Friday, April 4, 2008

Starting to feel more real

Now that the home study is complete and we are only waiting for one more piece of paper to complete our dossier, our pursuit of our new daughter is feeling less like a dream and more like it will soon be reality. Reading the blogs listed in my links below has made it even more so--these two families that I have never met are RIGHT NOW in China with their new babies, getting to know them. They were permitted to travel to the orphanage that their babies came from, which is somewhat unusual apparently. Today, seeing photos of the orphanage where these families received their babies, and seeing photos of the site where one of the babies had been found abandoned at birth, tugged at my heart. So many children in so many cribs pushed so close together! Their blog described a 5-year-old girl with cardiac issues that is waiting to be matched with a family and it made me want to go and bring her home today! Even if she is several years older than we had planned on adopting!

I have to keep reminding myself that God, who is sovereign over all things and over the timing of all things, has already selected our daughter, and has already selected our family for her. He already knows her name, her personality, her medical condition, her needs, her heart. He already knows how she will impact our family and our lives. He already knows how we will nurture and mold and shape her. So I pray for her that He would help her to wait, even as he helps us to wait. And that He would provide loving caregivers, good medical care, physical nourishment, emotional nurture, and mental stimulation.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007