NEW Adoption

As the wait for our referral from China continues on, Daniel and I have been continually praying for where God is leading us. One afternoon, feeling very lost and not knowing what we should do, I just said, “What do we do?” And the next afternoon I went to the mailbox and got a letter from our adoption agency. It was notifying us of a new program for those waiting for a China referral.

The new program is a concurrent domestic adoption during the China wait. When I read that letter, I just knew that this was what we had been waiting for. I knew that we still had a call to China, that there is a little girl for us there. But it had just seemed like there was SOMETHING else - something that I was looking for – something we were missing. And immediately, I knew that we had found it. Daniel and I prayed and talked with our social worker about it. She thought that we were perfect candidates for this new program.

I have had many fears about adopting domestically. Mainly about the adoptions usually being semi-open or fully open. But I have felt those fears just falling away. We still have questions about how open the adoption will be – and it does range case by case – but we have a peace about it. We know that this is God’s new plan for us.

With this new program, nothing about our China adoption changes. I also feel that with this new program, the wait (that is still about 4 years) is not going to be decreasing any time soon.

So we embark on a new adoption. We basically have to start over. It is a brand NEW
adoption – so new social worker – and new application. Since we are doing it concurrently at the same agency, our social workers (from both our China and domestic programs) can work together. Many things that we filled out for the agency are the same and can be put into our new file. And there are some things that we are going to have to do again – like fingerprints and physicals. But some of these would have to be redone anyway for our China program. Because of the long wait for referrals, some things in our China dossier will expire.

There will be some repeating. There will be some overlapping. But the paperwork, forms, and documents have never really bothered me. It is a wonderful challenge that has a great ending.

We have already done some of the things to get started. Police and background check letters are sent off. Fingerprints are planned for next week. Physicals in April. Home study interviews in two weeks. We are moving right along.

So as far as time frame. Ideally, the wait for a domestic adoption is about 18 months. So, with God’s grace, we will have our domestically adopted child (we don’t really have preference of male or female) in our home for about a year (which is required by China) before we go overseas to get our little girl. So when we get home, we will have 2 one year olds at the same time. Exciting!!

Prayer: We need prayer that the timing will work out perfectly. And we know that it can. God is amazing!