Why International Adoption?
One of the first questions asked of us, "Why aren't you just going to adopt a child in America?" Honestly, I knew that question would come up. Some may not agree with international adoption, as we do have a huge need in America. However, for us, God never laid domestic adoption on our hearts. Worldwide there are nearly 153 MILLION orphans. In many countries domestic adoption is just not available or very rare, so these children depend on international adoptions as their way to their forever home. We felt a heavy burden for the millions all over the world in need of a loving family-- many orphaned due to death of parents, abandonment, or poverty. I think every family that has adoption on their hearts chooses what feels right for them. We are all called to help the orphaned in some way— some choose helping families like us, some adopt domestically, some foster, and some adopt internationally! This is our choice and we are so excited to continue on!
If you read over our initial post (the last post I made) you would have read about our adoption story and how we came to this point-- refer back to that post for more in depth information on why we chose to adopt in the first place. But, my initial seed that was planted in my heart for China and the baby girls that needed families was what lead me to keep China as a country to consider adopting from. Then, Matthew and I went on a mission trip to Africa-- so Africa was a country we considered & researched some. It can be overwhelming deciding WHERE to adopt from. The needs are so high in Asia and Africa, so that's mainly where we focused our research. At this point, I was thinking it was all so overwhelming that maybe we should choose an AGENCY first and then decide based upon the programs that they offered within that agency. I remember a family in South Carolina using an agency called Lifeline Children's Services & seemed to love working with them, and had a smooth process. I also had other friends/acquaintances use other large agencies for various adoptions, but none of them felt right for us. From the very initial interest email I sent to Lifeline, every single person has been quick to answer, kind, supportive, and simply loving on us. Even before we applied, we were treated with respect and were given full disclosure of what our process would look like with this agency. We prayed about it for a couple of weeks, and hoped God would guide us to the right choice. I had that "gut feeling" to go on with the agency, even with their offices being in Alabama.
In late September, I was given information on both Africa and China. Some of the requirements for the adoptions in Africa seemed difficult for us in the current season of life (really long trips within the country, more expenses, less stability). We saw the strong, stable relationship our agency has with China and knew that the typical adoption trip is just around 2 weeks. The adoption, while still expensive, was going to be more affordable than Africa. Many countries in Africa have recently shut down their international adoptions, so we did not want to risk losing any money in the middle of the process due to abrupt closures. Also, China is one of the few countries that allows you to choose the age range & gender of your child. The majority of children in China are going to have a minor to severe medical need or developmental delay, or special needs. We are able to specify the type of medical/special needs we are comfortable accepting, the age of our prospective child, and the gender. This is how we know we will be getting a daughter. We will only match to files of girls, ages 1-3, and with minor-moderate medical needs. With all of that being said, that is how we came to our final decision of where we would adopt from.
We waited about a month to save a little money & then filled out the application fee and submitted it to be reviewed. The application was very in depth and required lots of personal information and even our testimony as Christians. I loved that the agency was placing such value on our relationship with God. We knew that in our hearts, this agency would shower us with grace and the love of Christ during this journey-- and that was so comforting. The application actually took us about a week or so to finish. We sat down a few nights and input all of our info and saved it until we had the application fee ready to submit it. On October 21st we finally submitted our paperwork—Within a day or two, we were accepted into the agency and program. We immediately got TONS of paperwork to fill out & were connected with a social worker.
We got accepted while Matthew was on his 2 week work trip, so we waited a couple of weeks and set up an orientation phone call with our social worker & a put together a financial plan to get our first agency fee paid. Our social worker has been so wonderful to work with and answered all of our questions about the process. So far we absolutely love her and that not only is she walking us through this journey, but praying for us! That is the most powerful thing she can do to help us!
After our orientation, she explained that because they're in Alabama, we are "out of network" and would need to research an agency that was Hauge Accredited within Indiana to complete our home study. So, for the next week or so, I researched and contacted a few agencies. I heard back immediately from an agency in Indy & their prices were comparable to what our "home agency" would have charged if we were in network. So, we filled out ANOTHER application to get accepted into that agency. SO MUCH PAPERWORK. Pretty much the same process we did with home agency but scanned to the Indy agency on their forms. And that was JUST the beginning. Working with 2 different agencies has been a little confusing at times to know which forms should be filled out, Lifelines or KidsFirst or Both? I will share more about some form issues we’ve dealt with... but that’s a whole other post 🙃
Once we got accepted into this agency, we set up our very first interview with our second social worker, and gave all info to our AL agency, so that both social workers could communicate and work together for us. On December 6th we met with our home study social worker & she began our home study that day. Since this appointment in December, we had a couple interviews in the Indy office and one home visit (in February) for our Home Study process. As of now, we are in the finalizing phase of the home study. We've had a few hiccups in our process so far, and hope that in the next week or so all will be finished and we can move forward! Please pray that all is completed soon, as we do have deadlines for certain paperwork to not expires before authenticating it and sending to China!
