"What country are y'all adopting from...."

Up until now we have not "officially" announced where we were hoping to adopt from. Many people do know and if anyone asked us in person we would tell them where we hoped God was leading us too. We have been waiting until we were officially excepted into the program to announce that.... God is leading us to CHINA to bring home our future little one!! We will be adopting from China's special needs program and are so excited to be moving along with this process. We haven't publically announced it sooner because the China program has many requirements that have to be met and red tape that you have to go through. God faithfully allowed us to meet those requirements.

So, you might now be asking, "why China?" That's a good question! Here goes an answer:
             For several years now, as I have said before, Wes and I have been talking about adoption and how we one day wanted to pursue it. Well, just like when you think about what things will be like when you are pregnant, we thought about what our future adoption might be like.  For years, Wes has always had China on his heart whenever we thought or talked about adoption. That is just how he always pictured it (and let me add that it melts my heart knowing that God placed that desire on Wes' heart first)! We believe that for the past several years God has been tugging on our hearts and slowly preparing us for when He would one day be leading us to China. Now, let me say that when we officially began our adoption a few months ago, we did not automatically know we would be going to China to bring our little one home. We made a couple of detours and struggled with the decision. Why?? I have no idea. It seems so obvious now that China was always the right choice, but it wasn't always always so clear. It was mostly me and my stuggles with, "how do we know for sure where God wants us to go..." kind of a thing. I mean how do you decide where your next child will be coming from and who that child will be?? There are around 147 MILLION orphans in this world, how am I too know from which country will we make it ONE LESS???  How am I too decide who will no longer be labled an orphan?? How am I to decide who will be the one with a chance to hear the gospel??  How am I to decide who will not be a child who "ages out" of the orphange??? How am I to decide who will have the chance to having a loving family to trust, depend on, and embrace??? I did NOT want that responsibility of decison making (I'm the worst decision maker)! But wait a minute, I'm NOT the one making these decisions. Praise the Lord!! Crazy me would sometimes forget that I was NOT the one leading this show. Yep, sometimes I stressed out over how to make these huge decisions. My sinful self would forget that our God is soverign. HE is the One leading this show, not me! He is in control of all things and He already knew who our little one was and which country he or she would be coming from. Comforting indeed. All Wes and I needed to do was to trust Him. After praying a lot, and as we began the adoption process, it slowly became obvious that this is where God wants us to be. There are also some "practical" reasons for why we chose China, that fit into "our" God given desires.

A little about the China special needs program:

In order to control population growth, China implemented a “one-child policy” which has resulted in children being abandoned. China does not allow families to place their children for adoption, so if a family cannot care for a child they may have no choice but to abandon the child in a place where the baby will hopefully be found quickly and placed in an orphanage. (from Lifeline website)

The children available for adoption from China are abandoned with no identifiable blood relatives and no identifying information. (from the Lifeline website)

There are many children with minor/correctable special needs and also more major/serious special needs that are languishing in an orphanage. Because of this "one-child policy" China has, many parents are looking for the "perfect" child. Therefore if a child is born with a "need" they are at times abandoned.

What our adoption might look like:
   We are hoping for a referral of a boy or girl around 18 months when they come home. Our little one will have special needs, likely minor or correctable (cleft lip/pallate, minor heart defects, blood issues, extra digit or missing digit, are some examples of the types of needs we might see). With our financial situation and where we are in life this is what we think we can best handle. We are hoping the entire adoption process will be no more than 18 months from now (that is the timeline they are currently giving us). We will both travel to China for I think 7-14 days and then be able to bring our little one home. China only requires one trip, which is awesome!! (and yes, for those who know me well, know I am dreadfully afraid of getting on an airplane- I'm choosing to ignore the whole 14 hours in the sky fact, until I have to face it. haha In all seriousness, it  really it is a big fear, but I know God is greater than my fears and I'm trusting in Him)!

We are excited beyond words and can't wait to see who God will be bringing into our family!!

Next on our adoption "to-do" list is to schedule our first homestudy!

Please continue to pray for God to fill us with wisdom in all decisions and pray for God to provide for us financially!