Why China?

We started talking about adopting a child from China, I think before we ever had any of our boys. We would talk about it, and then it would be put on the back burner. When our third son was born, we again talked seriously about it, but a career move, and a move to the DC area caused it to be put on the back burner again. We truly believe that we were chosen by God to adopt, we just had to wait until the time was right. Then we made the move to Indianapolis. We thought that now we would be able to look into adopting. However, jobs and other issues got in the way and we put it on the back burner yet again. This time, God had another plan for us, and would not allow us to put it on the back burner. When we picked a church, we would see a notice about every three or four months about an adoption meeting being held. We would talk about looking into it, but always found some reason not to go. After it came out the third time, we decided that God was trying to send us a message and that we needed to act. We did. We scheduled to attend the meeting, and knew before we ever left that meeting that we were going to adopt, and we would adopt from China. Why China? You may ask. We listened to all our options carefully. We knew we wanted a daughter. We also knew from the beginning that when we traveled we would be taking all three boys with us. We wanted them to be able to travel with us safely and be able to learn about their sister’s culture. We also hope they will be able to share information with her about her homeland that we may have missed, or forgotten when she asks. Of all the options available to us, it was the one that made the most sense. And do you know what?!?! There was not another note in the bulletin about an adoption meeting until a year after our first meeting. When we started this process, the wait was twelve months. Since we turned in our dossier, and received our LID, the wait has increased dramatically. We never thought we would seriously consider looking into China’s special needs programs. We feel that although the wait is long and hard, God will give us the daughter perfect for our family when the time is right. Then one day we decided to contact our agency and see what we would need to do to look at the special needs list. On Thursday, February 26th, a SW called us, and we talked briefly. That night we went through a very long list of special needs and narrowed down what we thought we could handle. That next day, Friday, we spoke with the SW again, and talked with her about the SN we were considering. We did not know at the time that they were expecting a batch. She told me that she was expecting a SN batch that night and Saturday. Friday she thought it would be mostly older children and more severe needs. If we were going to have a chance to see a child with our requests, it would not happen until Saturday. She was honest with me. She said she had some families placed in a couple months, and others were nearing 6 months without any luck. We knew it was wishful thinking, that there was realistically no way we would find a file to review that quickly, but we still hoped. That night we got a call at 10:00pm saying that she had a file for us to review.

The little girl is about 28 months old and has a surgically repaired Heart Defect. We reviewed the file, and had 3 doctors and 2 other people we knew in the medical field review it too. On Sunday evening we called the SW to tell her we would be applying for the child, and sent her our LOI that night. From all accounts she appears to be perfectly healthy. A bit small, but I think that is just so we will be able to carry her for longer time periods. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think it would happen this quickly. The SW even said it has to be a record for placement for a family from the time they started looking SN to finding a child. I truly believe she was meant for us, and God has been pushing us towards her. Her birthday is the month of our LID and the day before our youngest son's birthday. Waiting to ASENND is not a description of our journey to a higher place, but a description of what we are hoping for our family to become. Arianna is the name of our daughter, and then you have Seth, Ethan, Nathanael, Nancy and Dave.

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