The Name!

We decided on a name:  Ezekiel Bruce.  We had hoped to use his Chinese name for his middle name but his name was a surname.  It seemed weird to keep a name that meant nothing.  We had been thinking of the name Ezekiel for some time because it means "Strength of God".  We decided to use Bruce for his middle name in honor of his Dad and Poppop!  So there you have it - Ezekiel Bruce Gouldey!!!!

For unto us a son is born!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a great Christmas! 
We recieved a special phone call on Christmas eve.  It was our matching coordinator calling us with another potential match!  We weren't sure if we should get excited since we had been on this rollercoaster before.  When we saw the picture of the little boy we did get excited!  There was something different this time - it just felt more right!  If that makes any sense!  We contacted CHOP adopt and on Christmas day they replied and set us up for a phone consult for the following evening.  The review went really well and the doctor gave us a good report!  This boy seemed to be pretty healthy despite his small hole in his ventricle.  If it doesn't close on it's own by 2 years he will need surgery but the doctor thought it would be pretty basic surgery.  He will be turning 1 on Jan. 22nd. 

So we accepted the referral and sent in our letter of intent!  What an awesome Christmas present!  I will post pictures once we are permitted to!  Please keep praying for him.  (We hope to announce a name soon - we are still finalizing it!)

Another referral we had to decline

We recieved another referral on Monday night.  This months shared list of children was released and our matching coordinator found us a child that met our criteria.  We looked it over and got excited thinking this little guy might possibly be our son.  We had to wait until Wed night for the phone consult with the doctor from CHOP.  She found many concerns and said this appeared to be a high risk referral.  We didn't need to hear much after that.  We are sad to have to decline yet another referral.  It feels horrible to reject these children but we can only handle so much. 
We are praying for patience and for God's timing.  He knows best!  It's hard to wait though....

A Hard Decision

We recieved an unexpected phone call on Sat. from the matching coordinator.  She said she found a boy who met our criteria!  He had been on the list for some time so we didn't need to have our dossier logged in to see his file.  We were very surprised because we thought our dossier had to be logged in before we could be matched.  We reviewed his file and emailed it to CHOP Adopt for review.  We weren't sure what to think!  We were not prepared mentally to be matched so quickly!  We couldn't consult with the doctor until Monday at 8:30 pm.  The doctor informed us of some things that we didn't notice on the chart and explained in better detail what was probably going on medically with this child.  We did not feel at peace with proceeding with the referral so we had to decline this little boy.

It was hard to say no.  He needed a family but he was going to be more medically complex than what we felt we could handle.  It was an emotional 72 hours (that is all the time they give you to decide).  Afterwards I felt as if I had another miscarriage but feel better about it today. 

This afternoon we found out that our dossier is now logged in.  We will be eligible for any children on the next shared list now!  That is good news!  We could get matched again very quickly!  Please pray with us that we would get a clear vision of who our son is so we would know without a doubt that it is him when we recieve his referral. 

Last step

Our dossier is in New York City being certified by the Chinese Consulate!  This is the last step before it goes to China.  Please pray that everything is complete and it can be certified!  My trip to Harrisburg went very smoothly on Monday.  They authenticated everything!  Letting go of all of the documents to send to NYC was difficult.  It has taken months of hard work collecting everything so those FedEx people better be careful and those tracking numbers better work if something is misplaced!  It should come back to us on Wed, Dec 1st!!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our adoption journey thus far from the eyes of a 4 year old

Yesterday I went to the Philadelphia US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office where I had gone to get fingerprinted for the 2nd time since the first time they were "unreadable".  On the way home Brooke, who is 4 says to me, "Mom, this stuff takes forever to get done.  Our brother is going to be a Dad by the time you get all the paperwork done!  And by then God might not be calling you to adopt him any more!"  So very true!  This has been a lot of paperwork but we are almost at the end of the paper trail! 

I spoke with the US CIS officer for our case yesterday afternoon and my prints were readable this time so praise the Lord for that!!!  He said we should have our letter by the end of the week.  That means we will have everything we need for our dossier.  I'm planning to drive to Harrisburg on Monday to get everything stamped and then it will go to NYC via a courier.  We are almost there!!!! 

Tastefully Simple Fundraiser

We will have a Tastefully Simple Fundraiser going on now through Dec. 25th.  Simply go to http://www.tastefullysimple.com/ and choose your items. When you go to check out it will ask you if you want to "associate this order with a host or event?"  You can type in Rhonda Gouldey, PA and it will be credited to our party.  All proceeds will go to our adoption fund.  This stuff tastes good and makes great gifts for teachers, mail carriers, etc!  Thanks for your help!

Coffee Fundraiser

One way you can support us financially is through this fair trade coffee fundraiser that we will be doing indefinitely.  The website is https://www.justlovecoffee.com/thegouldeys  They sell all different types of fair trade coffee.  You can order it from the website and a portion of each sale goes towards our adoption fund.  The coffee is very good (according to Bruce - I unfortunately can't drink coffee!) 

Have you heard? We are adopting!

To some of you this is old news but there are some of you who may not have heard that we are in the process of adopting!  So here is a little background for those of  you who may be just hearing this for the first time:

Where did this idea come from?
Bruce and I have had a desire to adopt for several years.  We always had a burden for the orphans and when ever we heard adoption stories it always tugged at our hearts.  We decided to step into the water last spring.  We attended an information meeting at Pearl S. Buck International.  After the meeting we felt like God was calling us to adopt and so we began the adoption process. 

What country?
We were originally drawn to Kazakhstan but after submitting the application the doors closed for us to adopt there.  So we decided to pursue China.  We decided to do the waiting child program which means the children have minor to severe special needs.

Why a boy?
We requested a boy 0-2 years old who has minor special needs. We decided to request a boy since we have 3 daughters and it would be harder for a girl of another nationality to feel like she fit in with our 3 very similar looking daughters.  We also thought it would be fun to have a son!  :)
Many people wonder if there are boys available in China.  Yes there are many boys available especially in the waiting child program!  Typically the Chinese people are only able to keep one child and they typically choose to keep their boys however, if their son has a medical condition it is often thought of as taboo.  Therefore there are many boys with minor problems available. 

Are the girls excited?
Yes!  The girls talk about their little brother frequently!  They have enjoyed meeting other adopted children and are excited to meet their little brother!