, but I will gladly look at it.
We look at her file and see she is almost 14 months old and so precious! But her need is that her left leg is shorter than her right. We spent the next 2 days talking to 6 doctors and multiple physical therapists who all give us the same diagnosis. She has what's called PFFD, which means she has a short femur, and more than likely will have surgery and possible a prosthic leg from the knee down. I never paniced, just calmly felt like this was more than I could handle. Charles however, was pretty much on board from the get go. Talk about a role reversal in our family! I was actually so confident and peaceful, I asked Charles Monday night AND Tuesday morning if he wanted me to go on and turn down the file. UM, NO... was his reply. "We have until 7:00 tonight, let's keep praying!" So pray we did.
Each and every doctor and PT we spoke with gave us the exact same answer. This is an excellent file, she is so healthy and a limb difference isn't a big deal! She will live a fully functional life and will be no different than any other child! I kept thinking, "yeah, maybe for your family. But let's be honest, this is tough". And we actually had 1 person tell us how cool it was for God to place this little girl in Birmingham, one of the best cities in the country for orthopedics & prosthetics, & Lakeshore Rehabilitation Center. EEK!
Well by lunchtime on Tuesday I needed some serious help. God had taken me from "NO WAY", to "MAYBE?".  So Charles and I prayed and I BEGGED God for a physical sign. Is this our daughter? I'm talking a knock on the front door or a letter in the mailbox.
As the day progresses, Charles and I both had 2 seperate people advise us to look at this file as if it was a yes unless God made it a no. So by 2:30, that we did. But I'm still begging God for a sign. Finally I remember that Charles had gotten some information from Lakeshore earlier in the day and I should look through that.
So I open up their magazine and get to page 6. Where there is a picture of an older lady and in BIG, BOLD LETTERS IN ALL CAPS is the name MAMIE. Mamie. So God, I guess you heard me? We have had the name Mamie picked out since before we had Maxwell. It's both of our great-grandmother's names. What an amazing confirmation that this is our daughter. That this adventure may not always be easy... or fun. But God had this little girl picked out for our family before our time. And with this kind of confirmation, we know she is ours. And through Him there is nothing we can't handle.

We are THRILLED about life to come! The joys and the challenges. And what's really fun to watch, is that honestly, until she is home, we have no clue what is ahead! It could be so minor and it could be pretty major. But Mamie is our precious daughter and I'm pretty certain a perfect fit to our family :)

Instructions for Private Blog

I had no idea how many friends read our blog! Of course I want you all to be able to follow us! All you have to do is comment or email me your email address and I will automatically add you in. You don't need a password.

Our story to Mamie coming soon :)

BTW blog going private this week...

Now that we have more info on Mamie and the rest of the kiddos, we have decided to make the blog private. Let me know if you want to access it and I will gladly add you to the list!

Ta Da!

In the words of Elliott "Ta Da! Here she is!" We have no idea her ages in these pictures, but love that they are clearly from 3 different stages in her short little life :)

Mamie "no middle name yet" Kown

All In A Weeks Time

September 26 was No Match Monday...So I went a few days throwing myself a pity party. Questioning how much I truly trust God in this process. Not understanding why we started our adoption process soooo long ago and still didn't have our daughter. Watching friends get their daughters, and here I still sat. Pity party of 1, right here. And a friend sent me a devotional that rocked my world. Do I really trust God? Do I truly believe his plans are way better and way bigger than mine? Do I believe he REALLY has my best interest at heart? After a few days of praying and seeking, I decided... YES, I do believe this. Is it easy? NO. Is it the way I would do it? NO. But thank goodness I'm not God. So I let go of my control and moved along my sort of merry way. October 24,a good guess for the day of the next China list , already circled on my calendar. (now this process was not nearly as easy as it reads mind you.)

AND THEN...

Monday morning, October 3, I woke up to an email from 10:00 pm (way past my bedtime) the night before that read... "Are you up? Call me!" from our social worker. My heart started going a mile a minute while I debated if 6:30 am was too early to call her? I managed to wait until 8:30 then called. And I hear the precious words "We have a file for you to look at. Would you like to look?" Um... YES PLEASE! Now the next 2 days of this process I will have to tell over time because it's a whole whole whole lot of God and a whole little of me. But to wrap this up for now, at 5:30pm on Tuesday October 4, we accepted this referral as our daughter! Pictures to come hopefully next week.

Drumroll please....

MAMIE KOWN
AUGUST 6, 2010
GUIPING CITY, GUANGXI PROVENCE, CHINA
Praying for her to become a part of our family in Spring 2012

And let me tell you... God is faithful!