Our Adoption: Week 9

How Far Along: 9 weeks
How I'm feeling: Hard to even find the words... see favorite moments.
Gender: BOY!  BOY BOY BOY BOY, OH BOY, It's a BOY!!!!!
Total of bills so far: $5274.21
Total money raised: $986
Started the Cherry Blossom Charity fundraiser - upcoming bills: $250 for review; $1890 for 2nd installment to the Agency.
Favorite moments: Favorite moment #1:  Getting the email saying a child was available for us!  I was on the phone with my older sister at my desk and as we were talking, up popped a new email.  The subject line read: (Child name): Hey Phil and Bethany!  Good news!  (Child's name) just became available for you to review!  Look over his file...
I started yelling, "Oh my word!  Oh my word!  He's available!  (Child's name) is available!"  Annalisa was kind of yelling too and was like "Go!  Go!  Call me back after you respond!"  Immediately I clicked the email and typed in YES! and hit send.  Then I typed a longer email and said a little bit more formally that we would like to review his file and to please put us on hold for him.  Within two minutes after getting the email, I sent Phil a chat online saying, "(Child's name) IS AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  That was followed by a wonderfully excited chat conversation as we digested the news!
Favorite moment #2: Getting the news from God that this was the one for us!  Praying and praying and praying, we did tons of researching and talking to specialists and medical professionals, people who had adopted before, and people who just cared enough to pray with us.  But on Thursday morning, all of the fact finding became irrelevant.  What mattered to us was God's voice.  We asked God to make His will known.  He quieted the confusion.  The facts became secondary.  His voice was loud and clear.  (Child's name) was the son He had created for our family.  A peace came.  The peace came to Phil and me at the same time, which was a gift.  It was a moment we will always treasure.  We wondered what the moment would be like - how we would know... how we would CHOOSE a child.  It felt so unnatural.  But really... God did the choosing.  
Things learned: That yes, God remains to be faithful.  The Holy Spirit does truly give us wisdom in discerning the will of God.  I learned what it would feel like to "know when you know" again.  
What I am looking forward to: We are sending a Letter of Intent (LOI) to China.  It could take 1-2 weeks to hear back from them for the official Pre-approval.  I'm looking forward to hearing that (Child's name) is ours.  I am looking forward to telling our families... We getting a boy!  I can't wait to share!!!