Our paperwork was logged into China’s system on June 29 this year – after a whirlwind of finalizing dossier paperwork, if felt amazing to have this step complete! This is called our LID (log in date) in adoption terms and is critical to the next stage of matching with a kiddo. Summer flew past and we didn’t hear much on the adoption front. Eric broke his foot, so we adjusted to a new normal of crutches for 7 weeks, and everyone pitched in to help (including lots of friends!).

So, here we are, fall 2018, almost 2 years since we started this journey, and we continue to wait. Daily life takes most of our attention, but we have times of wondering…when will we get to bring her home?

The matching process took a drastic change at the beginning of this year, slowing things down considerably, allowing us to do more waiting! You hear that waiting is a part of the adoption process, and this has been magnified a couple of times for us. The first stall was a change in China’s law, requiring all adoptive families to have no children under the age of 3 in the home at time of submitting paperwork. This put off our LID almost an entire year (not to mention the extra cost involved)! And now, we have been told that the matching process could take a year to a year and a half. As we queue up for a turn at the matching wheel (how we feel sometimes), we are also looking at online lists of kids with special needs, ready and waiting for a family. These kids are typically more difficult to place because of the nature of their medical conditions, and boy, does it make us sad to see how many are just sitting in orphanages…waiting. And I am reminded that we aren’t the only ones waiting. Our wait is not nearly as difficult as the wait these kiddos endure!

The reality of what it means to be matched with a kiddo is starting to sink in now. This is NOT a passive action, “being matched”, but rather it takes a huge step of faith on our part to choose who we add to our family. We have been able to review a few different kiddos’ files, but we keep asking ourselves, “how do we choose?” How do we choose to move forward with so little information? How do we know the information we are getting is accurate? I think the reason this choice is so daunting for us is because it will change our lives forever and it will change a child’s life as well. Then there is the question of “can we make a mistake”? I think the only way to move through this paralyzing fear is to remember who God is in all of this. We know He knows all these children in need of forever families. We also know that God works through our choices. Yes, bringing home a child is a big deal for us, but WE are not a big deal. Jesus is the BIG deal, and we want to keep pointing to Him. The more we see Him, the better off we are.

Thanks for continuing to journey with us. We appreciate your support - please keep asking about the adoption, as it is such an encouragement to know others are thinking and praying with us!