Adoption: LAST part of the China process!

We have waited a little over 3 years to get to this point.  It almost seems longer than that - in the waiting, the infertility, the sorrows and the joys!  Our log in date - when China put our information on their "list" - waiting an ever-increasing wait - was way back in the summer of 2008.  Little did we know, that our little girl was actually BORN at the end of that summer.  We just had to wait for her.

While we waited, the healthy referral for a China adoption went from 22 months (when we started) to 2 and a half years, to 3 years, to 4 & a half years.  Right now, it's at about 5 & a half years.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing.  The children are still being adopted - in European countries - and even within China.  The United States is one of the few countries that will adopt special needs and older children. So China focuses those children to the US.

While we waited, knowing that we were still called to an adoption in China, we had the opportunity and blessing to adopt domestically.  It's amazing how God worked the frustration, tears and heartbreak of waiting into building our family so perfectly.  TWO beautiful children will in our family by the end of November.  It's been amazing to see just how perfectly God has planned this for us.  For our family.

So we knew that we were still adopting from China.  We just didn't know how.  Our adoption agency has started working with a particular orphanage, including medical mission trips, to get some of the children there adopted.  Our social worker saw one of the little girls there and was led to send us the file.  Even though she was almost 3 years old.  And when we saw her picture - and read her file - we pretty much knew.  We said -YES - in July - and started on the paperwork.  And just a couple of weeks later we got our pre-approval.  Normally - or so I've heard and read - these next steps take about two to three months.  But we got our Letter of Acceptance in less than a month.  And then less than a month after that, we got our Travel Approval AND our travel DATES.  In a little over three month from when we first saw her picture, we are going to be traveling to get here!

We apparently like doing adoptions FAST.  We wait a long time, but then when it gets going...it goes FAST!  We are traveling the first two weeks of November to get our little girl!

China bound...

The past few months have been pretty crazy around here.  Chasing after a one year old - that got REALLY fast at crawling - and has just started to walk.  And preparing for a major change in our family.

We are adopting a little girl from China.  She turned three in August, so our baby girl will be getting a BIG sister!  We are leaving in just over two weeks - November 4th.  And will return about 2 weeks later. This adoption - many years in process - is actually going very fast.  Much faster than I thought it would go.  I can't believe that by Thanksgiving we will be a family of FOUR.  

Over the next few days, I'm going to post more  - about the adoption prep work and how she came to us - about what we are doing now, in preparation - and what our trip and travels will be like.  I hope that reading this you will share in our excitement and being continually praying for us.  God is amazing and has done and will do amazing things.  We have seen it - and will continue to see it!!  

We are blessed!  

She's Here! She's Finally Here!

So this post is well overdue - that being an understatement! To sum up our journey of our 2 adoptions. As of now (August 2010), we are still waiting in China - and the wait will probably be another 3-4 years, unless we pursue a special needs child. We are open to whatever the Lord leads us too. Because His plan is the best!

Which leads me to the title of this blog... YES!! We have our little girl home (from the domestic adoption). This process went faster than we could have imagined. We thought this day would never come!

On that thought above - being open to wherever the Lord leads - Domestic adoption was one of those things for me. When we started the first adoption process, we went the international way - feeling led in that direction. Plus I had some reservations about a domestic adoption. But then the wait kept increasing for our little girl from China. In addition to the grief of the increasingly longer wait for our child, we felt like something wasn't right. This gentle nudge to keep looking. And so we did - into domestic adoption. And after the paperwork, fingerprints and all the stuff that we had done before, our profile was done in June 2009 and began being shown to birthmothers in August.

And then in June - 2 days after returning from our summer vacation - I got the call. We had been chosen. And the baby girl was already born, 6 weeks at the time. And we were going to get her and bring her home in FOUR days!

This process was, in adoption land, very fast. Our profile being chosen in under a year's time. And then getting our baby girl in under a week. Normally the profile is shown for about a year or two, then the adoptive parents have about 2 months to prepare. God knew when and how our baby was coming. I'm so glad that we listened - and that He didn't quit nudging us!

And about this blog. Since I'm a new mommy - and not really good at blogging consistently anyway - I'm going to try to keep up my "everyday" blog. I have had to keep them separate - for emotional reasons. But now everyday life is mommy stuff!!
So, please join me there!
writemindthoughts.blogspot.com

Profile Complete

This past Friday, we turned in 5 copies of our completed profile. We looked over it, proofed it and tweaked it until we ended up with something we are really proud of and really reflects who we are.

The whole profile process has gone so smoothly. Even though the questions were very difficult to answer, or at least to put the answers into words, the layout and the aesthetics were pretty fun. And I knew how to get it to look how I wanted it, because of my work with text layout at my job. So I had my document all ready to go. But how to get it to the Kinko's so they could print it up all fancy? I was talking with a friend at work, and she causally mentioned how her dad uploads stuff to the Kinko's website and then just picks it up. When I got home that evening, it really was that easy. I got to pick the paper, the cover, the binding and the quantity. Even paid for it online.

