Alex and I are excited to be on this adoption journey to find our Annie. God has written an amazing story for us that is unfolding every day.  As most of you know we initially began pursuing an adoption in China. As with any plan, changes happen and unexpected things arise. Early last week we received a call about an opportunity to adopt a newborn girl from Japan. This is extremely rare, due to cultural reasons, less than 10% of the orphans in Japan are ever adopted. Typically less than 100 make it to America each year.  What this means is that our Annie’s birth mom has chosen life, and decided that rather than let her grow up in an orphanage, she will break cultural norms and allow her to be adopted to non Japanese Americans. This is a very big deal. Normally the wait for a child from Japan, if you can even get on a list, is about 24 months. We happen to have all our paperwork already completed and only needed a few changes to switch it from China to Japan. After a flurry of emails and phone calls we became first on the new list! We have been told to be prepared to travel in as little as a month and a half, wow. While we are so excited, this has put us in a financial bind we weren’t expecting. Our original savings and fund raising plan was designed with the idea that we would be waiting another 10 months to a year. This new opportunity will require us to move our time line WAY up.  We are asking our friends and family to partner with us to help get our little girl home.  We have set up an account with Pure Charities to help raise money for our adoption expenses. All donations are tax deductible and go straight to our adoption agency. We also know that not everyone is in a place to give financially and we completely understand. We also ask that you please join us in prayer. Specifically for Annie and her birth mother. Her birth mother is walking the road less traveled and we pray for health and peace for her and Annie. Thank you all for you love, support, and prayers.