2003 Our marriage begins!
2006 Pearl arrives.
2009 Sapphire arrives.
2010
Jasper and I began discussing adoption in August of 2010. I figured I'd be ready for another pregnancy in the near future, and it was time to discuss and research options. My internet research resulted in a big spreadsheet. At first I resisted China as an option, because Jasper had lived there, and it seemed he'd have an advantage. But the other countries I feel a connection to didn't work out for various reasons: Thailand's process moves very slowly; India releases girls, but only ones with fairly serious special needs, and they are usually older than 2; S. Korea's fees are much higher and there is a stigma in this homogeneous culture against children who don't grow up in Korea; Haiti had a ridiculously long wait to bring the child home once a family was matched. A social worker suggested we consider China's Special Needs list because it moved quickly. I also learned that Jasper's interest in China would be a huge boon in teaching a child about her culture of origin. So now I began researching agencies.
2011
After a fall and winter of prayer, we sent in our application to Living Hope Adoption Agency in February of 2011 and began the home study process (lots of forms, fingerprints, and a few visits with our social worker). In December of 2011 we sent our dossier to China, which meant we could be matched with a child from the Special Needs List at any time. Those lists come out about once a month, and it took until April for our social worker to find a suitable match for us--previous lists having been fairly small due to Chinese holidays, I think.
2012
Several months pass with no word until April's list came out. Our social worker put a child's file on hold for us, and we accepted it three days later (we only had three days to get the file to our doctor and get his opinion). I thought we were done with forms, but I was so wrong. We had several stages of forms that at times overwhelmed me. I sent paperwork to the American Visa Center, to the Chinese consulate in NYC, and to our agency to be forwarded to China. We made it through, and now, in July, we're just waiting for our paperwork to shuttle between offices in China. Maybe no more paperwork now!(?) We hope to leave in mid-August.
1 comment:
Hi - I got your blog from the IM Yahoo Group. Had to let you know the paperwork is NOT over (haha). We have two children, our daughter is 8 and came to us in 2005 from the Hubei Prov., and our son is 2.5 and came to us from IM in Dec 2010. Have fun packing...I have a list of things to take but can't find it at the moment. If you're interested, let me know and I'll find it. BTW, she's adorable as are your other daughters.
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