Our Adoption Story
Today's blog post is kind of long. But it has a pretty happy ending, so keep reading.
I wanted to share a little about Chinese Adoption and what the process looks like.
Each country has it's own set of regulations, and requirements that they set for adopting parents. China has a minimum age requirement of 30, health requirements, as well as a long laundry list. Did I just give my age away?!
We started our adoption process on January 6, 2017 when we filed an application with our agency.
When we applied, we were told the process usually took between 12-24 months.
Each child available for international adoption from China, and many other countries as well, has some form of special need. It can range from very mild to more severe. When you apply, you submit a medical checklist of which needs your family is comfortable with accepting. You also pick what age range you desire and what gender. This list is how your agency matches you with a child.
Once your turn has come up, and there is a child that matches your checklist, they contact you as ask if you would like to learn more about the child. You see whatever information the orphanage has about the child (which usually isn't a lot), some photos and maybe a few videos. Then you have a few days to make a decision.
After you apply you begin the biggest paper chase ever known to mankind. Along with a home study, you must gather a collection of documents to be compiled into what is called a Dossier, which is eventually sent to China. Their governmental agency then has to log it into their system.
I spent all winter gathering every kind of information about us that you can imagine. Birth and marriage records, financial information, health screenings, even vaccination records for our dogs. In the adoption world this period is called, "paper pregnant". You can imagine why.
At the very end of August of 2017 we finally had everything together and our agency sent our dossier to China. DTC is the acronym used. I also feel like I speak a new language after all of this!
A week later we were LID, or Logged in Dossier. This was a huge cause for celebration. It meant that our paper work had made it to China, and they had accepted it.
Now we waited..... waiting was a little more difficult when there was nothing for me to do. But it was also a sweet time when I had to trust that God was working for us.
On a Sunday evening, October 15, I saw our sweet girl's photo on our agency's website. I called Dane over to take a look, and without hesitation he said, "Get her!" I immediately emailed our agency, as it was after business hours. We could hardly stand the waiting. We wanted to know more about her, we didn't want to get too hopeful, but we both already felt so certain she could be ours. After showing her photo to the kids we sat in our living room and prayed for her. We prayed that she would find a family, even if it wasn't meant to be us. We prayed for her well being, and that the Holy Spirit would comfort and sustain her as she waited alone without a family. Our kids prayed the most beautiful prayers. It was a Holy moment, as our living room became Holy ground. I knew nothing about her, but I wanted her so badly.
The next morning I called our agency as soon as they opened. The kind lady on the other end of the phone said that we could see her file, but due to an unusual circumstance there were also several other families viewing it already. Normally when you get a child's file it is locked for so many days, and no one else can get it.
I refreshed the email every few minutes for about an hour and a half, and finally it arrived. I opened it, skipped all of the written documents, and went straight to the photos. It was like time was standing still and flying by all at once. My heart and my mind were both going so fast I am not certain that I could make complete sentences. After seeing her sweet face, I scrolled up to the documents.
One thing that I didn't know before that day, in all of the months of gathering and working, was that whatever was in those papers wouldn't really matter. She was already ours. God had called us to adoption and to China because he knew she was there, and she was ours.
The next day, on October 17th, at about 2 pm, we called the agency and told them we wanted to accept this little girl as our daughter. The lady of the phone replied, "I've been wondering when you were going to call and tell me that. I just knew you were her mama." She said she would tell all of the other families reviewing her file that they missed out.
On Thursday, October 19, we sent our "Letter of Intent" (LOI) to China telling them we wished to adopt this specific child. The agency told me to be prepared to wait 8 weeks for a "Letter of Acceptance" from them. She said if it happened to come sooner, they would celebrate with me, but to expect to wait.
The next day, not even 24 hours later, we got our Letter of Acceptance!
This just sped up our travel from Spring to Winter. We were overjoyed to get to our girl sooner.
So the next step was more paper work! Oh joy! But this time my paper work had a face to go with it.
We had already received permission from the US government to adopt a child from China, but we had to file some paper's specific to her. This is now done, and we are waiting on one more form from the American Consulate in China to give us travel approval.
It looks like we will be meeting our girl face to face right around Christmas or the New Year.
Our trip will be about 2 weeks. We will get her early on in the trip, probably day 3.
We would love for you all to join us in praying for our Sadie Wynn. She has so many changes ahead of her. Please pray that her heart would be ready for us, and that she would experience peace in those first few days. Pray for our transition to becoming a family of five. Please pray for big brother and big sister too!
