Our adoption agency sent in our Letter of Intent today! If you are familiar with adoption from China you know what that means: we have formally requested to adopt a specific child. We are so excited!!
As I have shared, this journey has been very different than our first. To this point I have been rather matter-of-fact about this process (unlike the first time--I was nervous and excited and impatient). Not unhappy or reluctant, but just methodical in working through the process. But that has changed! God has moved our hearts and shown us our new daughter and we are thrilled.
Another difference with this adoption is that we were exposed to a lot of children needing homes. With Yuly, we received her as a referral and then affirmed that choice after prayer. This time I spent time looking at children...it is overwhelming to see the need. We prayed for wisdom and discernment. When we first saw this photo, we both agreed that we should request additional information on the child. We prayed for a few weeks, including times of fasting to determine God's will in this, and we sense that He has overwhelmingly affirmed our choice.
Unfortunately, I cannot yet share any specific information yet, but please rejoice with us and pray that the process continues to move smoothly (and quickly!). This is another big difference with our first adoption--this time we know about our child long before we can actually meet her.
The question that most people want to know is what now? or how long? Well...our home study is almost, but not quite, done. When it is completed, we send a copy off to USCIS to get approval to bring an adopted child into the country. USCIS will send us an appointment for being fingerprinted and we will get to take a 3 hour road trip to be fingerprinted in Jacksonville, FL. Then, we will eventually get approval and it will be time to send our dossier to China. This phase will take about three months. Then we wait for China's approval and for them to send us a travel date...this phase will take about six months. So, we are looking at about nine months. It will be a long wait, although we will be able to send her packages and begin to communicate with her.
So...that's where we are. Things are moving along and I can't wait to share more!
