Our New Journey to Brooklyn

     Well I believe it's been a couple of years since I blogged last.  It has been so long I forgot how to work this site and needed my daughter to set it up.  Man I am getting old!  I am thankful for teenagers who know technology better than I.  

     Moving on to the purpose of this post....we are going to China again!  We are adopting a beautiful baby girl who will be 2 in July.  We will meet our precious daughter, Brooklyn on Monday, June 29.  Here in the states it will be Sunday evening as China is 15 hours ahead.   We are beyond excited to bring her into our family.  This time the whole LaCroix family will make the journey to meet their newest sister.  As Doug and I discussed adoption again we both agreed that we just couldn't leave anyone of them behind.  It will be an adventure we will not soon forget, I am sure.  Although it may be a little chaotic at times, I hope that this will be a sweet time for our family as we travel across the world to add Brooklyn to our family.  

     Here are a few details of our adoption process this time.  We began applying to adopt at the beginning of October with the same agency we used when adopting Jack in 2011.  We loved our agency and knew we didn't want to use anyone else.  The paper chasing part of our journey was completed in January and was sent off January 30th and logged into China's system on February 2nd.  We were requesting a girl this time around.  It began to be apparent that we would possibly be waiting to be matched for over a year.  Our agency is so great and popular that they had many clients ahead of us in the process waiting to be matched with their child.  It was quite different than our wait with Jack....we were matched within the first month of submitting our application.  One day in March we received an email from our local home study agency asking if we would like to look at a file of a little girl named "Lilly" from the agency they partner with for international adoption.  We decided it wouldn't hurt to look at her file.  Well the rest is history and within a few days we were switching agencies so we could pursue adopting "Lilly".  Brooklyn was an infant when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was treated.  She is noted as having some developmental delays.  We have a few videos of her walking holding someones hand.  We are not sure if she is able to walk unassisted at this point.  We will soon find out.  The first day we saw her file was March 19.  The time has flown by so quickly and now we leave in less than 48 hours to meet our girl!

     I also want to share how faithful the Lord has been to us through these last few months.  On March 17 a friend specifically prayed that we would receive a match and would be able to travel in July.  I had shared with her that the timing of travel would be better for our schedule to travel during the summer months before school started in the fall.  Hannah will begin taking some courses at the community college this year and I didn't think the teachers would excuse a two week trip to China!  Even better we get to leave at the end of June.   Nothing is too hard for God!  About 11 days ago we found out that our agency had another family traveling at the same time.  Not only was this family going to be traveling with us, they are adopting Brooklyn's foster sister.  These girls have been together since infancy with the same family.  We were praying that we would receive travel approval in time so that we could travel with this family.  God said Yes!  I am so thankful we can travel with them.  It will be such a blessing to our baby girls to have one another as they ease into their new families.  This leads me into a few prayer requests:

1. Pray for the foster parents who have loved Brooklyn and her foster sister.  They will be losing both on the same day.  We are so thankful they have loved our daughter for her first 2 years of life.
2. Pray for God's grace on our large group as we travel.  We are starting with 7 people and coming back as 8.  It is a little intimidating.  
3. Pray we stay healthy
4. Pray our plane itineraries won't be disrupted and that our luggage makes it to us in China
5. Pray that Brooklyn's visa will be issued on Friday, July 10.  We are scheduled to fly out on the 11th.  We need the visa for her to travel.  The US consulate has had some computer issues lately and have had families stuck in China for extra days costing them more money and time away from home.  It looks like it's working out, but it could always get backed up again.
6. Most importantly please pray for Brooklyn.  She is leaving the only family she has known.  I can't imagine the grief and sadness she will experience.  I am so thankful she has been loved by this foster family but it may make her grieve tremendously.  Please pray that she will trust us quickly and will be comforted by us.  

     I hope to update the blog as often as I have energy to.  I'm sure Doug will take a few turns as well. Thank you for your love, support and most importantly your prayers!  We serve an amazing God and I am so thankful I can trust Him!

Here is one of the first pictures we saw of our beautiful girl

This is from November of 2014