As you know, we have been in the process of adoption from Colombia for a looong 19 months, waiting to be matched with a child. We have actively studied Spanish and the culture, and talked about Colombia to anyone who’d listen (okay, maybe me more than Sam). After waiting for so long, I was beginning to wonder, “Why are we doing this?” I mean, the wait is so long because there are not enough children available to meet the demands of adopters. We can have biological babies. We never tried to do it biologically again because we both felt pulled toward adoption. We wanted to do something good in this world. I started wondering what good we’re doing if we’re waiting years for a child that will always have a long line of people ready to adopt them.
BUT, there is a list of thousands of children around the world with special needs that are available to be adopted now. I periodically have peaked at that site. Well…one day a couple weeks ago, I was looking at the list. I pulled up a profile of a 4 year old little girl. I quickly did some google searches related to her listed special needs. I knew before I went to Sam with this I would need to have done some research. I showed it to him and we discussed the possibility. Then we decided to ask for the girl’s complete file for review. After a few days of consults with four different specialists and hours upon hours of research we made the decision to move forward with her adoption and sent our Letter of Intent last Wednesday to adopt this beautiful child from China. Yep, you read right. China. WE HAVE A DAUGHTER IN CHINA!!!! After the Letter of Intent, we received a long list of required documents and paperwork from our NEW agency (yes, we have to change agencies to adopt her) to send in to get pre-approval from China to adopt her. I sent them in Thurs morning. I got the award from our agency for the quickest document turnaround What do they expect?? My daughter is halfway around the world! We just received the wonderful news yesterday from our agency that China has approved us to adopt, Aili (pronounced eye-lee)!! She’s ours! And we’re over the moon!
When we started this journey, we had to list any kind of special needs we might be open to, and they must be stated in all of our paperwork. We told our home study social worker, which was put into our home study, that we were open to some eye issues and some heart conditions, because we have some experience with these with Raleigh. She has a lazy eye, and has worn glasses since she was two. She also had heart surgery when she was one. Ironically, Aili has eye issues and a heart condition too! After talking with our pediatric cardiologist and opthamologist, we feel completely equipped emotionally and financially to take care of her.
Even though we don’t have the wait of being matched, unfortunately we have to go through a long process before we can go get her. My best guess would be fall. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We need to bring her home! This will be the longest wait of my life.
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