Did you guess right?

On Saturday, I asked those of you who frequent my blog if you noticed any subtle differences in my blog page.

Several of you got it right!  Congratulations to Joy, Christy and Jennifer! 

Those folks noticed that over here in my sidebar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>> the icon for our adoption agency has changed!

After lots and LOTS of prayers and tears and begging God to open or close doors, we have left our former agency.  Please hear me when I say, there was nothing wrong with the agency we were with.  They are a well-known and reputable agency.  And because of that reputation, they are large.  With lots of families just like us waiting for children.

But the wait, we were told, was going to be a year or more.  I know that there are some adoptive parents here that waited that long and longer on a referral and who are probably rolling their eyes right now.  However, you must understand that Steve is 52 years old.  We don't have time to wait another year for a referral and then another 5-6 months to travel.  We just don't have that luxury.

When we found out the wait had increased so much, I sought the wise advice of my friends over on the Rumor Queen boards (hi friends!).  And much to my surprise, instead of telling me I was overreacting, they told me story upon story about MANY agencies that have no waiting list and can match almost immediately.  There were 3 or 4 agencies (many of whom I had never even heard of) that kept coming up over and over again.  So, I started to research.

And what I found was a Christian agency in Birmingham, AL by the name of Lifeline Adoption.  They have been absolutely wonderful so far.  They have worked hard to get us moved over and have even gone to bat with us to take care of some issues.  We are so pleased that God has led us to them. 

Currently, our dossier is still in China with Lifeline's China coordinator (who actually LIVES in China) and we are finishing up some paperwork.  Once that is done, they will take the dossier back to the adoption authorities there and we'll get a new log-in date (LID).  Once we have that magic date, we will be again eligible to be matched.  And this time the wait isn't a year.  :)  We don't know how long the wait will be, but we hope to know more soon. 

Until we get that new LID, there is the potential for something to go wrong.  So please pray that this doesn't happen.  I'll have more updates later.  Until then...