Last week we finished filling out our application packet to adopt through Lifeline. Wesley has not been feeling super confidant about sending in the application right now, so I called Lifeline this week just to confirm a few things before we mailed everything in to start the process. Good thing I called!
We decided a while back that we would adopt our sweet daughter Hannah from Bulgaria. I've had confirmation after confirmation that we are supposed to use Lifeline as our agency. We are totally at peace with that decision. However, Wesley and I never felt that way about Bulgaria. We chose Bulgaria because it just seemed to be the best fit for us out of all the programs that Lifeline has. We were interested in Eastern Europe, we were old enough, we've been married long enough, we were able to choose a girl, we could adopt a toddler, and most importantly we wouldn't have to travel for a significant amount of time all at once.
Jana who coordinates the Bulgaria program at Lifeline told me that the past two weeks she's been working hard on their program for healthy children. They have a wonderful program in Bulgaria for children with special needs that runs very smoothly. However, the Bulgarian government is not really processing many applications for other children now. They are working on matching young, healthy children with families that applied back in 2006. Jana said that after spending a lot of time on the phone with agents in Bulgaria that they can't guarantee a match and they can't guarantee a timeframe. This does not sound positive to us. We don't mind to wait for a child, but we would like assurance that one will be matched to us at some point. It is such a shame that there are so many children in orphanages there needing a home, and the government is not matching many of them with families here.
After talking with Jana about what we are most interested in and what our other options are, she suggested that China might be a good fit for our family. Lifeline has a great program there to adopt children with special needs. These needs could be minor correctable things like a cleft lip or a heart defect, they could be things like missing fingers or limbs, they could be birthmarks, or they could be more serious issues. The adoptive family is able to choose which special needs they are comfortable with though. Only one parent has to travel, and it's a short trip. Lots of things fit our family with this program. This is the drawback- we can start the paperwork for the US government when we are 29, but we can't submit paperwork to China until my 30th birthday. It's about a 12 month process once you send paperwork to China, so we would probably bring Hannah home when she was 2 and Sarah was 4. No problem there. We are just ready to get things going because we know that adopting is what we are supposed to do! It is so hard to wait! God is teaching me many lessons through this- mostly about faith and patience. There are other programs that we could start the process with now, but we just don't feel sure about any of them. Please pray for us to know God's will!!!
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