We are MATCHED!!!

The day has come! I have been waiting to finally share this amazing news with you!

We have been matched AND we have match approval!

The Lord is so faithful. We now get the joy of looking staring at the sweetest face that we have been praying for daily for almost a year now. We loved this girl before we even saw her face, but now our love for her is even deeper. 

She is real.

She is beautiful.

She is chosen.

She is loved.
She is Maya.

On May 1st, about 24 HOURS after we were approved on the database to be matched with a child, we got THE CALL! I was completely shocked that it happened so soon! We took the weekend to pray about sweet little "P" (her beautiful Indian name remains a secret, but this will be her middle name) because there were a few unknowns about her "special need". We had a teeny tiny bit of information and a few pictures. That's it. But, after a lot of praying and conversation, we felt such peace about moving forward. We really felt so strongly that she was our daughter that we emailed our caseworker on Saturday and told her to we wanted to be matched with her. She matched us first thing Monday, May 4th. There are so many amazing stories and evidences of God's fingerprints that are all over this (again, I'll eventually be able to share, but we aren't able to right now). In the meantime, we have been waiting for match approval before we shared the big news on our blog and social media! I have been DYING to actually publish this post...it's been a draft for quite a while!

So now, I am finally able to hit that "publish" button!! Yesterday we got the approval needed to really begin the process of bringing our daughter home!

Unfortunately, we aren't able to share her sweet face with you or any information abut our precious girl on social media at this point in the process, so you'll have to trust us when we tell you that she is the SWEETEST little 2.5 year old South Ind*an princess. :)

I'm sure there will be a lot of questions after this blog post. And don't worry, I'll go back and share the referral story here in the next few weeks!

But, I'll clear up some common questions right now:

When will you get to bring her home?
Well, we aren't sure. Not anytime soon though. Adoption in Ind*a is a long process. Maya is also in a state that requires two trips. Both Mark and I need to be present for court, then return for pick up. We're thinking that court and pickup will be toward the end of 2016.

What's next?
Right now we are waiting for her orphanage to send us the official referral documents. Once we get those, we'll sign them and send them back. That will get the process rolling on the Ind*a side! The basic overview is:

ARC (state level approval)
NOC (federal approval)
Travel for Court date
Verbal court orders
Written court orders
Orphanage applies for daughter's passport
Return for pickup
Home Sweet Home!

Yes, we have a long way to go.

As always we have a few specific prayer requests:

• Obviously, continue to be in prayer for little Maya "P"
• Pray that we would receive the referral documents quickly.
• Pray that those reviewing our dossier would see how perfectly this little girl will fit into our family and just how much she is loved.
• That we would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus throughout this process.