Birth Certificate & Adoption Ramblings

We received Meighan's American birth certificate from the attorney on January 6, 2010. It was dated December 29, 2009. So, a little more than a month less than two years from the date we started the international adoption process (we sent in our application on Feb. 8, 2008), we are completely done, save for the 12-month report that China wants.

I've been thinking a lot lately about adoption and the adoption process. I find it completely AMAZING that with so many people having to be involved in the process (the case worker, the people that do our background checks, the people at USCIS who take the paperwork and those who take our fingerprints, the people at the agency who check the child listings, the people in China who accept our dossier and log it in and print the LOA, the people who take care of the child, the people who take the child's information and get it ready for the child to be adopted, the people who print the finding ad, US-the parents, the child, the people who make our travel arrangements, the people who meet the parents at the airports and hold their hands through the entire process in-country, the visa photo photographer, the US Consulate people, etc., etc., etc.......) that we have the child that was destined to be our child from the beginning! Of course, ALL of this is orchestrated by GOD Himself. The timing of the child's birth, the timing of our application, the timing of our DTC, the timing of the referral are all His. NO ONE could possibly do such a perfect thing from 2 completely different parts of the world except Him!

If anyone is considering adoption or is still WAITING in the standard process, I would HIGHLY encourage you to consider special needs adoption. The wait is SO much shorter and there are so many kids with such MINOR special needs that it would probably be like they weren't special needs at all! Meighan's cleft lip was repaired in China at 6 months of age and it's a good repair and we really don't feel the need to put her through any kind of surgery for any further repair so instead of a "special needs child," to us she's just a "SPECIAL CHILD"! From the beginning of our process we said all along that we didn't want to wait 3 and 4 years for a referral so we were going to go with the special needs when we were able to in the process (we filled out the special needs checklist after we knew we were logged in in China). Once they received our list, we got our first referral 4 days later! We ended up letting her go to someone else but then we got Meighan's referral 2 days after that! So, 6 DAYS after they received our checklist, we had a picture of our daughter! THAT'S AMAZING!

Now, if you are willing and able to accept a slightly more difficult need, go for it! That child was meant to be yours and you were meant to be his/her parents! You will be so blessed!

We would be very willing to speak to anyone considering adoption or special needs adoption. Just leave a comment on our blog and we'll contact you.

Enough rambling for today! Stay warm!