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Our Timeline
Our
adoption story began in the fall of 2003. We were hoping
to get pregnant with our second child but had been
unsuccessful when the possibility of adoption drifted into
our conversation. Neither one of us had talked about it
with one another before so I think we were both surprised
to find that we would consider the idea. Jay had a student
in one of his classes who had been adopted from China. At
the same time, Christian recording artist, Steven Curtis
Chapman, began telling his story about adopting from
China. Jay was visiting a church in the area when someone
mentioned from the pulpit about Chapman’s foundation, Shaohannah’s Hope. Jay came home talking about it and we
thought it was a strange coincidence. About a week later,
on the Hallmark channel, Steven Curtis Chapman’s family
was featured on a show about adoption. Again, we thought,
what a strange coincidence – or was it? Maybe, we thought,
we should be open to this idea seriously. So we went to an
adoption meeting to get more information about
international adoption. We saw two couples who had
recently returned from China with their daughters and left
feeling very positive that this might be for us. We
certainly felt that God was speaking to us and drawing us
in this direction.
We still were not giving up on a child of our own yet
though. After talking with our fertility doctor, who had
recommended that I have surgery for endometriosis, we
decided to give it a try - not wanting to always wonder
what if…. In March of ’04, I had the surgery and it was
successful. Future attempts at pregnancy were not however.
We had to go through a process of grieving and
disappointment before we even talked again about a child.
Finally, in June of ’05, we were ready. We said yes, God,
we feel this is what you are telling us to do and we felt
we should trust where we felt He was leading us – to
China. So we went to Children’s Hope and signed the first
paperwork to get started! At the time, we were told there
was a nine month waiting period.
By Sept., we were ready to do our home study. We spent our
holidays off running to the state capitol for this
paperwork or to the social security office for that,
getting fingerprints done, medical reports filled out,
etc. We sent our paperwork out before Christmas of 2005
thinking that by this time next year, we might be ready to
travel to China! (Think again!)
Our LOG-in date was effective on February 17, 2006. This
meant that we were officially logged into the adoption
system in China. The wait began!! At this point, we were
hoping to travel by Christmas time. Then the wait time
increased. And increased! Two paperwork/fingerprint
updates and 31 months later and we are finally at the top
of the list! It has been a true test of our faith and
patience through all these months. Thankfully, months when
Jay was discouraged, I would support him and vice versa.
We knew we had to wait for God’s timing and not our own.
Our friends and family have been so supportive through
everything and we are extremely thankful for their love
and prayers.
We have decided to name our little girl, Leah, which is my
first name! We like Mei for a middle name and want our
daughter to have a Chinese middle name.
We feel that God is blessing us in two amazing ways with
our children – one through the miracle of birth and one
through the miracle of adoption!
For He planned
in love for us to be adopted as His own children through
Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will.
~Ephesians 1:5 |
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