*Done with Phase 1!

Today I dropped our last pieces of paperwork in the mail. We were waiting for my medical appointment, which was on Wednesday. Today we got our medical forms signed and notarized, and we are done! It's good to be done, but it only means the rest is out of our hands.

I talked with our agency this week and was discouraged to learn more about the process. We really did enter this blindly. The most discouraging news is that we will likely wait 6-9 months to travel once we are matched with a child. Can I just say TORTURE!!! My little girl will be that much longer without me. I had my mind prepared for 3-4 months like with Vietnam, but this is double that wait. I'm not sure why it takes so long - is it just because the CCAA is understaffed? Or is there some kind of paperwork happening during that time?

Our agency also said that it is up to us as to when we want to start looking for a match. They recommended we wait a couple months after our paperwork goes to China, as this will likely decrease the time that we have to wait to travel (the torturous part of the wait), but still keep out total wait about the same. I'm not sure I understood, but I will research and trust their judgment.

In the meantime, we pray hard for Mei Mei, and trust the Lord to watch over her and bring us together. We also trust the Lord to provide the funds we will need to pay in the next couple weeks when our dossier goes to China.

*Here's the News....

Alright, so now I have a few minutes to write and wanted to let you know that we are moving forward with China. We are very excited about. For the first time in a long time, things actually seem to be moving forward MORE QUICKLY than we expected. Because we had just updated our home study for Vietnam, our social worker was able to surprise us by having our China home study done in two days!! We expected this to take at least a month, not really knowing that it didn't require all new paperwork. That was a huge praise!

We are going the special needs route with the China program through our agency, Faith International. This route works much different than the route for healthy children, where the wait is as long as 3 years now. Our whole process from now until we have the child home could be 9 months, or even less since our paperwork stage is progressing quickly.

We have done some research on what kinds of special needs we are open to. We are using the term "minor correctable special needs" in our paperwork, and can be more specific with our agency. They will then help us find the right child for us based on the age and special needs we have requested. The most common special needs that we are open to are cleft palate/lip, minor physical deformities like missing or extra digits..., sight or hearing weakness, skin conditions, minor heart conditions, Hepatitis B.....We are still requesting a girl, under the age of 2.

Our immigration forms are being sent to the US Consulate today. It is perfect timing because our Vietnam approval expires soon and we were needing to update our forms anyway. Anyone can have one free update and one free change of status, and you can do both at once. So, we are updating and changing our status to China, and will wait a few weeks for approval. Once we have our immigration approval, and all of our paperwork done, our dossier goes to China and our agency will start looking on the special needs lists for our child! Most of the paperwork we have done before. The most time consuming are things we need other people to help with - our medical reports, and employment letters..... The stress of paperwork is adding to the busyness of the season, but it's a good stress.

The Lord has given us peace about this, and is open doors along the way. Now we need Him to provide the funds, and help us find our daughter.

We are not giving up on Vietnam. If things open again soon, we may have to delay our Vietnam adoption, until our first daughter is home and adjusted. It would also be an even bigger financial stretch to do two adoptions, but if this is what the Lord has for us, He will provide. Liv is still in Vietnam, and I won't give up looking for her until the Lord tells me to.

We need a nickname for our Chinese daughter, and may have to start a new blog, since this one is obviously rather Vietnamese. Some nicknames we have brainstormed are: Pearl, LIA (Love in Asia - LIC just isn't cute, and LICh is worse:) and Mei Mei (which means little sister in Mandarin). Any other suggestions, or votes?

It is so great to see an end to this long wait for our next child in site! I have hope, and am also trying to guard my hope for fear of trials like we've had with Vietnam.

*Contemplating....

I debated about sharing this with the world (since I have readers from several continents:), but feel like I should be open about every step in our adoption process. This way you know how to pray for us, and if you are a PAP (prospective adoptive parent), you may learn from our journey (and mistakes!).

Today I was a part of a webinar for those interested in adopting a "special needs" child from China. This is just something we are contemplating pursuing in light of the closure of Vietnam. We have been praying for a long time and I just wanted to listen to this webinar to learn more.

Before we even officially started our adoption process, we were highly interested in China - partially because we have known a few people who have adopted from there, partially because of the publicity that orphans there have received. But, China has some strict requirements, and does not allow people under 30 to apply. I was not quite 29 when we were starting.

