God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Genesis 21:6
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Why adopt now?
We have been empty nesters for the past 5 years. Our oldest son Tim married Ashley, his high school sweetheart in 2007 and they just purchased a home in Iowa and where Ashley continues to work as an environmental engineer while Tim works on his PhD in Environmental Engineering. Our youngest son, Chris graduates from HaverfordCollege in PA this coming weekend with a BA in Political Science. We are finally free of tuition payments and could use our free time and money to travel and relax. So why adopt, now????
Adoption had been on Kathy’s heart since our boys were little. The needs of children have been the focus of both her family and professional life. And there has always been an empty place in her heart for a daughter. But Steve wasn’t in the same place. After coping with the challenges of raising two wonderful and intelligent but high maintenance boys, and putting them through college, Steve was looking forward to the calm and quiet of an empty nest.
However, in recent years, God has been working marvelous changes in Steve’s life. He has been drawn to perform and write music to worship our Lord. And this has opened Steve’s heart to God’s will in new and profound ways.
It was at Kathy’s Women’s Bible Study that God began our quest to find the child that He has planned for our family. First, M, a friend, who has college-aged children, announced that she and her husband were adopting a pair of siblings from overseas. Like Abraham and Sarah, maybe we weren’t too old after all?!
Then J, another friend also in the process of adopting, shared that financial assistance is often available to assist with expenses for special-needs children who are adopted from the foster care system.
Kathy was moved to approach Steve and ask him to prayerfully consider adoption. The next morning, God provided the final motivation. After our Pastor’s sermon on adoption, a member of our church spoke about his family's experiences adopting both domestically and internationally, and how they were contemplating adding another child to their growing family through the foster care program, even though it was scary to consider the possible disruption another child would add. After Steve heard his candid testimony, he turned to me and said "How can weNOT do this?"
So, tomorrow we are going to a disclosure meeting about H, a 2 ½ year old girl.
October 30, 2012 Article 5 Picked up and sent to Beijing
October 19, 2012 Steve, Kathy & Hailie's visas arrive
October 12, 2012 NVC appoval forwarded to US Consulate in Guangzhou, China
October 11, 2012 Our visa applications are submitted to the consulate
October 3, 2012 I-800 Provisional Approval granted. We received it by mail on October 9.
September 24, 2012 Letter of Acceptance arrived from China
July 25, 2012 Log In Date received from CCCWA
July 18, 2012 Dossier verified and authenticated through the US State Department and the Chinese Consulate and on it's way to China
June 28, 2012 All our documents (except our I-800A approval which is still at the Secretary of State for verification) are at the Chinese Embassy at D.C. now for authentication.
June 18, 2012 Received approval of I- 797
June 6, 2012 Went to USCIS for fingerprints
May 10, 2012 Homestudy Approved, accepted into the China program, I-800A application and supporting documents submitted to USCIS
April 21, 2012- 2nd Homestudy visit
April 19, 2012- Finished our last parenting class
March 24, 2012- 1st Homestudy visit
March 15, 2012- Received our Pre-Approval
March 11, 2012- Submitted Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan for Pre-Approval
February 27, 2012- Told agency we were interested in adopting “Juliana.”
February 14, 2012- Kathy requests file for “Juliana.”
June 18, 2011- Kathy requests password for WACAP waiting child website and begins sharing pictures of waiting children with Steve.
May 2011- After friends begin the adoption process for a 10 year old girl from China, Kathy reads article about the sad lives of orphans who age out of the system without ever getting a forever family, a serious problem worldwide, but with special implications in China. Kathy feels God moving us to add a daughter to our family.
January 3, 2011- After much prayer and thought we decided that, at that time, it was not in the best interests of either girl to introduce any further disruptions, but it did open Kathy’s heart to considering another child.
December 2010- We are asked to consider adopting Hailie’s sister.
Steve and I are high school sweethearts, originally from Downers Grove, IL. We have grown in our love of God and each other in our 35 years of marriage. We are the proud parents of two adult sons, Tim & Chris and our darling daughter, Hailie.
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