Answering Your Questions!

So many questions; most of them the same! Love them, keep them coming. Several people have asked us when we can expect our child to be home because they have heard about the looooooong wait to adopt from China. The "Healthy Child" program wait is up to 6 years now! We are planning to adopt from the Waiting Child 
Program. These precious kiddos have "minor correctable needs". I put "healthy child" and "minor correctable needs" in quotes because there's never a guarantee for anything. Just like when you give birth to a child, there's no advance notice of what needs he or she may have! Probably a good thing. Some common special needs in the waiting child program include heart problems (some already corrected, some grow out of the problem, some may need surgery), cleft lips/palates, Hepatitis B, speech delays, and a whole host of other things. Our agency has projected a 12-15 month wait for the China Waiting Child Program. We will be matched with a child about 3-4 months before we travel.

The picture above is from my 7 months volunteering in a children's home near Beijing. The sweetie I'm holding was my ultimate #1 favorite kiddo. She had a cleft lip and palate that had been corrected. And I tried to pack her in my carry-on when it was time for me to come home, but they wouldn't let me!!! She has since been adopted; hooray!

The Announcement

Mark and I sent these magnetic frames out to our parents and siblings to announce our plans to adopt. (By the way, the limerick, ALL Mark's idea!) This was all that was in the envelope. Thankfully we have pretty smart families and they all figured it out right away! But MAN OH MAN, I was not prepared for the amount of support we would receive from both sides of our families. I knew they'd all be happy for us, but I was not prepared for ecstatic, or my mom crying, or my niece Nikki saying she was so excited to have a girl cousin to play with. I don't know why I didn't realize it before...but they're adopting too. Adopting a cousin, a granddaughter, a niece. And I love it. 

Another thing I wasn't prepared for was for people to not be supportive. I'm understanding now that some people actually disagree with the idea of adoption. I was surprised and hurt when a few people did not respond when I personally told them about our news. I think this is just the beginning of being surprised in this journey. We have no idea who this little person is that God has planned to be a part of our family, but He HAS planned it in advance. 

"You saw me before I was born
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."
Psalm 139:16 NLT