China or Taiwan? The first “big” decision.
“Trust in
the Lord with all
your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in
all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
When we submitted our application to adopt a
little over a week ago, we were told we would hear from Lifeline within 3-5
days. I was getting a little ancy come
Wednesday as I was ready to hear about our next step. The call finally came Thursday afternoon (I
say finally—it was within the timeline they said to expect the call. It’s just we are super excited about
adopting, and are ready to get moving).
On our initial application we said we were
interested in adopting from either China or Taiwan. We really have been thinking China all along,
but were also interested in hearing about Taiwan as their timeline is about the
same, and they also adopt children in the age range we are pursuing this go
round. I will go ahead and say we are
very naive in all of this—there is a ton of terminology that we’re going to be
learning in the future, and I try not to read too much about it for the fact
that I will get so confused very quickly.
I am choosing to take it one step at a time, and will learn as we go
along (that method seems to work best for me).
With that being said, we are currently learning about Hague and
Non-Hauge countries. I do not understand
all the differences (I know it affects the way your home study is conducted and
the way adoption is finalized, plus several other things I’m sure) at this time
point—again, I will be learning as we go along.
Anyway, with Taiwan, we learned that when the
shared lists (meaning the list of available children are sent to more than one
adoption agency) come out, you are given a profile to review, and you plus
other families (from other adoption agencies) may choose that child to
adopt. Ultimately the Taiwan government,
and possibly the child’s birth parents, will be the ones to decide who gets to
adopt the child. In other words, you
could choose a child, only to not be chosen as the adoptive parents. With China, when the shared lists are
released, you are given a profile, and that profile is “locked” so no other
families can choose the child (so you are guaranteed that child per se).
We are both pretty emotional people. We chose to
go with China as we know that once we are given a profile, we are going to
start loving that child immediately with all our hearts, soul, and mind (just
as we are to love Christ). As parents,
it’s natural for us to love like that.
We did not think we could handle being in “limbo” for a while, only to
find out we were not chosen to be the parents of a child. In speaking with the lady from Lifeline,
there are people who can go through that—and it is a great witness to
others—but we did not feel like we were those people. And it’s okay. God calls us all down different paths.
Adoption
is emotional. Very emotional. It is hard enough thinking that right now, at
this very instant, our child could be living on the other side of the world—who
knows what their living conditions are, how they are doing right now, and the
list goes on and on. It’s a
reality…. So at night, we bathe our
child in prayer. We pray for Kathryn (as
we have since she was born), and we pray that God is taking care of our other child,
protecting him/her until we become their parents and can bring them home to
care for and protect them. We pray that
God blesses him/her abundantly.
Map courtesy of http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/asia/china/
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