Now, I am well over 30 (exactly 149 days), and we meet the other requirements if we were to adopt our next child from China. However, (and this plays a role in our decision) we would not meet the income requirement if we were adopting our 3rd child. For every person in the household, including the child being pursued, China requires a certain yearly income. Unless our salary increases dramatically, (which is pretty much impossible as we raise our own salary through generous donors) we would only be able to adopt one child from China, and it would have to be our next child. I learned from the webinar today that China is strict with the salary requirements.

My fear is that Vietnam may never open, or that if it does, we would adopt Liv, and then it would close again, and we would not be able to turn to China at that time. That's not really reason to pursue China, but it's something to be aware of.

Throughout our process with Vietnam, I have wondered if the Lord had a more special child for us - one with a unique medical need. The wait for a healthy Chinese infant (what we are pursuing from Vietnam) is up around 3 years now. Many of the "waiting children" who are considered to have special needs that make them harder to adopt actually have fairly insignificant issues. Many of these issues are correctable with surgery. Some of the common medical issues we might consider are cleft lip/palate, minor heart defects, limb deformities, vision/hearing weaknesses, large birthmarks, Hepatitis B........ And there is no wait for these children who desperately need a mommy and daddy.

Every month the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) releases a big list of "special needs" children that are available for adoption. Only liscenced agencies have access to this list, and the agency staff match the children with the waiting families who have agreed to adopt a "special needs" child based on the family's preferences. Then the family has a week to decide for sure if they are going to pursue this child. If not, the child is put back on the list for a different agency to look into. It is possible for a family to be matched with a child even before their dossier is completed, but this is not ideal for the child - as this lengthens their wait in China. After a family (who is dossier ready) is matched with a child, it is 3-5 months until they travel to get him or her. The length of stay in China averages 12 days.

Chinese children with cleft palate/lip

A Chinese child with repaired cleft palate/lip.

The reason that we can even contemplate this option, is that many of our fees for Vietnam would transfer over to the China program if we stayed with our agency. I was doing the math and it looks like we could actually save money if we went with China and Vietnam stayed closed. China is a little cheaper of a program.

We would not pull out of Vietnam. We are committed to sticking out this wait, until our agency, or Vietnam, or God forces us to quit. But, we would like to adopt more than one child, so why not start a concurrent adoption now? (Well, several reasons I can think of, but we'll see.)

So, I learned a little from the webinar, but ultimately it made me feel more comfortable with pursuing China. I have yet to talk much with Keith about it, and we still have not heard from the Lord. I'll let you know what we decide.

*Faith Family Picnic

Today was our agency's annual "Faith Family Picnic" at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. This was our first time attending, of course, and we felt a little out of place without our little Asian daughter, but it was fun and amazing to see all the beautiful families. Our agency adopts from China, Vietnam, Nepal, Mexico and Panama, but the majority of the children at the picnic were from China and Vietnam. One lady asked us where Koen was from. We weren't real sure how to answer that - Seattle? My womb? :) There were many families that had a biological child or two and then an adopted child or two.

We got to meet our adoption case worker face to face for the first time. She started working for our agency only a couple months ago. We also got to meet another family who is at the same point as us in the process. We met one family that adopted a little girl from Nepal a year or so ago - their first. Another family that are former missionaries to Mongolia and Nepal adopted a 2 1/2 year old girl from China with minor special needs (a hand deformity), even though they've already raised 3 children to adulthood.

We also got to meet our agency's Vietnamese official, Henry, who comes every year for the picnic. He suggested to us that it is best to adopt from the northern provinces in Vietnam, as they are better cared for, and less likely to have HIV or Hepatitis. This way we are less likely to get "mad at Vietnam" because our child will be healthy. It made me sad to think that there probably have been people who have been disappointed in the child they've received. He probably also feels a sense of pride in his country and wants people to see the best of Vietnam. Henry saying this makes me think that most families are probably trying to adopt from the north, so we need to head south, and help a child who may be less healthy and less cared for. We'll see. He also said that the majority of Vietnamese adoptions are to France and Italy and that if we didn't say yes immediately to our referral, that someone else will adopt her quickly.

We also learned that there are currently 75 families who are adopting from Vietnam through Faith (our agency), and 13 are in our stage (paperwork). That's a lot of waiting families that are in line ahead of us! The wait may be long. Nepal is currently having some governmental issues that caused them to temporarily shut down adoptions. Several families have switched from Nepal to Vietnam, and I know many have switched from China to Vietnam too because China's wait time is so long.

Here are some pictures from the picnic:

This is our agency's founder and director, John




Koen and I with our case worker, Amy