Sunday, August 18, 2013

Meet Elliott Levi Pool

A couple of months ago we saw a little boy on our agency's shared list (a list that anyone in our agency can see). When I inquired about him I was told that our agency didn't have his complete files yet so we couldn't move forward with anything. We thought that if he was our son God would bring him to us and if he wasn't ours we prayed that God would put him in a wonderful family. But there was nothing else we could do but wait.

Three weeks ago I was quite surprised when our agency sent us his file. It included the pictures we had already seen and his medical records. We had 72 hours to review it and say yes or no to him. I wish I could put into words how hard that process is. I assumed that looking at files would be tough. How would we know what child was our child?  Each and every one of them needs a home and a family to love them. As I looked at Elliott's face I wondered if that sweet boy was one that I will get to hold, to kiss, love and watch grow up. It is was so hard!!! We knew that the only way to get instruction was to fervently seek the Lord in prayer. After three days we felt God reassuring us that Elliott was ours. Once we said yes we were both very much at peace with this decision and now we are ready to bring him home!

He is 20 months old and in Chengdu, China. He was born with intestinal atresia which means that his intestines didn't develop properly. He has had surgeries to correct this. Right now we still have several steps before we can bring him home. Currently we are waiting on our LOA (letter of approval from China). That can take anywhere from 30-100+ days. The average being around 60 days. My prayer is that we bring him home before his second birthday in January.