A Family in Pursuit...of what?

Several months ago, Brian and I chose a verse for our family. Something we wanted to be our compass for decision making and living life moving forward. We chose Matthew 5:16 -

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

Little did we know how far He would ask our light to shine....

So, why the title "A Family in Pursuit"? We are in pursuit of God's will for our lives, in pursuit of showing others the love of God, and, most recently, we are in pursuit of a young child with special needs in China.

Let us explain. Some time ago I spoke with an old friend who was fundraising for her adoption of a little girl in China. After our discussion, I began researching China adoptions and became hooked. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that we could do this, we could have a child in China. Tears filled my eyes each night as I learned more about these children who are living in orphanages, just waiting for a family to love them.

So, I mentioned it to Brian - "What do you think about the idea of adopting from China"? Brian was immediately excited about the idea - "Let's do it".

So why a blog with this announcement? We realize that this may come as a surprise and, while we can't wait to discuss this with you in person, we wanted to give you a little bit of time to let the idea sink in. We hope we can answer a few of the questions you may have below and will then, of course, answer any other questions you have as well.

So, how long have you considered the idea of adoption?

Many of you know that we had some issues conceiving before Brooklyn was born and we had looked into domestic adoption at that time. Even though we were blessed with Brooklyn, Brian and I still felt we would be involved with adoption in some way.

Why adopt, though? Can you not have more children?

Brian and I feel like this is our calling, adoption. It is not our second choice. We are really excited about expanding our family in this way and we feel we are just being obedient to God's call to our family.

Ok, but aren't there children in America to adopt? Why China?

Children in need are children in need, regardless of where they live. There are several reasons we have chosen international adoption over domestic adoption and several reasons we have chosen China specifically, however the main reason is we feel called to China.

In the 1970s to control population growth, China implemented a "one child policy" which allows families in urban areas to only have one child. This has translated into thousands of babies being left in public areas by their parents for a variety of reasons which may include those who already have a child, are unwed, want a different gender of child, or cannot afford medical care for that child. I can only imagine how gut-wrenching it has to be to leave their baby and we pray for our child's birth parents often.

Unlike some other countries that allow international adoption, China is very stable. They have a set system of rules of how adoptions should be done and there are few deviations. You do the paperwork and meet the requirements, and you can end up with a child. Some other countries involve a system of bribes and government officials making decisions about whether you can have a child from their country and it can change on a dime.

China also has, we hear, decent medical care for the children in the orphanages. While their living standards are far below anything we would accept, the orphanages, for the most part, take good care of the children. This is not the case in some other countries.

You mentioned a special needs child. What does that mean?

In the past, people could adopt healthy children from China, mostly girls. However as the economy has improved in China, more people are adopting healthy children domestically. This leaves orphanages full of special needs children, of both genders, waiting for a forever family.

However, in China, a special need means something different than in the US. In China, a special need means that the child has any medical issue that could make raising them more difficult. In our case, in consultation with the International Adoption medical team at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, we have said we are open to adopting a child with minor, correctable medical issues. This could mean things like cleft lip/cleft palate, club foot, or minor heart defect. These issues are typically correctable with surgery or surgeries.

So what is the process like to adopt and how long will it take?

To simplify things, we think of the process in three chunks: compiling the dossier, waiting for referral, and waiting to go to China.

So far we have submitted an application to our adoption agency, Holt International, and have been accepted into the program. We have begun to collect the overwhelming amount of paperwork required for our dossier (the packet of paperwork that is sent to China for official "log in" in China's system to be eligible to adopt) and our home study (done by a social worker who interviews us and visits our home to ensure we are fit parents to adopt). We hope to submit our dossier to China in February.

Once all that paperwork is complete and sent to China, we can receive referrals for children in
China. When we receive a referral, we will receive the child's picture and medical records and will have about 48 hours to pray and confer with the specialists at Children's Medical Center who will give us their opinion of the health of the child and other things to consider. If we decide the child, for whatever reason, is not a good fit for our family, we can turn down the referral and wait for another to come. If we decide the child is a good fit for our family, we submit a letter to China to secure the child to us and receive official approval from the country that we can adopt that child. Referrals can take anywhere from 1 to 6 months (or longer) and then it can take several months to receive the approval from China.

Then we wait for the travel approval from China which says we can go pick up our child (yes, we will have to make a 2 week trip to China to pick up our son or daughter). This waiting time can take 4 to 6 months.

Overall we are expecting a process of 18 months +. As you can imagine, this wait will take A LOT of prayer and patience, however since we want Brooklyn to remain the older sibling, the wait will allow her to get a little older. The child will be anywhere from 9 to 18 months at the time they are referred to us.

So that, in a nutshell, is what we know so far. Thanks for sticking in there with us in this very long post and we know there is a lot of information. We wanted to put our thoughts together written down as the amount of information can be overwhelming, not just to us but we understand to our friends and family also. We have also purchased a few copies of a book called "In On It" which is for family and friends to help them better understand the process of adoption and how to get involved and best provide support. Please let us know if you'd like a copy as we'd love for you to be as involved in this journey as you'd like. We will also be updating this blog as we go so you can follow along.

Right now, we pray - for patience, for our future child who may or may not be in this world already, for their parents who will be gifting the world with this amazing person, for Brooklyn and for the ups and downs that will undoubtedly come with this journey, and most importantly that God is glorified every step of the way.

We are excited beyond words to share this news with you and we hope for your full support and prayers, there is no doubt we'll need it!