ADOPTION/HOME STUDY AGREEMENT

   We completed our Taiwan adoption agreement and home study agreement forms, had them notarized and sent them off to the agency (along with our first big payment)!  We heard back from the agency immediately and are excited to get our home study started next Sunday and begin compiling our dossier.  We hope to move through this portion of our journey quickly in order to submit our dossier to Taiwan and begin the long wait.  I'm hoping for 2 months to complete our dossier compilation, am I dreaming?    We've received several pages of paperwork and have started filling them out and sending them off - such as our child abuse registry clearance and our criminal history checks.  If I look at all of the paperwork for the home study and also for the dossier that needs to be completed, it is a little overwhelming!  But we just take time everyday to get some of it done and I know it will get finished!

Galatians 6:9 
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

YES TAIWAN!!

Well, we sent in our application for Taiwan last Thursday.  On Tuesday we received a call from the agency and we were told they would be happy to move forward on a Taiwan adoption with us, if we were prepared for the fact that the wait times have increased quite a bit.  Closer to 3 years now to wait for a referral.  Well that is a looong time to wait when you have a little sweetie in mind.  However In light of all my research, and finding that the wait times for most of the countries we were considering increasing, (3 years for Colombia, closer to 4 years for China) we decided to go ahead and move forward with Taiwan.  So, here we are taking our first steps again in the process and looking forward to moving ahead!   We have friends from work, a couple who are in the process of a Nepal adoption with the same agency, who have great things to say about working with this agency, so that was a positive for us!  These friends have completed their home study and dossier and have sent it off to Nepal.  Please pray for their quick referral!  (by the way, we would have loved to adopt from Nepal as well, but you cannot adopt from there if you already have children of both genders.  Yes, crazy but true.  So many children waiting for homes and then there are strange qualifications like that)  Please pray for our process to move along and I will keep you posted on our progress!  

TAIWAN!? (click here to read an article)

 I haven't posted anything lately, because well frankly, we were trying to decide where to look next for our adoption.  I just put it into God's hands when I didn't know which way to turn and waited!  We've been inspired to get on the ball again.  We are considering a particular Colombia program (inspired by my in laws mission trip to Colombia and all of those precious kids!), however, this is a 3 year wait for referral and a 4-5 week stay in Colombia.  Now, at this moment, 4-5 weeks sounds like nothing when you are waiting for your precious child.  I mean, we would do that for our own biological child right?  However, when the time comes, a month or more away from our 3 kids could be very difficult to work out here at home.  So, it is not my first choice -at this time.  We are also excited about an agency with a Taiwan program for which we qualify.  This is a little less lengthy process.  Taiwan is not really a country in poverty.  However, I have done a lot of research over the past few weeks and found that the need is great to adopt children from Taiwan.  Unwed mothers are frequently shunned in their homes and in society, they cannot go to school or get jobs.  Most young, unwed mothers have 3 choices... abortion, abandonment, or to go to one of the group homes and orphanages run by ministries willing to help the girls with their pregnancy and adoption of their child.  In Taiwan, domestic adoption is still not very popular, although slowly becoming more acceptable.  Still highly unlikely for a child over 2 years due to the fact that a family would not want their child to know that they are not biological, it would be considered dishonorable.  Also, although Taiwan is more modern thinking than their mainland China, they still feel that the perfect family is one boy, one girl and no more.  So there is a lot of pressure to keep families small.  The abandonment of children is rising at an alarming rate according to a recent article in Taiwan that I read.  Every child needs a home and a family to love them!

Psalm 139:14-16 

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

      your works are wonderful, 
       I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you 
       when I was made in the secret place. 
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. 

       All the days ordained for me 
       were written in your book 
       before one of them came to be.