Aca-scuse me?

I'm posting twice in one day.
I wanted to get the cupcakes out there, but we have had some major... shall we say, changes?... to our adoption and wanted to update.

Remember last week when I was super stressed about silly things like passport appointments? Psshh.
That ain't got nothing on this week.

Here's the low down and I'm actually going to totally downplay it:

Our adoption agency closed. Effective immediately.
With our dossier and check in hand, they closed. For good.

Now, I can see how you'd think I might panic given my lifetime recent history. And I was definitely shocked initially, to say the least. Thanks to some helpful adoption friends, I pretty quickly realized that this could end up being very good for us in the long run. So I took a shower and a celebrity boyfriend quiz (Channing Tatum. Meh.) and watched an extra dose of Pitch Perfect. I haven't said anything publicly about our agency experience thus far, but... we are happy to be changing to another agency. However, we will not be getting any of the money back that we have already paid.  We are working on that teeny tiny detail and should know something in the next 24-48 hours. The money matters. We (us and you) worked HARD to raise that money. Hopefully we can all come to an agreement there. But right now, we are most concerned with what this means for our child. This could cause delays and time is valuable. That's not okay, however, we are thrilled to move forward with an agency that we believe will do everything they can to keep us moving and moving quickly.

I feel MUCH more at peace now, even if things don't play out exactly the way we want them to.

I will say that if it was going to happen, I'm glad it was before our dossier got to China. Some other families are further along in the process (or even IN COUNTRY) and will be GREATLY impacted. Please be in prayer for them, I cannot even imagine the stress they are under now.

In the middle of this mess, we were able to get some updated info on our boy in a round-about way ;)
It turns out, he had a splenectomy in 2012 due to complications from his Thalassemia. He also had a platelet transfusion. While those things did help his anemia, that also means he is now immuno-compromised. That's not great. And even more reason to try to get to him as soon as we possibly can.

But also with that update came new pictures!!


GUYS.
He is so beautiful. I love him so much.

When I showed the kids this picture this morning, their little faces lit up. Cale said, "I can already recognize him as my brother."

So we are back on the excited portion of the ride...

I was going to post a meme that says "It is well with my soul." but I also really wanted to post the one that says "It's okay. Shit happens. I'll get over it." Both are accurate.

To recap- small to medium sized hiccup. Not panicking. Moving forward. Please buy cupcakes and various other items that strike your fancy. And come to our amazing event on March 22 (which is getting better and better by the second). We have our work cut out for us, friends. But in the end, this happy boy WILL be home and you will recognize him as our's!

SIDE NOTE: If you are donating an item for the silent auction- we would love to have it by Saturday, March 15th if at all possible! Just trying to stay organized and make sure we get everything catalogued. Or message me and lets work out an alternate plan (no big deal)! THANK YOU ALL SO SO MUCH! I am going to be posting a list of the items we have so far very soon- so excited!!