August 12, 2005
Welcome to our journey to Kiah Faith Mackenzie!!! We are
so happy you can join us. As we receive our referral for Kiah
and travel to China, you will be able to follow us right here
on this website!!! We appreciate all of the support and
prayers from our friends and family. We hope and pray that
you continue to support us in prayer until we bring Kiah home.
The adoption process for Kiah officially began in October
2004. However, she grew in our hearts LONG before that time.
In April 2003 we adopted our son, Jacob from St. Petersburg,
Russia. About 2 months after arriving home with Jacob I
started feeling in my heart that we had a daughter in China.
The feeling became more intense and I finally told Brandon.
He was a little stunned as we had JUST arrived home with our
son and we weren't even on a normal schedule yet!!! I told
him to keep the thought in the back of his mind and that
sometime in the future we would talk about it again. In
February 2004 I approached him and asked that he seriously
think about a 2nd adoption and a daughter from China. I
mentioned an October 2004 start date in the hopes that over
that next 8 months he would agree to move forward with the
adoption. I started praying to God that if this adoption was
His Will, that He would turn Brandon's heart towards the
adoption and to a daughter from China.
On Easter Sunday evening, April 11, 2004 we were watching the
kids open their Easter baskets when Brandon handed me an
unexpected gift. Within a little gift bag was a gold ladybug
with black and red jewels on the wings. Ladybugs are
considered good luck for families doing adoptions from China.
I started to cry as I held the little ladybug in my hand.
Brandon then asked that I read the accompanying note. On a
piece of printer paper (pictured below) he wrote.... "Happy Easter. I guess
you've been waiting for a definitive "Yes" to adopting a
beautiful little China girl. So start the process and we will
welcome Kiah Mackenzie Baker into her new home and family."
GOD HAD ANSWERED MY PRAYERS!!! You could have knocked me over
with a feather. I think Brandon will tell you that for the
first time in a LONG time.... I was speechless!!! He got
bonus points for using Microsoft Paintbrush to try to draw a
ladybug next to his hand written note!!!
In October 2004 we submitted our adoption application to our
wonderful agency.
We are using an agency based
in Colorado named Chinese Children Adoption International
(CCAI). The founders
of the agency are of Chinese descent and adoption from
China is their main focus.
They opened the agency in 1992 when their dream was to place
100 abandoned Chinese children in loving homes. They have far
exceeded that goal as they have placed more than 6,000 Chinese
children since 1992.
Adoption from China is broken down into 3 phases: the
paperchase, the WAIT for a referral and then travel.
This first stage of
the adoption is called the "paperchase". The paperchase
consists of compiling a dossier of paperwork that documents
our lives. Once this paperwork is collected, each document
must be notarized, certified and authenticated. We completed
this process and sent our dossier to CCAI on January 13,
2005. Our agency reviewed and translated our dossier and it
was mailed to China on January 25, 2005. Our dossier was
logged into the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on
February 18, 2005. The CCAA is located in Beijing and is the
government bureau responsible for all adoptions in China.
The current wait from dossier log-in to referral is 6 - 8
months. We expect to be matched with our daughter at the end
of August. On Match Day we will receive a call from our
agency with the information on our new daughter. We will then
receive a FEDEX package which will consist of approximately
3 pictures and the medical information of our daughter.
We will
travel to China approximately 8 weeks after receiving our
referral. The trip to China will be approximately 2 weeks
long with stops in Beijing or Hong Kong, our daughter's
province, and then Guangzhou where the American Embassy is
located. We estimate we will be traveling around the last
week of October or the first week in November.
We are so
happy to be on this journey and we look forward to posting
Kiah's information as soon as we receive it!!!
Praise & Prayer
Requests
Praise for
the opportunity to adopt this wonderful child.
Praise for the smooth process we've experienced so far.
Praise for the wonderful friends and family supporting
us in love and prayer.
Pray for Kiah and that she is being well cared for in
China.
Pray for our family as we continue this wonderful
journey.
Delight
thyself in the LORD; and he shall give thee the
desires of the heart. Psalm 37:4 |
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Waiting for Kiah!
Brandon and Nicole
Jacob
Katelyn
Waiting for baby sister
|
We have had a lot of questions about our
daughter's name. Her new American name will be Kiah Faith
Mackenzie. |
Kiah
Kiah is a Hawaiian name meaning "ocean". We are using the
Australian spelling which means "from the beautiful
place". Kiah is pronounced KI as in the word KITE and AH
as in AHHHHHHHH!!!! (Not like the car manufacturer!!!)
Faith
Faith is an English name meaning "faith or trust".
Mackenzie
Mackenzie is an Irish name meaning "daughter of the wise
leader".
We
will add part of her Chinese name to her American name as
well. |
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