Felice Anthony & Joy Denise Procaccio & Rocky (Tabby Family Cat) - US citizen living in Germany & working for the US Military. Currently, no kids but lots of family members (i.e. Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, nieces/nephews), Church family, friends and plenty of love to provide our newly arriving daughter.

Below is a brief background of our journey:

Florida vacation June 2008. While taking a break from learning how to ride motorcycles, Felice asked me how I felt about adopting and what about China. Instantly I knew this was right for us. My heart was full of joy (no pun intended). I could see our beautiful little girl riding the back seat of the mustang with the top down. At that time we knew nothing about the adoption process or the Hague Convention rules. We quickly found out that we were ineligible to adopt from any Hague Country because we are US citizens living in Germany under Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The new rules requires a home study conducted by a social worker from the country in which you reside. German Social Workers would not complete a home study for American Citizens living in Germany. So, in 2009 we entered into the Taiwan adoption program. During this timeframe, we begin to research if and how U.S. citizens could get approvals to adopt from a Hague country while under SOFA living in Germany. After much research and inquiries, we found the solution. The Germany Central Adoption Authority can grant authorizations for US citizens under SOFA to adopt from Hague countries. Now all Hague countries can again be considered as adoption options for U.S. civilians and service members living in Germany under SOFA! Hurrah! We passed this information out to our adoption support groups and to our local US social workers.

In the meantime, we decided to get ready for family life by investing in a house. After researching the area, the difference in purchasing an existing house or new construction, we decided to build a house. Between adoption paperwork, building a house and working -- we were busy.

In the Fall of 2010 we learned that our agency would no longer be eligible to receive referrals from Taiwan. We decided to change agencies and ultimately changed to the China Special Needs (SN) program. Early 2011, we were officially enrolled in the China SN program, by late summer we had completed the dossier package--time to celebrate!! Our celebration was short lived as it was about that time, that we were beginning to see the signs of a dishonest builder or an upright businessman. Late 2011 - through Mid January 2012 we took possession of a house that was 60% complete and had a basement full of water, pouring in from the walls. The builder took all our money, stopped building and we were paying the mortgage on a house that was inhabitable. Meanwhile in January 2012, we were informed that China had approved our dossier and that we were soon be eligible to begin to receive referrals from the China Children Waiting Program. I can’t begin to describe the emotional state we found ourselves. We should have been in the state of euphoria, as we had been longing to be parents for years (Godly desire). Yet we were now looking at financial disaster or ruin with this house. All our expectations of how things were suppose to be happen (e.g. house, family) were crumbing. We did know if we had enough money to complete/fix the house, finish the adoption and cover Mei-Li medical bills. Our hearts were sick! We called on friends and family to pray with us. God began to show us that like our foundation of faith, much like the foundation in our house was faulty and was in need of repair. A house without a solid, sealed foundation will crumble. Our focus was drawn to our relationship with God. All our desires were Godly. The desire to have a stable home and a family are Godly desires but we began to ask ourselves, were we giving everything to God, walking in his ways and letting him guide our steps? As we prayed with our family & church, we continued to struggle with house problems, finances, whether to continue or postpone the adoption. Even our walk with God struggled. During this period, God was eerily quite but gave scripture versus to others for us, as well as dreams. Our ability to stand has only been by the grace of God, his word and through the prayers of his believers. Though God promises/words we are able to continue through life’s most painful struggles and be victorious in all things. We are happy to say that in the middle of all life’s struggles, on April 17th 2012, we received and accepted the Mei-Li referral. Our “perfect storm” includes merging of the adoption, the house and our walk with God. All these issues put together at this point in our lives has been one of the most costly, long, hard , and bitter challenges we have faced. Although our struggles continue, we are able to live by standing on God’s word and promises. We know that God has the best for us. Our purpose is to live for him, trust and fear him and continue to pursue our understanding of his love for us. We enter this world with nothing and will leave this world with nothing. Life is about what we do in the middle with the gifts God has given us. We know his promises are true. As such our goal is to live day by day standing on his promises and continuing the race God has set before us each day. Looking back, we can see God’s plan was for us was to adopt Mei-Li XuiRong Procaccio from China (not Taiwan). Of course, we can look back now and see that, but in the middle of the struggle, it was easy to ask, where’s God, why us, everyone else does not have these problems? Through this process, God has shown us that just as God adopted us, he appointed us as parents to his little girl that he wonderfully knitted together, called and directed her path to us. God is the master of taking brokenness and making situations/lives beautiful beyond our expectations. Our God is bigger and can accomplish much more then our human minds can comprehend. We are honored and humbled that God has entrusted us with his precious perfect little child. We pray that God gives us his tools we need to be Godly parents and that God will continue to call his people to adopt. Our hearts celebrate every time we learn that other one of God’s children have been placed in a Godly home. Our situation is just another example of how we need to continue to trust God in the mist of struggles, storms and stand in his word. He is faithful and will complete what his plan is, if we are just able to let him to it. We want to thank our family to include our church family and friends for all the prayers and support. We would not be here, if it wasn’t for your prayers and God‘s mercury and grace. We love you guys and want you to enjoy our trip (God’s plan for orphans) with us, as you are apart of our family.

“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” ~Revelation 3:8