More adoption info

So after my post from a few days ago, I know a lot of you have questions. I thought I would try to answer a few of them right now. However, quite honestly, it is very early on and many of you know as much as we do. This is uncharted waters for us. All we know to do is take one day at a time and take things as they come.

The main thing I want to make sure everyone understands is that we plan to continue with infertility treatments, primarily our scheduled transfer in May. If at any point I get pregnant, the adoption process would be halted until our child is a certain age (12 months for China and 6 months for other countries). At that point, we would pick back up where we started. We do not know if we will end up halting infertility treatments or end up halting adoption. We plan to just wait and see what the Lord does. We plan to pursue both avenues to completion -- using all 10 of our sticky babies and adoption.

On Monday, we submitted our application with America World. On our application, we choose the country we would like to adopt through. In the ten business days that follow, they look at our application and decide whether we qualify to adopt through China. If we don't qualify for China, they will tell us if we can instead apply for a different country. America World does adoptions in China, Russia, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Our first choice is China. However, if we do not qualify in China, we will then look to a secondary country through America World. We are open to wherever God leads.

Some of you have asked why we know the child would be a girl. If we do China, the child will almost definitely, be a girl. The reason is complex, however, to sum it all up, boys are much more "important" in Chinese culture for a variety of reasons. It is the male child who takes care of his family as they age, and in many areas of China, there is a one child limit. Therefore, girls are often abandoned. If you would like to read more on this, click HERE.

However, as I mentioned in my previous post, China has recently enacted a whole slew of new requirements. The reason, as I understand it, is because Chinese adoptions are very popular, and the country wants to "slim" their applicant pool. These requirements include such things as weight, health, marriage status, age, and financial status. One of the new requirements states that you have to have a certain net worth -- something that is up in the air for us as we prepare to move to Florida and JB will start his residency. I say all that to say we have to wait and see what the agency says. We have to wait and see if we qualify for China. If not, we will re-evaluate and move from there. While China is our current thought, we are trusting the Lord's leading. If he shuts the door on China, we will trust Him to lead us in a different direction.

Other people have been curious as to why we chose international over domestic adoption. Probably the main reason is just what our heart was telling us. We just, personally, felt most comfortable with this direction. That isn't to say domestic adoption isn't good or that we won't try domestic adoption in the future. It's just to say that for now, this is what we have on our heart.When we hear back from the AMERICA WORLD, I'll have more information for you. This is a long process and there will be lots of learning as we go. All said and done, the general "rule" is that once you submit your application, as we did earlier this week, the wait time is about two years. So while we are excited, we are quite aware that we are in for a long road.

I'll keep you all posted. For now, just pray for us. Pray that the Lord guides us. If we aren't supposed to adopt through China, that he makes that perfectly clear, and that JB and I stay on the same page every step of the way. Also, please pray that I, especially, have peace. As my friend from Hannah's Prayer wrote: "Adoption is a whole new roller coaster but at least this is a roller coaster that we know we eventually get off." While infertility can feel unending, we know, eventually, even if takes years, we will someday parent through international adoption. However, that doesn't mean I am instantly surrounded my peace. I need the Lord to give me that. I spoke on the phone with my amazing friend Joan today. She reminded me that the Lord has a perfect child picked out for me. And I must wait on Him to introduce me to that child.

The waiting game has begun.