Gag order has been lifted

I feel like I've taken a breath of fresh air.  Keeping all of this between Marc and I has been SO hard.  I was able to tell all of my family tonight the whole story of our sweet girl.  We shared with Marc's family last night.  It makes it all the more exciting!

I feel so blessed to have such incredible families.  I know that my family would do ANYTHING to help us.  Marc's parents told us last night that they were willing to help us in any way they could as well.  Why does Heavenly Father love us so much?!

On top of how excited I am that I can finally talk to people about this, my cousin Paige introduced me to a couple who served missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Armenia.  We were able to chat about the country.  I think they will be a huge help in this transition for her.  One thing that I've been so worried about is bringing this sweet girl to a new country, new people, and new language.  I can only imagine how scared she'll be.  I am excited to learn more about the language and the Armenian people from them.

We have decided to name her Brielle after the Angel Gabriel, who came and told Mary and Elizabeth they'd be having a child.  We feel like she is our angel who we've been guided to by the Holy Ghost.  At this time we have not been informed of her Armenian name.  She has a screen name that they give her to put on the internet, but because of privacy rules they cannot post her actual name online.

Nowhere to be found

I forgot to mention a while back how we decided that she was the one we wanted to go after.  There were so many sweet faces on the waiting list.  We inquired of many of them.  They tell you their age, the country they're in, and what special need they have.  There's everything from missing limbs, to blindness, to down syndrome and everything in between.

Back in January I inquired of the little girl who we now are after.  I had seen so many emails with so many faces that I kind of forgot about her.  At the time we weren't really interested in going Armenian.  When Armenia was thrown out in the beginning of March, I had the thought to look through my emails.  During my search I saw this girl again.  I wondered how I ever passed her up in the beginning.  I went to the waiting list and she was GONE.  Nowhere to be found on the waiting list.  I went the agency's website and looked on their website, which should have for sure had her on there.  I wasn't surprised that someone swallowed her up in one bite-- she's that cute.

The thought crossed my mind to just send an email and see if she was really gone.  I knew she would be, but decided I had nothing to lose by asking.  I got an email back saying that she was still available.  I thought there had to be some kind of mistake because, like I said, she had been taken off of all waiting lists and their website.  I emailed this lady back to clarify.  I told her that she was no longer on the waiting list.  She emailed me back saying that she was not sure why she was taken off of all of the lists, but that she was available.

That's one of the reasons we thought that maybe she was waiting for US.  Why else would she happen to be missing from waiting lists?

Another coincidence?

Hold 'er

I spoke with our sweet girl's social worker today.  She informed me that the Armenian Government has been informed that there is a family interested in her.  She has been put on hold for us.  She is no longer considered "available".  The only way we could lose her at this point is if an Armenian family came forward and said that they wanted her.  She warned me of that but let me know that it seldom happens, but could.  It makes me worry.

I've said to Marc before that if this all doesn't pan out with her, it is obviously pointing us in the direction of the little sweet one we are suppose to have.  There are just too many conveniences!

Happy birthday

While reading through the policies for our agency I spotted two things that made me (once again) wonder how this was going to pan out with this little sweetheart that we have fallen in love with.

Problem 1:  There must be at least one year's difference between adoptive child and children at home. 

Problem 2:  They feel it is important to keep children in their birth order.  (meaning this has to be the youngest child.)

CRAAAAAP!!!  I found myself, yet again, with my heart sunken.  Seriously?  I emailed her and she told me that with special-needs adoptions they will sometime waive one of those two things.  That's all great and everything, but both of those would have to be waived.

I started to think about it. This little girl is 2 years old currently (a little older than Tate and a little younger than Shanley).  I could see if there was a way to magically change Tate's birthday to 2 years sooner, which I quickly concluded was not going to happen no matter how hard I tried.  The only other hope I had was to see if there is ANY chance that there happens to be a year between this sweetheart and my others.  

I thought about it.  Shanley's birthday is in June of 2010.  Tate's birthday is August of 2012.  When I looked at those dates I could see that our Armenian daughter's birthday would have to be in July of 2011.  Odds were not in our favor.  I opened up my email with the information I had received about this little girl.  I skimmed through the paperwork and came across her birthday.  I could not believe my eyes- her birthday is July 11, 2011.  

An yet again, another tender mercy.  Someone is orchestrating this whole process, which appears to be meant to be.