This is the first post of what I hope is many along the path to bringing our daughter home from China. First, some background on how we got to this point.
Lance and I were married August 14, 1993 in Kennewick, WA. We both grew up in this area and are currently raising our family here as well. We have two wonderful biological boys: Taylor born on April 12, 1996 and Brayden born on October 7, 1998. We have had the time of our lives with these 2 precious gifts from God. After delivering Brayden, we knew that we were done having children. Although little did we know, this did not mean that we weren’t done adding to our family. The boys keep us super busy but something told me a year ago that our family wasn’t complete. This little voice in my head encouraged me to cut back on Real Estate and to be at home with my family – they needed me the most and the time spent with your kids is so precious and goes by too fast. It was more than a voice. After 2 ½ years of successfully selling real estate, all my “deals” closed in the same month and I wasn’t expecting any new clients (this had
never happened before). I saw this as a gift from God and I took it! It was an easy transition out of real estate, although, it wasn’t until 5 months later that I was totally resolved of real estate. In that 5 months, I had time to sit back, enjoy my family and listen to the way God was showing us. God was telling/showing us that it was time to expand our family. We looked into several options and knew that we didn’t want to even try to have a biological child – there were so many out there that needed a family. We decided to take this plunge of faith. We decided on China for several reasons, but the biggest was because we feel that's what God has chosen for us. We were skeptical of the domestic adoption process, not to mention of the longer waiting times and higher costs. The biggest fear is the ability of the birth mother to change her mind and take the child back. Thinking internationally, China offered the quickest and least expensive process along with the best chance of receiving a healthy child and they had several girls, which would be a nice addition to our family:)
God has been so good to us. He has reassured us in several ways: little coincidences that seem so insignificant, but mean so much to us! * In Dec. 2004 he placed a little girl into Brayden’s preschool class who was adopted from China. After 5 months, I finally met her mother (it was God’s timing) who answered all my questions that I had been praying to God about that I needed answers about in order to make our final decision to take this leap of faith. * In June 2003, at my cousin’s wedding reception we sat at the last table that had enough seats for my family with a family who had been a director of an adoption agency that arranged China adoptions – everyone at our table had been there and had served a mission there. * We also are so grateful for our dear friends who inspired us in the first place. The Black’s adopted precious Grace 2 yrs ago from China. She is a joy to watch at church and continues to give us hope. *God has also given us SUPER support from our family and friends:) *As time goes on, we will be happy to share more coincidences…
We sent our application to Small World Adoptions in Spokane, WA the beginning of June 2003. We immediately began on our homestudy and started to collect all of the documents required for our Dossier. A dossier is the completed packet required for International Adoptions which basically is your life up to this point…
