THE RED THREAD

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined

to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance.

The thread may stretch or tangle,

but will never break.

Chinese Proverb

Picture of the Yueyang City Social Welfare Institute where Carissa has been living since she was nine days old. Only 5 1/2 more weeks until she is with her "forever" family.

This picture was taken by Halfthesky.com foundation.

Yue Qiaole

(Chinese name given to her upon arrival at orphanage when she was 9 days old)

Qiao - Tall Tree

Le - Hope for a Happy Home

Carissa Joy Le Freed

(American name given by us!!)

Carissa = Full of Grace

Joy = Joyful

Le = She will be in a

happy home!!

Birthday: September 12, 2007

Birthplace: Yueyang, Hunan Province, China

LID: May15, 2006

Referral: April 29, 2008

Travel Dates: September 11-26, 2008

Bethany Christian Services

Travel Plans

We have tentative travel plans for September 11-26. Now comes the packing, planning and prep for this big trip. I have never been out of the country but Curt and my mother-in-law, Connie, have. Ryan is also going with us to finally meet his little sister he has wanted for soooo long. It will be a long but exciting journer for all of us.

The beginning of our Journey

Our journey began in September 2005 when we first called Bethany Christian Services. We went to informational meetings, had our homestudy and decided that China was where we were going. In April of 2006 our paperwork finally went to China and in May of 2006 we were logged in with the CCAA. The wait at that time was 10-12 months for referral so we anticipated in traveling to China during the summer of 2007. Not the case!! Referrals really slowed down and we were caught in the middle of the slowest time in the history of Chinese adoption. We then began to look at some of the special needs children that Bethany had been entrusted to place. We had requested a specific child a couple of times but we were not matched then in April, we requested two special needs children and were chosen on April 29, 2008 to be the proud parents of Yue Qiaole (prounced Chowla) from Yueyang City Social Welfare Institute in the Hunan Province of China. She was born on September 12, 2007 so is just hitting her one year birthday soon. We began the final paperwork for her referral and on July 8 we received Carissa's Official Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China. We mailed it back on July 14th and on August 7th we were finally called with travel plans. We on our way Carissa!!