And So It Begins

Since before we were married, Damien and I always knew we wanted to adopt. So why have we waited until we were married for almost 10 years before we started the process? Well, I guess it was timing mostly. We had always wanted to adopt from China and you had be 30 years old. That, along with having Orin and Micaiah (you're youngest child has to be 1 before you can begin the process to adopt), and moving around so much for the past two years, it just wasn't the right time. But now we're settled and excited to finally be beginning the process. After looking at a lot of agencies and countries, we've decided to go with America World Adoption. It's a christian organization which we really wanted because they will better understand our situation as missionaries. We also know quite a few people who have had good adoption experiences with them. Plus, I think the founders actually attend (or used to attend) our sending church (Reston Bible Church). Even better, although their main office is in Northern VA (only about 20 minutes from our old home) they have an office right here in Dallas. This means that they can facilitate all portions of the adoption and we won't have to find an independent agency to do the Home Study. At this point we would like to adopt a special needs child. We open to minor specials needs (cleft lip/palate, club foot/hand, congenital heart defects). These are usually correctable, but still make the child less "desirable" for adoption. Because we (Lord willing) plan to live overseas at some point, we don't want the child to have a need that we won't be able to take care of in a third world country. So our plan at this point is to adopt a girl from China. Someone asked if we're excited. Honestly, not really- yet. The wait time for adopting a special needs child from China is 10-32 months! And that is after your Dossier is submitted to the Chinese Government. We still have 3 to 4 months of paperwork (LOTS of paperwork), home studies, fingerprinting, etc. before that can happen. Plus, China has very strict rule about health, finances, so we won't know for sure if we can even adopt from China until they've approved of us. If we aren't approved we'll have to decide of another country (and possibly agency) and go from there. So, there are a lot of unknowns right now. But we do know that God has a child that is just for us and even though we don't know when we'll meet her, or where she is (if she's even conceived or born yet) we're looking forward to the journey ahead and meeting her someday. I've added an "adoption timeline" to record important dates as we go forward. Here are a few prayer request we have regarding our adoption:

1. Peace- From the get-go we want to be at peace knowing that God is in control of this entire process.
2. Smooth process - sometimes adoptions take longer than expected because of misfiled paperwork, lost files, etc...
3. Patience, patience, patience.
4. Finances - adoption is expensive (to say the least); we were really blessed that when we sold our home two years ago to be able to save some of the profit for this adoption. We will also be applying for some grants.
5. Qualifications - pray that we meet the requirements set forth by the Chinese government.
6. Flexibility - pray that we remain flexible and open if God's plan is different than ours.