Crams are getting ready to go to China to get little Jessica! Her file name was Addison, so many of the people who followed her scenario until we were matched with her will recognize her file name as Addison. What a miracle this journey has been for our family! I received the email about this little deaf girl in China during spring break of last year. As a special education teacher, it has been refreshing for me to plan some kind of escape for spring break in order to make it through the rest of the year in one piece. For some reason, we decided we needed to just "pull in" this spring break and refresh that way. I had also planned to attend our oldest son's Individual Education Plan meeting at the beginning of that week as I had run out of personal leave to attend such meetings during school days. Jacob is 16 this year. He was born profoundly deaf and also has autism. At 200 plus pounds, he outgrew mama a couple of years ago. Helping him transition from living at home to living in a group home 100 miles away was almost more than I could stand. It was this spring break that we had decided that in spite of a placement closer to home opening up, we all felt that to leave him in his loving placement in Meridian, Idaho is the most loving thing to do to preserve the routine he now knows. Through tears of relief and resignation, we informed Jacob's team that we felt that ongoing placement in Meridian in his group home and at the Meridian High School was God's loving provision for both our son and his adoring family. We have the opportunity to visit him several times each month and hang out at many of his favorite places doing fun things as a family. It was the very next day that we found little Jessica's (Addison's) picture and story on an email from a friend. The moment I opened the email, my heart made a connection and I immediately wondered what my husband would think of the idea of adding this precious little deaf girl to our Cramboys' family. Immediately, I sensed a still small voice telling me, "calm yourself, I have this one..." I knew it was the Lord asking me if I had learned ANYTHING on my journey with my son's recent transition. I called Chuck on his way home from work and asked him to prepare his heart before he came home. I told him that there was an email I wanted him to read and then find me to let me know what his reaction was going to be. After arriving home and reading the email, Chuck came to find me and asked, "Who do we need to call? That is our little girl!!!" I burst into tears of joy and disbelief!!! From then on, I knew I could let my heart go as that was my confirmation from the Lord that this adoption was "meant to be". Chuck's immediate acceptance and recoprocity of my own desires was the first of many miracles we have witnessed since that first day. Almost immediately, we were made a match for little Jessica. We were blown away by the generosity of an anonymous donor who offered to pay what we had estimated the adoption to cost. We took this as another miracle and confirmation from the Lord that we have truly been preserved through Jacob's transition to be available to add this little one to our family. Another miracle continues to unfold as the time of our departure to go retrieve our little one draws near. My old feelings of fear and guilt that somehow Jacob might feel like we are somehow trying to replace him is vanishing. The idea that he could ever be removed from our hearts or replaced in our home is impossible. In addition to that, I am learning that he may very well benefit from the added love and celebration that the rest of us have already begun to experience! We prayerfully and gratefully, embark on a journey that will add this precious little signing girl to our cramboy crew. We readily change our familial icon to Cramkids with a bit-o -pink! What a miraculous way to expand our family! We couldn't be more pleased or excited to be so close to adding a daughter! We are scheduled to depart from Boise, Idaho next Friday, morning on January 9th, 2009. We are to arrive in China, late the following night, January 10th at 10:35pm. According to our China schedule, we will be meeting our little gal in Fuzhou sometime after lunch on January 11th. We can hardly breathe with anticipation and excitement! Please keep the Crams in your prayers as we begin the traveling portion of the mirculous journey we have been anticipating for the past nine months! We will do our best to keep up with the blog as we travel as the miracle of adoption continues to unfold in the life of the Cram family! Huge hugs from all of us in Idaho (one hanging out a bit longer in China) Sincerely, Beth for Cramkids Crew.