I wanted to share a little about Chinese Adoption and what the process looks like.
Each country has it's own set of regulations, and requirements that they set for adopting parents. China has a minimum age requirement of 30, health requirements, as well as a long laundry list. Did I just give my age away?!
We started our adoption process on January 6, 2017 when we filed an application with our agency.
When we applied, we were told the process usually took between 12-24 months.
Each child available for international adoption from China, and many other countries as well, has some form of special need. It can range from very mild to more severe. When you apply, you submit a medical checklist of which needs your family is comfortable with accepting. You also pick what age range you desire and what gender. This list is how your agency matches you with a child.
Once your turn has come up, and there is a child that matches your checklist, they contact you as ask if you would like to learn more about the child. You see whatever information the orphanage has about the child (which usually isn't a lot), some photos and maybe a few videos. Then you have a few days to make a decision.
After you apply you begin the biggest paper chase ever known to mankind. Along with a home study, you must gather a collection of documents to be compiled into what is called a Dossier, which is eventually sent to China. Their governmental agency then has to log it into their system.
I spent all winter gathering every kind of information about us that you can imagine. Birth and marriage records, financial information, health screenings, even vaccination records for our dogs. In the adoption world this period is called, "paper pregnant". You can imagine why.
At the very end of August of 2017 we finally had everything together and our agency sent our dossier to China. DTC is the acronym used. I also feel like I speak a new language after all of this!
A week later we were LID, or Logged in Dossier. This was a huge cause for celebration. It meant that our paper work had made it to China, and they had accepted it.
Now we waited..... waiting was a little more difficult when there was nothing for me to do. But it was also a sweet time when I had to trust that God was working for us.
On a Sunday evening, October 15, I saw our sweet girl's photo on our agency's website. I called Dane over to take a look, and without hesitation he said, "Get her!" I immediately emailed our agency, as it was after business hours. We could hardly stand the waiting. We wanted to know more about her, we didn't want to get too hopeful, but we both already felt so certain she could be ours. After showing her photo to the kids we sat in our living room and prayed for her. We prayed that she would find a family, even if it wasn't meant to be us. We prayed for her well being, and that the Holy Spirit would comfort and sustain her as she waited alone without a family. Our kids prayed the most beautiful prayers. It was a Holy moment, as our living room became Holy ground. I knew nothing about her, but I wanted her so badly.
The next morning I called our agency as soon as they opened. The kind lady on the other end of the phone said that we could see her file, but due to an unusual circumstance there were also several other families viewing it already. Normally when you get a child's file it is locked for so many days, and no one else can get it.
I refreshed the email every few minutes for about an hour and a half, and finally it arrived. I opened it, skipped all of the written documents, and went straight to the photos. It was like time was standing still and flying by all at once. My heart and my mind were both going so fast I am not certain that I could make complete sentences. After seeing her sweet face, I scrolled up to the documents.
One thing that I didn't know before that day, in all of the months of gathering and working, was that whatever was in those papers wouldn't really matter. She was already ours. God had called us to adoption and to China because he knew she was there, and she was ours.
The next day, on October 17th, at about 2 pm, we called the agency and told them we wanted to accept this little girl as our daughter. The lady of the phone replied, "I've been wondering when you were going to call and tell me that. I just knew you were her mama." She said she would tell all of the other families reviewing her file that they missed out.
 |
| Graham and Ansley came home from school to find out they had a new sister. |
On Thursday, October 19, we sent our "Letter of Intent" (LOI) to China telling them we wished to adopt this specific child. The agency told me to be prepared to wait 8 weeks for a "Letter of Acceptance" from them. She said if it happened to come sooner, they would celebrate with me, but to expect to wait.
The next day, not even 24 hours later, we got our Letter of Acceptance!
This just sped up our travel from Spring to Winter. We were overjoyed to get to our girl sooner.
So the next step was more paper work! Oh joy! But this time my paper work had a face to go with it.
We had already received permission from the US government to adopt a child from China, but we had to file some paper's specific to her. This is now done, and we are waiting on one more form from the American Consulate in China to give us travel approval.
It looks like we will be meeting our girl face to face right around Christmas or the New Year.
Our trip will be about 2 weeks. We will get her early on in the trip, probably day 3.
We would love for you all to join us in praying for our Sadie Wynn. She has so many changes ahead of her. Please pray that her heart would be ready for us, and that she would experience peace in those first few days. Pray for our transition to becoming a family of five. Please pray for big brother and big sister too!
Comments
Post a Comment