So Friday morning, when we went to pick it up, it was ready in a neat little box. It was so fast and easy. Even more so than I could have ever imagined. Then we just stopped by the agency and dropped off our box!

Now we wait. Something we are getting pretty good at. Our profile will be shown to birth mothers that we are compatible with - and we just wait to be chosen. Our social worker is going to give us updates as needed. But she isn't going to tell us when or if we are being shown to a birth mother, if she can help it. This is to aid us in not getting our hopes up too soon. So the call that we are waiting for is: Your baby is HERE! It could be several months; it could be a year. But it will be the perfect time.

Home Study - part two

The second part of our Home Study went very smoothly. Our social worker said that she would get to our house about 9 am. She pulled in the driveway as the church bells were chiming 9 o'clock. I was very impressed!

She did Daniel's individual interview first. Then after his part, we did a portion as a couple. We heard more about the state laws and about the lawyer that is going to assist us with all the legal stuff. We have such a great team already in place to help us through the hard stuff! Then our social worker asked us about parenting styles, goals and how we will approach parenting.

During a short break, she glanced through our rough draft of the profile. She thought it looked great. I even had her read a few of the pages that I was a little unsure of - and she thought they sounded wonderful! She said that she was going to look through it more thoroughly and have a birth mother counselor look at it too. But she did say not to expect much critique, because what I had was already great!!! My effort really paid off. I had put my heart and soul into it. (Daniel, of course, did his portion of it. I did the layout and some of the wording to make it flow. And I did all the layout of the pictures - even put a drop shadow around each one!)

[I had worked all day the day before to get everything in order and to make it look the way that I wanted it. From about 10 am to 5 pm straight. It felt like I was back in school getting a project done to turn it in the next day!]

So now, I'm going to be putting the finishing touches on the Profile, like labeling pictures and making it flow even better - and sound like us! I was unsure if we had to stick to the format that the agency had, but our social worker said that I could just go for it and make it my own! They didn't want to hinder creativity. Of course, within reason! But I'm going to have something that really represents US!

Starting Profile

We have started on our Profile. This is what is going to be shown to the birthmothers, for us to be chosen to get a child. It is much harder than we thought it would be. And much harder than the Dossier. The Dossier was mainly legal forms - things that had to be checked on, printed, fingerprinted and certified. These are the things that we were used to. And the Home Study that went into the Dossier was prepared by the social worker. So really other people did most of the work. The hard part was waiting for all of the approvals and certifications to come in the mail.

The Profile is completely different. We have to put in pictures, arrange everything and answer essay questions! I started with the cover page. We had been given several "sample" layouts from which to choose. I really didn't like any of them, especially the cover pages. So I made my own. Working with layout and design in my job, I am able to tweak the layout and fonts some, so that it looks a little better - at least to me. After the basic "stats" of who we are and some pictures, come some easy questions, like what is your favorite food. Then we get to the tough stuff. Some of the questions asked on the profile, I don't even know the answers myself. I would really LIKE to know the answer to some of these questions.

So we are now working on these questions. Some of the answers are almost impossible to put into words. And these words are going to be seen by birthmothers and basically determine if and when we get a child.

Physicals

We both had to have physicals AGAIN for the new adoption. Something amazing happened when I made the appointments. I had called in February to see when the earliest appointments were going to be. They were scheduling appointments for mid-April. When I called a couple weeks later, I was told the earliest available appointment was mid-May! The plan is to get the Home Study and Profile done by the end of May.
So I went ahead with making the appointments. She asked when our last ones were. I told her that they were in December of 2007, but that we were doing this for an adoption, so whether or not insurance covered it didn’t really matter. It was something we had to do. So she went to checking for available appointment. The first one she found was April 16th. The only thing was that it was an afternoon appointment. What that meant was that the lab work would have to be done at a separate time, instead of being done back to back with the appointment. Not a big deal. Daniel has actually told me that the 16th would be perfect for him. And then she had another appointment just like that one the next Thursday for me. I don't know what happened to the only ones being in mid-May. And I was amazed to hear HER volunteer April 16th - I had said nothing yet about a desired day.

So it worked out perfectly. God is amazing the way that he has just made every step of these adoptions so smooth, so full of little miracles. This new adoption being no exception.

Our physical appointments went well, too. The lab work was done so fast. The doctor and all the nurses were so excited to hear about our story. Even the nurse that was drawing the blood talked to both of us about how she was adopted and how special it was to her. They worked with us and helped us out so much. And we got all the forms filled out so easily! Oh, and we each are very healthy!