How did we choose them?

Well like I said I wanted everyone to ask away in the questions, so we can share with you all about our family....Like the saying goes, there are no dumb questions, just the ones not asked.... so here ya go...

How do you choose the child? And the country where the child comes from?

Well for us, its always been a total God thing.... When we went to Guatemala the first time, William and I so wanted to bring home a few kids, but from the Casa we were working at they do not adopt children out.....When we got home, we found Giovanna and she just happen to be in Guatemala....so there ya go!! (I cant believe that was the extremly short version...William would be proud of me!! LOL) And 11.5 months later we had her in our arms...FOREVER!!!

When we were home only a few shorts months, I knew I wanted another daughter with DS so her and Giovanna could grow up together (the twins were 15) and would have one another when they really started facing the changes of life.....and we started doing some research and WAA LAA totoally another God thing, we found out Bella was born in NYC to a East Indian woman here on vacation, with Bella having DS and heart issues, the woman felt she could not return to her home country and give Bella what she needed, so she went to a agency in NYC and placed the baby for adoption,,, We were one of 300+ families that applied for her and we were chosen by the birthfamily......so Bella was always an american citizen since she was born here....even though the birthmother was not. Talk about an easy (international) adoption. From start to finish it took us 2.5 months... and she was with us FOREVER at the age of 3 mths old.

AGAIN.. after we had both girls home and settled, I just knew the Lord was calling us to adopt again. Both Bella and Giovanna fit so perfectly into our family, it was as though they had always been with us....so I asked William about adopting again....he wasnt so jump on the band wagon this time because now we had 4 kiddos, but he did eventually say he felt the Lord saying YES... I had already inquired about a girl who was deaf and living in Colombia, and she ended up finding a family, so the agency asked were we intrested in a child with DS again....My response was YES!!!!! So they sent us the information and it took us a few months to decide and Pray about it and once we started the process was very fast!!!! This time is was alittle harder because we werent just adding a child with DS to our family we were adding 2 little girls....Gabby has Ds and a few other issues, and she had a biological typical developing sister....so we were going from 4-6 kids and this was a huge step for us.... From the date we signed with the agency to the time we traveled and had the girls with us FOREVER...was only 3 months...so off to Bogota Colombia it was!!!

NOW, I am so ready to add just one more....and I know exactly who it would be....but it hasnt been confirmed with my husband yet, so I sit back and pray every single day, that the Lord will reveal it to William OR SEND someone else to adopt her...I will be sharing more on her tomorrow as this is her birthday! I want to honor her and she may never know that someone loves her so much and is celebrating her birth, even if she is only going to be the daughter of my heart.

I hope this answered your question as to where our girls come from, how they were chosen and why we chose them.....because it was a total GOD THING and they were always meant to be our girls!!