I plan to do a post on our process thus far and what all we've completed & what a China adoption process looks like (it's much more in depth than I shared in this post). For now, I simply wanted to share why we chose international adoption and the country we did, as well as some brief background info. We hope that you all will continue to follow along in this journey with us & maybe even be inspired to begin your own journey one day.
Thank you for sharing in this incredible journey with us-- we truly appreciate the encouragement, support, and outpouring of love so far.
If you read over our initial post (the last post I made) you would have read about our adoption story and how we came to this point-- refer back to that post for more in depth information on why we chose to adopt in the first place. But, my initial seed that was planted in my heart for China and the baby girls that needed families was what lead me to keep China as a country to consider adopting from. Then, Matthew and I went on a mission trip to Africa-- so Africa was a country we considered & researched some. It can be overwhelming deciding WHERE to adopt from. The needs are so high in Asia and Africa, so that's mainly where we focused our research. At this point, I was thinking it was all so overwhelming that maybe we should choose an AGENCY first and then decide based upon the programs that they offered within that agency. I remember a family in South Carolina using an agency called Lifeline Children's Services & seemed to love working with them, and had a smooth process. I also had other friends/acquaintances use other large agencies for various adoptions, but none of them felt right for us. From the very initial interest email I sent to Lifeline, every single person has been quick to answer, kind, supportive, and simply loving on us. Even before we applied, we were treated with respect and were given full disclosure of what our process would look like with this agency. We prayed about it for a couple of weeks, and hoped God would guide us to the right choice. I had that "gut feeling" to go on with the agency, even with their offices being in Alabama.
In late September, I was given information on both Africa and China. Some of the requirements for the adoptions in Africa seemed difficult for us in the current season of life (really long trips within the country, more expenses, less stability). We saw the strong, stable relationship our agency has with China and knew that the typical adoption trip is just around 2 weeks. The adoption, while still expensive, was going to be more affordable than Africa. Many countries in Africa have recently shut down their international adoptions, so we did not want to risk losing any money in the middle of the process due to abrupt closures. Also, China is one of the few countries that allows you to choose the age range & gender of your child. The majority of children in China are going to have a minor to severe medical need or developmental delay, or special needs. We are able to specify the type of medical/special needs we are comfortable accepting, the age of our prospective child, and the gender. This is how we know we will be getting a daughter. We will only match to files of girls, ages 1-3, and with minor-moderate medical needs. With all of that being said, that is how we came to our final decision of where we would adopt from.
We waited about a month to save a little money & then filled out the application fee and submitted it to be reviewed. The application was very in depth and required lots of personal information and even our testimony as Christians. I loved that the agency was placing such value on our relationship with God. We knew that in our hearts, this agency would shower us with grace and the love of Christ during this journey-- and that was so comforting. The application actually took us about a week or so to finish. We sat down a few nights and input all of our info and saved it until we had the application fee ready to submit it. On October 21st we finally submitted our paperwork—Within a day or two, we were accepted into the agency and program. We immediately got TONS of paperwork to fill out & were connected with a social worker.
We got accepted while Matthew was on his 2 week work trip, so we waited a couple of weeks and set up an orientation phone call with our social worker & a put together a financial plan to get our first agency fee paid. Our social worker has been so wonderful to work with and answered all of our questions about the process. So far we absolutely love her and that not only is she walking us through this journey, but praying for us! That is the most powerful thing she can do to help us!
After our orientation, she explained that because they're in Alabama, we are "out of network" and would need to research an agency that was Hauge Accredited within Indiana to complete our home study. So, for the next week or so, I researched and contacted a few agencies. I heard back immediately from an agency in Indy & their prices were comparable to what our "home agency" would have charged if we were in network. So, we filled out ANOTHER application to get accepted into that agency. SO MUCH PAPERWORK. Pretty much the same process we did with home agency but scanned to the Indy agency on their forms. And that was JUST the beginning. Working with 2 different agencies has been a little confusing at times to know which forms should be filled out, Lifelines or KidsFirst or Both? I will share more about some form issues we’ve dealt with... but that’s a whole other post 🙃
Once we got accepted into this agency, we set up our very first interview with our second social worker, and gave all info to our AL agency, so that both social workers could communicate and work together for us. On December 6th we met with our home study social worker & she began our home study that day. Since this appointment in December, we had a couple interviews in the Indy office and one home visit (in February) for our Home Study process. As of now, we are in the finalizing phase of the home study. We've had a few hiccups in our process so far, and hope that in the next week or so all will be finished and we can move forward! Please pray that all is completed soon, as we do have deadlines for certain paperwork to not expires before authenticating it and sending to China!
I plan to do a post on our process thus far and what all we've completed & what a China adoption process looks like (it's much more in depth than I shared in this post). For now, I simply wanted to share why we chose international adoption and the country we did, as well as some brief background info. We hope that you all will continue to follow along in this journey with us & maybe even be inspired to begin your own journey one day.
Thank you for sharing in this incredible journey with us-- we truly appreciate the encouragement, support, and outpouring of love so far.
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