on our way

A blog...Hmm. Not sure how this will work. It only took me over an hour to figure out how to post a background. :) The intention of this blog is to chronicle our journey to adopt our baby girl. We want her to know she was loved, wished for, dreamed of long before we even saw her sweet face. We are parents to four beautiful children. Our daughter, Maeve is almost 13! (yikes!) our son Owen will be 10 in the Spring and our son, Aidan is 7.  Our son Liam was diagnosed in 2008 with an inoperable malignant brainstem tumor (DIPG). He lived so bravely for nearly 14 months before he was healed in Heaven.  He was an incredible boy with beautiful and courageous spririt. We miss him more than word can adequately express. He lives in our hearts and we carry him with us every day. He is and always will at the very heart of our family. You can read Liam's story and learn more about DIPG and ways to help in the fight at www.caringbridge.org/visit/liamreilly
A year after Liam's passing Ryan and I began to feel like we were being called to expand our family. I felt very strongly that God was asking me to do this through adoption. Given the journey of our family we took almost another full year to prayerfully consider  adoption and educate ourselves. When we finally made the decision to pursue the dream that was placed in our hearts we felt such content and renewed hope. This was the journey we were supposed to be making. In May of 2011 we formally submitted our application to our agency and began our journey to our little girl. There have been bumps in the road but more than anything we just feel blessed by this process. We are in the process of compiling our paperwork for our Dossier to China. Next week we have our fingerprinting appointment with USCIS. We hope to go into further detail about our journey thus far and share our experiences as we go. We can't wait to see our little girl's face and learn who she is. She is so very loved and already a part of  her Mommy, Daddy, sister and brothers' heart.